THE CHRISTMAS BRIDE Read Online Free

wheels and hastened matters. No, they were not hardhearted. They were used to emergencies. But there had been so many that night. And the head nurse was off on her vacation. It was only a substitute who was trying to be conscientious.
    She was on a bed at last with a doctor and nurse working over her. Finally, the doctor straightened up and looked around.
    “Who brought her here? What happened?”
    “I did,” said Greg. “Don’t know what happened.”
    “Is she your wife?” the doctor asked, looking at him intently.
    Greg looked at him with startled eyes.
    “Oh no. I never saw her before. She was sitting on a bench in the park across from my hotel. I happened to be looking out the window and saw her fall; that was all.”
    “H’m,” said the doctor, touching her pulse again. “A clear case of starvation, I guess. That’s all!”
    “Starvation!” said Greg aghast. “You don’t mean it! Not in a city full of people!”
    “Oh
yeah
?” said the doctor brusquely. “You don’t pick food off trees in parks. Does she look like a girl who would go to your back door and beg?”
    He turned to the nurse and gave low-voiced directions, and Greg stood looking down at the pathetic little white face on the pillow. Starving! How could that come about?
    They were pressing a spoonful of something between the white lips now, and the girl on the bed drew a slow quivering breath again and opened her eyes for an instant.
    “That’s it, sister,” said the doctor cheerfully. “You’re going to feel better now in a minute.”
    He watched the patient closely.
    “A cup of that broth as soon as you can get it, Nurse,” he said in a low tone, keeping his finger on the pulse. Then to Greg who was standing anxiously by: “Yes sir, you find ‘em like this every day. Proud as Lucifer, lost their job, nowhere to turn. All the worse for them if they happen to be good.”
    Greg looked at the delicate high-born features of the girl and understood what the doctor meant. He looked at her slender, patrician, well-cared-for hands and read a tragedy. How had a girl like this one come so near to starvation?
    When the broth was brought, the patient swallowed obediently but did not open her eyes again. Greg watched from the doorway with misgiving in his heart. Was this little shadow of a girl going to slip away from them out of life after all, without giving a clue as to her identity? Was there perhaps a mother or some other loved one who was waiting anxiously, pondering on such a tragedy for the friends of this girl? Was there nothing he could do?
    “Will this nurse stay by her all night?” he asked the doctor while the nurse was feeding her the soup.
    “Oh, she’ll be in and out all night,” said the doctor. “You know she has this whole hall to look out for.”
    “I’d like her to have someone with her all night,” said Greg. “I’d feel better that way. I feel sort of responsible because I found her, at least till her folks get here.”
    “Of course you could have a special nurse if you’re willing to pay for it,” said the doctor thoughtfully, “but it isn’t necessary. She’ll probably pull through all right.”
    “I’d like to have a special nurse,” said Greg decidedly.
    “Well, of course it’s always safer in a case like this,” said the doctor. “You can’t always be sure about the condition of the heart.”
    So presently a pleasant-faced capable young woman appeared and took charge. Greg motioned her out in the hall and talked to her in low tones.
    “This girl was sitting on a park bench when I first saw her from my hotel window,” he told her, “and while I was watching, she fell off the bench. I brought her here, and I’m arranging for her to have this room as long as she needs it till she is able to go away. But she doesn’t know me, and I don’t know her. Maybe she might not like it to have me meddling in her affairs, but you don’t need to say anything about it, do you? Just let on the hospital