Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1908-07-15
Waiting For
TheVerdiCt
By T. w. WYNDHAM.
Copyright, 1908. by T. w. Wyndham.

piece tlckeu anonymously. Inc
little regular sound began to
run as tune in her brain. She
even thought that her fingers mechan-
1cally drummed the air upon her knee
1t was some inane tune of the hour.
Its rhythm fitted in excellently with
the ticking of the clock, and both jan
gled in her brain with irritating per-
Sistence.
Every detail Of the room had stamp
ed itself upon her mind during these
minutes she had sat there-minutes
was 1t or hours since the great doctor
had said to her in a voice that had
struck her as strangely gentle:
"Will you kindly wait in the waiting
room, Mrs. Ainslie, while DIR. Bryant
and I talk over matters?'
She had attracted many curious and
admiring glances from other men and
women who waited in the big, gloomy
room. One little, shabbily dressed wo-
man who sat in the corner watched her
almost enviously. The shabby wo-
mans observant eyes noted the other
fair loneliness, her exquisite dress, the
atmosphere of ease and luxury and
comfort that surrounded her, the at
mosphere Of one who has always been
cared for and sheltered, upon whom
no rough winds have ever blown, and
the shabby woman wondered what had
brought this pretty, beautifully dressed
little person into the doctors waiting
room. The thought flashed through
her mind that it was probably some
fancied ailment for which she had
come. 1t was impossible to associate
the idea of sickness or pain with that
lovely face, those smart garments.
How much longer, she wondered, did
these doctors intend to keep her in
this dreary room while they discussed
her case?
Her case!
1t was funny to think that they could
talk about her case! Why, she had al
ways been the incarnation of health.
Everybody had always said she was so
strong and well. 1t was too ridiculous
that she should be sitting in doctors
waiting room, and she herself would
naturally never have dreamed of con-
sulting the great specialist at all If
her own doctors face had not grown
so absurdly grave when she had gone
to him yesterday about the little lump
which annoyed her. Personally she
thought he had made rather an unnec
essary fuss. In fact, she had told DR..
Bryant as much to his face-had, in
deed asked him why he could not sim
ply cut the thing away then and there
and have done with it.
Twenty minutes!
How could it possibly take those
two doctors twenty minutes to discuss
her simple case? Why, she had con-
sidered it 80 simple matter that she
had not even told her husband about
1t or that she was to come and see
DIR. James, the famous specialist, this
morning!
Robert was always in such an agony
If her little finger ached that she had
refrained from mentioning the lump to
him at all, and he knew nothing of her
visit to DR.. Bryant yesterday, much
less about the consultation today
Why, her dear. loving, fussy old Rob-
ert, the dearest hubby in the world.
would think she was going to die at
the very least if he knew she was sit
ting in DR.. Edward James room wait
Ing the verdict!
"Waiting for the verdict!''
Something in the words framed by
through her for which she could not
account, and vision rose before her
Of prisoner waiting at the bar and
neutrality-suspicious., perhaps. wheth-