About Doctor Ferrel — Day Keene

DOCTOR FERREL

Elaine, my dear --

Your sleep in the next room even as I write this letter, this futile letter. If only I could tell you without the hurt…Maggie is just down the hall -- Maggie, the waif, the beautiful waif whose nearness makes me tremble. You were so kind to her, Elaine, so much the good doctor's wife, to take in this lovely, ragged child, sick with violation. Now we have repaid you, this child and I, by falling in love. No fool like an old fool, you say? I've told that to myself a hundred times, Elaine, but when I see her, when I touch her, when…
The man in the half-lit room looked up at the sound of the door. He could just see the gleam golden hair in the darkness.

“Darling,” the apparition said, “I couldn't sleep for thinking. Roger, honey, you're a doctor. How really, really bad is Elaine's heart?”