dr. trent looked at her blankly and fumbled among his recollections.
“er—miss—miss—”
“mrs. snaith,” said valancy quietly. “i was miss valancy stirling when i came to you last may—over a year ago. i wanted to consult you about my heart.”
dr. trent’s face cleared.
“oh, of course. i remember now. i’m really not to blame for not knowing you. you’ve changed—splendidly. and married. well, well, it has agreed with you. you don’t look much like an invalid now, hey? i remember that day. i was badly upset. hearing about poor ned bowled me over. but ned’s as good as new and you, too, evidently. i told you so, you know—told you there was nothing to worry over.”
valancy looked at him.
“you told me, in your letter,” she said slowly, with a curious feeling that some one else was talking through her lips, “that i had angina pectoris—in the last stages—complicated with an aneurism. that i might die any minute—that i couldn’t live longer than a year.”
dr. trent stared at her.
“impossible!” he said blankly. “i couldn’t have told you that!”
valancy took his letter from her bag and handed it to him.
“miss valancy stirling,” he read. “yes—yes. of course i wrote you—on the train—that night. but i told you there was nothing serious——”
“read your letter,” insisted valancy.
dr. trent took it out—unfolded it—glanced over it. a dismayed look came into his face. he jumped to his feet and strode agitatedly about the room.
“good heavens! this is the letter i meant for old miss jane sterling. from port lawrence. she was here that day, too. i sent you the wrong letter. what unpardonable carelessness! but i was beside myself that night. my god, and you believed that—you believed—but you didn’t—you went to another doctor——”
valancy stood up, turned round, looked foolishly about her and sat down again.
“i believed it,” she said faintly. “i didn’t go to any other doctor. i—i—it would take too long to explain. but i believed i was going to die soon.”
dr. trent halted before her.
“i can never forgive myself. what a year you must have had! but you don’t look—i can’t understand!”
“never mind,” said valancy dully. “and so there’s nothing the matter with my heart?”
“well, nothing serious. you had what is called pseudo-angina. it’s never fatal—passes away completely with proper treatment. or sometimes with a shock of joy. have you been troubled much with it?”
“not at all since march,” answered valancy. she remembered the marvellous feeling of re-creation she had had when she saw barney coming home safe after the storm. had that “shock of joy” cured her?
“then likely you’re all right. i told you what to do in the letter you should have got. and of course i supposed you’d go to another doctor. child, why didn’t you?”
“i didn’t want anybody to know.”
“idiot,” said dr. trent bluntly. “i can’t understand such folly. and poor old miss sterling. she must have got your letter—telling her there was nothing serious the matter. well, well, it couldn’t have made any difference. her case was hopeless. nothing that she could have done or left undone could have made any difference. i was surprised she lived as long as she did—two months. she was here that day—not long before you. i hated to tell her the truth. you think i’m a blunt old curmudgeon—and my letters are blunt enough. i can’t soften things. but i’m a snivelling coward when it comes to telling a woman face to face that she’s got to die soon. i told her i’d look up some features of the case i wasn’t quite sure of and let her know next day. but you got her letter—look here, ‘dear miss s-t-e-r-l-i-n-g.’”
“yes. i noticed that. but i thought it a mistake. i didn’t know there were any sterlings in port lawrence.”
“she was the only one. a lonely old soul. lived by herself with only a little home girl. she died two months after she was here—died in her sleep. my mistake couldn’t have made any difference to her. but you! i can’t forgive myself for inflicting a year’s misery on you. it’s time i retired, all right, when i do things like that—even if my son was supposed to be fatally injured. can you ever forgive me?”
a year of misery! valancy smiled a tortured smile as she thought of all the happiness dr. trent’s mistake had bought her. but she was paying for it now—oh, she was paying. if to feel was to live she was living with a vengeance.
she let dr. trent examine her and answered all his questions. when he told her she was fit as a fiddle and would probably live to be a hundred, she got up and went away silently. she knew that there were a great many horrible things outside waiting to be thought over. dr. trent thought she was odd. anybody would have thought, from her hopeless eyes and woebegone face, that he had given her a sentence of death instead of life. snaith? snaith? who the devil had she married? he had never heard of snaiths in deerwood. and she had been such a sallow, faded, little old maid. gad, but marriage had made a difference in her, anyhow, whoever snaith was. snaith? dr. trent remembered. that rapscallion “up back!” had valancy stirling married him? and her clan had let her! well, probably that solved the mystery. she had married in haste and repented at leisure, and that was why she wasn’t overjoyed at learning she was a good insurance prospect, after all. married! to god knew whom! or what! jail-bird? defaulter? fugitive from justice? it must be pretty bad if she had looked to death as a release, poor girl. but why were women such fools? dr. trent dismissed valancy from his mind, though to the day of his death he was ashamed of putting those letters into the wrong envelopes.
