"
"I knew it. I told you, didn't I? You want a change, my dear," he said
anxiously.
"I'm afraid it's rather more serious than that, Louis," she said
gravely. "He seems to think it--it may be--cancer. Oh, I wish they'd
call it something else! I hate that word. It's such a hungry word."
She was feeling stunned, and very frightened.
"But Marcella, it's ridiculous! For one thing, you're too young--"
"That's what the doctor thought. But he says it's been known--in
textbooks, you know. A girl of eighteen that he knew had it. I'm to see
two other doctors to-morrow."
He began to pace about the room. Then he laughed a little shrilly.
"Oh, it's a silly mistake. Doctors are not infallible, you know! He's
brutal to have suggested it even. Oh damn these colonials! No English
doctor would have told you."
"I insisted," she said quietly, and he guessed that the doctor was not
to be blamed.
"But," he went on, "it couldn't have happened except through an injury.
You've had no injury that I can think of--"
"No, of course I haven't," she said rapidly. "But these things seem to
happen without cause, don't they? Anyway, we won't believe it until
we've got to. I've been ill for months, and noticed things. I've been an
awful fool. But I didn't think it was dangerous, and--I don't think I'd
have cared much if I had known.
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