I 'm going out to Wes . '' `` Well , for the land 's sake , '' said Cecilia Merritt feebly , as she tied on her gingham sunbonnet . She got up and went home in a daze . Theodosia packed her trunk and worked all night , dry-eyed , with agony and fear tearing at her heart . The iron will had snapped at last , like a broken reed , and fierce self-condemnation seized on her . `` I 've been a wicked woman , '' she moaned . A week from that day Theodosia climbed down from the dusty stage that had brought her from the station over the prairies to the unpretentious little house where Wesley Brooke lived . A young girl , so like what Ogden Greene 's wife had been fifteen years before that Theodosia involuntarily exclaimed , `` Phoebe , '' came to the door . Beyond her , Theodosia saw the white-capped nurse . Her voice trembled . `` Does -- does Wesley Brooke live here ? '' she asked . The girl nodded . `` Yes . But he is very ill at present . Nobody is allowed to see him . '' Theodosia put up her hand and loosened her bonnet strings as if they were choking her . She had been sick with the fear that Wesley would be dead before she got to him . The relief was almost overwhelming . `` But I must see him , '' she cried hysterically -- she , the calm , easy-going Dosia , hysterical -- `` I am his wife -- and oh , if he had died before I got here ! ''
The nurse XXXXX forward .
asked came climbed exclaimed got lived loosened said see seized