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Show I The Reunion in a J Hospital J I By JUSTIN WENTWOOD J . 1IU4, Waatero Newipapor Union.) TITTLE was known about the private life o the head surgeon at the hospital, Brlerley, except rhat he hud been married and now lived alone In a fine apartment In a fashionable fash-ionable part of the town. Thus he was Invested by the nurses with a certain air of romance. He was a quiet man, very skillful, and little given to conversation. con-versation. In the course of a life a man disciplines dis-ciplines himself to bear the shocks of life. There was now little that was able to disturb Brlerley's equanimity, and the one thing thnt did disturb It nobody knew about. Tliut was operations on children. Hardened, ua the surgeon must be, he could never use the knife upon a child without a sense of horror at the seurrlng of the little form. And into the face of each child he gazed with a sort of wistful tenderness which the nurses had observed. Children were fond of him, too. It was only with them that he was apt to relax a little. Then a light came Into his eyes, a new note Into his voice, which was Instantly suppressed when any oue observed him. Now, fastening his white garment round him, ho was watting for the child to be wheeled Into the operating theater. He had heard the choked cry as the gas mask was put over Its head and mouth then nothing. And now the door was opening, and the unconscious uncon-scious child was being wheeled in. A child mangled by the truck under which it had run In play. A child poorly dressed, but of decent parentage, par-entage, and clean, save for the blood Unit disfigured It. Ribs had been crushed and the operation must be a scientific one. He worked with little hope, but as he proceeded he saw that there was hope after all. Miraculously certain the arteries and vital organs had been spared. The assistant said afterward that he had never seen any Job quite so completely done. lie was afraid the operation was lasting too long the strain would be too great Brlerley quietly Ignored tils protests. And, as he worked, the nurse removed re-moved the ether mask for adjustment, and Brlerley looked for a moment Into the child's face. And nothing In his steady movements Indicated the sudden sud-den terror that had come to him. For this was the child that he had always dreamed of, with the flaxen curls and wide, blue, staring eyes and that little curve of the Jaw God, how he had seen It In his dreams I His child, this little waif ought to have been. i The old pang. How foolish! He must try to conquer those Impulses that gripped him when he operated on children. Still, this one was so close to his heart. He must save It I The operation was over. Ttye child wus wheeled away. "Telephone me," said Brlerley to the matron. She looked at him In surprise. "About the chilif?" she asked. "Yes, yes, of course 1 I want to know how it gets along. A fine little boy." She telephoned that night The child was holding his own. But Brlerley could not go to bed for thinking of It He wanted to see It again, that little curve of the Jaw. Upon some pretext he went to the hospital late. '"I'll have a look at the boy," he told the matron. "How Is he?" "Why, doing very nicely, Dr. Brlerley. Brler-ley. Will you go up?" He went up In the elevator. A woman In black was seated at the child's side, holding the feverish little hand. The child's eyes were open, and he wus muttering. She bent over him. Brlerley sat down on the bedside and felt the pulse. He knew all this wax fate It was fate thut had drawn him there. The woman had not looked at Mm yet. She turned her face. She started, tittered a little cry. "Will he live? Will he live?" "lie's going to live," answered Brlerley. Brler-ley. "I shall see that he lives." And for three nights until far Into the morning he sat by the child's bedside. bed-side. On the fourth morning recovery was assured, "He'll live for you, Estelle," said Brlerley In a cold, dogged way. "I've been glad to see him and learn about him" "I want him to live for you, too, John. I was mad and unforgiving and I've been teaching him to call you father." |