midday
Her face grew white and drawn , and her cheeks hollow from poor food , meagre snatches of sleep , and untiring work . The doctor warned her , St. Hilda warned her , she got anxious warning letters from her husband , but on she went . And the inevitable happened . One hot midday , as she watched by the bedside of a little patient with a branch of maple in her hand to keep the flies away , she drowsed , and one of the wretched little insects lighted on her moist red lips . Soon thereafter the `` walking typhoid '' caught her as she was striding past Lum Chapman 's blacksmith-shop . Instinctively she kept on toward home , and reached there raving : `` Do n't let him come -- do n't let him come ! '' And when the news got about the heart of Happy Valley almost bled .