Many artists lived in the Greenwich Village area of New York. Two young women named Sue and Johnsy shared a studio apartment at the top of a three-story building. Johnsy’s real name was Joanna. In November, a cold stranger came to visit the city. This disease, pneumonia, killed many people. Johnsy lay on her bed, hardly moving. She looked through the small window. She could see the side of the brick house next to her building. One morning, a doctor examined Johnsy and took her temperature. Then he spoke with Sue in another room. «She has one chance in ten,» he said. «And that chance is for her to want to live. Your friend has made up her mind that she is not going to get well. Has she anything on her mind?» «She wanted to paint the Bay of Naples in Italy some day,» said Sue. «Paint?» said the doctor. «Has she anything on her mind worth thinking twice — a man for example?» «A man?» said Sue. «No, doctor; there is nothing of the kind.» «I will do all that science can do,» said the doctor. «But when my patient begins to count the carriages at her funeral, I take away half from the power of medicines.»