Page:Poems Storrie.djvu/218

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An Empty Glass.
200
Yes—that is right. Now you can go to sleep.
A little sleep, a little quiet sleep,
There now, that's cooler. Now you'll go to sleep.

[Patient ceases muttering; takes medicine; and dozes.]

Mrs. Arnold—
Why, Nurse! That's magic! How was it you knew?
Or did you only guess? I never can.
I cannot follow when he talks like that,
So incoherently. I only seem
To irritate him. When you spoke he turned
As if you'd touched a spring, then lay quite still.
Nurse Frere could never soothe him as you do.
How wonderful! He raves sometimes for hours,
And I can only cry, and make him worse.
He's very ill. If you could only know
The dreadful change I see in him. Oh dear!
He's just a wreck. He has such lovely eyes,
And is so gay and handsome, when he's well.
What is it in your voice that soothes him so?

Hortense
    Oh! just a little knack
I have with children and with invalids.
You must not stay to talk. You're overwrought,