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I pointed it out.

“The very same one that troubled Mrs. P–for several months, night and day.”

“Was the pain low and throbbing?” I eagerly asked.

“Yes; that was exactly the kind of pain she had.”

“And did it continue so long as several months?”

“Oh, yes. But that wasn’t the worst! the aching was caused by the formation of an abscess.”

“A what?” A cold chill passed over me.

“An abscess.”

“At the root of her tooth?”

“Yes. But that wasn’t so bad as its consequences; the abscess caused the bone to decay, and produced what the doctors called a disease of the antrum, which extended until the bone was eaten clear through, so that the abscess discharged itself by the nostrils.”

“Oh, horrible!” I exclaimed, feeling as sick as death, while the pain in my tooth was increased fourfold. “How long did you say this abscess was in forming?”

“Some months.”

“Did she have an operation performed?” I have a terrible fear of operations.

“Oh, yes. It was the only thing that saved her life. They scraped all the flesh away on one cheek and then cut a hole through the bone. This was after the tooth had been drawn, in doing which the jaw-bone was broken dreadfully. It was months before it healed, or before she could eat with any thing but a spoon.”

This completely unmanned, or, rather, unwomanned me. I asked no more questions, although my visitor continued to give me a good deal of minute information on the subject of abscesses, and the dreadful consequences that too frequently attended them. After she left another friend called, to whom I mentioned the fact of having a very bad tooth-ache, and asked her if she had ever known any one to have an abscess at the root of a sound tooth.

She replied that tooth-ache from that cause was not unfrequent, and that, sometimes, very bad consequences resulted from it. She advised me, by all means, to have the tooth extracted.

“I can’t bear the thought of that,” I replied. “I never had but one tooth drawn, and when I think of having another extracted I grow cold all over.”

“Still, that is much better than having caries of the jaw, which has been known to attend an abscess at the root of a tooth.”

“But this does not always follow?”

“No. It is of rare occurrence, I believe. Though no one knows when such a disease exists, nor where it is going to terminate. Even apart from caries of the jaw, the thing is painful enough. Mrs. T–, an intimate friend of mine, suffered for nearly a mouth, night and day, and finally had to have the tooth extracted, when her mouth was so much inflamed, and so tender, that the slightest touch caused the most exquisite pain. A tumor was found at the root of the tooth as large as a pigeon’s egg!”

This completed the entire overthrow of my nerves. I begged my friend, in mercy to spare me any further relations of this kind. She seemed half offended, and I had to explain the state of mind which had been produced by what a former visitor had said. She, evidently, thought me a very weak woman. No doubt I am.

“In the dumps again, Kate?” said my husband, when he returned home in the evening. “What is the matter now?”

“Enough to put you or any one else in the dumps,” I replied fretfully. “This tooth-ache grows worse, instead of better.”

“Does it, indeed? I am really very sorry. Can’t any thing be done to relieve you?”

“Nothing, I am persuaded. The tooth is sound, and there must be an abscess forming at the root, to occasion so much pain.”

“Who, in the name of common sense, has put this in your head?”

My husband was worried.

“Has Mrs. A–been here again?”

“No,” was my simple response.

“Then what has conjured up this bugbear to frighten you out of your seven senses?”

I didn’t like this language at all. My husband seemed captious and unreasonable. Dear soul! I supposed he had cause; for they say a nervous woman is enough to worry a man’s life out of him; and, dear knows, I am nervous enough! But I had only my fears before me then: I saw that my husband did not sympathize with me in the least. I merely replied–