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44
THE MOTION PICTURE STORY MAGAZINE
thought the doctor, "and I'd better do it quick. But I hate to leave a man begging for me like that." He paused a moment, regretfully, muttering, "No, Alice has some rights. Tonight is hers."
Picking up his hat and coat, he turned to a side door which opened upon the street. His hand was upon the knob when a man burst thru the office door.
"Wait a minute, sir, wait just one minute."
"What is it?" asked the doctor, turning sharply upon the intruder.
The man was poorly clothed ; his hands were the roughened hands of toil; his face thin and sharp ; his eyes full of desperate anxiety, met the doctor's with eager appeal.
"I shoved your servant aside, sir, and forced my way in. It's a poor introduction, but I pray you to help
me " A sudden break in the voice
appealed to Doctor Gray more strongly than volumes of eloquence.
"What is it, my man, perhaps I can send some one to help you."
"There's no one but you can do it, they say," said the man, his face growing whiter. "It's my child, my baby girl. She's been sick for a week, now she's dying."
"Have you had no doctor?"
"Yes. He says he can't do anything more. He came tonight and went away again. He said there was no use of his staying. I asked him if there was anyone who could save her. He said, 'Doctor Gray, the great specialist, could, if you have a fortune to pay him.' I haven't any fortune, I've only my day's wages, but won't you come?"
As the doctor hesitated, trying to frame a refusal that would not sound heartless, the man continued, timidly, "I could pav you a little every week, sir."
"It isn't the money, man," retorted the doctor, almost harshly, "but the girl I am to marry is waiting for me. The dinner is ready, the guests are there, our engagement is to be announced. Can I disappoint my sweetheart and humiliate her before her guests ?"
The desperation in the man's eyes deepened. He drew close to the doctor, placing a rough hand on his sleeve. "Doctor, I married m y sweetheart, five years ago. I love her. We have worked together, planning for the babe. We have been poor, we have had hunger, and want, and sickness. My sweetheart's courage never once failed. Now she is kneeling by our only child — my babe, with her mother's blue eyes — praying for you to come. I can't go back without you."
"Perhaps, later in the evening," began the doctor, torn with desire to aid the suffering father.
"Listen, would your lady want you to refuse me? If she knew, wouldn't she tell you to go? Maybe you will have a little child some day; maybe you will be in sore need of help ; maybe the good Lord will remember it if you help me now."
Like a flash the doctor saw a vision of Alice, his proud lovely Alice, bending over a babe — their babe ! His decision was made.
"Call my runabout," he said to his servant. "I will drive myself, this man will ride with me. I want you to go
IT S MY CHILD, MY BABY GIRL, AND YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN SAVE HER."