as he reached the final step of the marble stair-case his twenty-fifth wind tried to wheeze its way inside him , but through two open doors he saw his final destination , the reason for his very existence , the reason he drew breath every day nurse bentley , her chassis handed down from on high , and she was standing there looking at him , with her arms open wide , well wide enough to receive the box , ( she , along with everyone else in the hospital had studiously refrained from making eye contact with him ever since he had first arrived there , apart from the ones that hadnt seen him at all , and then checked the bottom of their shoes after he had passed ) and that was all the encouragement he needed .