But she went on, beads of foam gathering in the corners of her mouth:  “I didn’t telephone, for fear she’d get on to it.”  He could see that she was angry at her own consideration.  “I’d ought to have sent for you when he come down with it!” ...  Where had he been all this time, anyway!—­and her nearly out of her head thinkin’ this rotten woman downstairs was sicking the Board o’ Health on to her!  “And look how I’ve washed her father for her!  I’ll spit on him if—­if—­if anything happens to Jacky.  Yes, I tell you, and you mind what I say:  If Jacky dies, I’ll kill her—­my soul and body, I’ll kill her anyway!”

“Lily, get steady.  I’ll fix things for you.  I’ll go to the Board of Health and see what can be done; just as—­as a friend of yours, you understand.”

From the next room came a wailing voice:  “Maw—­”

“Yes, Sweety; in a minute—­” She grasped Maurice’s hand, clung to it, kissed it.  “Mr. Curtis, I’ll never make trouble for you after this!  Oh, I’ll go to New York, and live there, if you want me to.  I’ll do anything, if you just make ’em leave Jacky! (Yes, darling Sweety, maw’s coming.) You’ll do it?  Oh, I knew you’d do it!” She ran out of the room.

He got up, beside himself with perplexity:  but even as he tried to think what on earth he could do, the doctor came.  The ambulance would arrive, he said, with bored cheerfulness, in twenty minutes.  Lily, rushing from Jacky’s bedside, flew at him with set teeth, her trembling hands gripping the white sleeve of his linen jacket.

“This gentleman’s a friend of mine,” she said, jerking her head toward Maurice; “he says you shan’t carry Jacky off!”

The doctor’s relief at having a man to talk to was obvious.  And while Maurice was trying to get in a word, there came another whimper from the room where Jacky lay, red and blotched, talking brokenly to himself:  “Maw!” Lily ran to him, leaving the two men alone.

“Thank Heaven!” the doctor said; “I’d about as soon argue with a hornet as a mother.  She’s nearly crazy!  I’ll tell you the situation.”  He told it, and Maurice listened, frowning.

“What can be done?” he said; “I—­I am only an acquaintance; I hardly know Mrs. Dale; but she sent for me.  She’s frantic at the idea of the boy being taken away from her.”

“He’ll have to be taken away!  Besides, he’ll have ten times better care in the hospital than he could have here.”

“Can she go with him?” Maurice said.

“Why, if she can afford to take a private room—­”

“Good heavens! money’s no object; anything to keep her from doing some wild thing!”

“You a relation?” the doctor asked.

“Not the slightest.  I—­knew her husband.”

“The thing for you to do,” said the doctor, “is to hustle right out to a telephone; call up the hospital.  Get Doctor Nelson, if you can—­”

“Nelson!”

“Yes; if not, get Baker; tell him I—­” then followed concise directions; “But try and get Nelson; he’s the top man.  They’re frightfully crowded, and if you fool with understrappers, you’ll get turned down.  I’d do it, but I’ve got to stay here and see that she doesn’t get perfectly crazy.”