noon
Nannie asked , breathlessly ; and her stepmother turned faintly surprised eyes upon her . Nannie , kneeling beside her , urged again : `` Mamma , you want to give it to Blair ! Try , do try -- '' But she did not hear her . At noon that day , through the fogged and clogging senses , there was another outburst of the soul . They had been trying to give her some medicine , and each time she had refused it , moving her head back and side-wise , and clenching her teeth against the spoon . Over and over the stimulant was urged and forced upon her ; when suddenly her eyes flashed open and she looked at them with the old power that had made people obey her all her life . The mind had been insulted by its body beyond endurance ; she lifted her big right hand and struck the spoon from the doctor 's fingers : '' _ I have the right to die _ . ''