The
impossibility of doing all that ought to be done, had, in her
miserable weakness, so depressed her that she had not done even
as much as she could--except where Tom was immediately concerned:
there she had not failed of her utmost.
Mary next went to the doctor to get instructions, and then to buy
what things were most wanted. And now she almost wished Mrs.
Redmain had paid her for her services, for she must write to Mr.
Turnbull for money, and that she disliked. But by the very next
post she received, inclosed in a business memorandum in George's
writing, the check for fifty pounds she had requested.
She did not dare write to Tom's mother, because she was certain,
were she to come up, her presence would only add to the misery,
and take away half the probability of his recovery and of
Letty's, too. In the case of both, nourishment was the main
thing; and to the fit providing and the administering of it she
bent her energy.
For a day or two, she felt at times as if she could hardly get
through what she had undertaken; but she soon learned to drop
asleep at any moment, and wake immediately when she was wanted;
and thereafter her strength was by no means so sorely tried.
Under her skillful nursing--skillful, not from experience, but
simply from her faith, whence came both conscience of and
capacity for doing what the doctor told her--things went well.
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