Whirlpools: A Novel of Modern Poland Part 23

"My dearest ... my guardian angel," he whispered.

And again he pressed her hand to his lips.

Miss Anney did not even withdraw her hand; only with the other one she took the gla.s.s and placed it upon the small cupboard standing near the bed. She bent over him and said:

"It is necessary for you to keep quiet.--I will be with you until you get well, but now it is essential that you think only of your health; only of your health."

Her voice sounded in tones of quiet and gentle persuasiveness.

Ladislaus dropped her hand. For some time he moved his lips, but not a word could be heard. Evidently, he was weakened from emotion, as he grew pale and beads of perspiration stood upon his forehead.

Miss Anney began to wipe his face with a handkerchief and continued:

"Please be calm. If I thought that I was harming you, I would not come here, and I do want to be with you now. Not a word about anything until the wounds are healed; not a word. Promise me that."

A moment of silence ensued.

"Let the lady retire for a rest," Krzycki said in a pleading voice.

"I will go, I will go, but I am not at all tired. During the first half of the night, Pan Gronski sat up at your side and I slept. Really, I am not tired and I will sleep during the day. But you, sir, try to sleep.

All that is necessary is for you not to look at me, and close your eyes. Then sleep will come of itself. Good-night, or rather good-day, for the day is breaking in the world."

In fact the morning's dawn reddened and gilded the sky, and the sun was about to rise at any moment. The light of the green lamp grew paler each moment and was merging into the brightness of the day. Ladislaus, desiring to show how he obeyed every word of his beloved guardian, closed his eyes, pretending to sleep, but after a while footsteps were heard in the hallway and the doctor entered accompanied by Miss Anney's maid, whose turn it now was to attend to the patient. The doctor was so terribly drowsy that instead of eyes he had two slits surrounded by swollen eyelids, but he was as jovial and noisy as usual. He examined the bandages, admitted that the dressing was in proper shape, felt the pulse, and found everything in good order. Afterwards he opened the windows to freshen the air which was saturated with iodoform.

"A splendid morning," said he. "Health flows from the skies. Let the windows remain open all day. As soon as they hitch the horses, I shall return to the city for I have patients who cannot wait. But I will come back in the evening and bring a nurse for our wounded friend."

After which, addressing Miss Anney, he said:

"Only do not let it get into your head to drive for me, alone. The injured man is getting along nicely--a slight fever, very slight. I will see Pani Krzycki before I leave. Do not let her leave her bed all day, and let her nieces watch her. To you, sir, I recommend the bed. It is permissible to inhale but not to breathe one's last breath. Ha! I will return about five in the evening, unless indeed, I am forced on the road to swallow a few pills from the socialist pharmacy. That is a stylish medicine and, it must be confessed, acts quickly."

"How is Mother?" asked Ladislaus in alarm.

At this the doctor again turned to Miss Anney.

"Order him to lie quiet for he will not mind me. Your mother has more than fifteen years. Yesterday she started up suddenly, forgetting her rheumatism and weak heart action, laid you in bed, waited for my arrival; was present at the dressing, and after learning that there was no danger--at once! bah!--it was necessary to put her to bed. That is always the way with our women. But nothing is the matter with your mother; the usual reaction after a nervous strain. When she came to herself, I ordered her to remain in bed and not to appear here under the penalty of death--for you. With that, I restrained her. Otherwise she would have stuck here all night. Now your filigree cousins are watching her. They also almost turned topsyturvy; then I would have had four patients in one house. That would be a harvest--ha? Luckily there was to be found in this house one soul with different nerves, who did not swoon poetically. Ha!"

"How he is chattering," thought Ladislaus.

But the doctor began to gaze with great respect at Miss Anney and continued:

"Rule Britannia! It is a pleasure to look at you, as I love G.o.d! What health, what nerves! She sat up all night until the morning,--and nothing! As if she freshly shook the dew off herself! I repeat once more, it is a pleasure to behold you. I am going to the dining-room to see if they will not give me some coffee before I leave, for I am hungry."

But before he left he said to Miss Anney and her maid:

"Let the lady go with me and drink something warm before going to sleep, and you, little miss, sit here beside Pan Krzycki. It will be necessary to take his temperature and write it down. In case anything happens let Pan Gronski know. I will tell him to look in here occasionally. Good-by!"

Allowing Miss Anney, who smiled at the wounded man and repeated "Good-by," to pa.s.s before him, he followed her. In the dining-room, they found not only coffee, but the two sisters with Gronski and Dolhanski. The former had sat up all night with Pani Krzycki, whose illness was much more serious than the doctor told the son. At one time it was even so serious that it was doubtful whether she would revive from a long faint. Both "filigree" sisters were almost worn out, and Marynia had eyelids of actual lily color. Gronski, by all means, wanted the doctor to examine her and prescribe something strengthening.

But he, feeling her pulse for a while, said:

"I will prescribe for you, miss, as a medicine, a certain maxim of Confucius, which says, 'If thou wouldst know the truth, it is better to sit than stand, better to lie down than sit, and rather than lie down, it is better to sleep.'"

"That is all very well," she answered, "but after all that has taken place, I do not know whether I can sleep."

"Then let some one sing to you the lullaby, 'Ah, ah! Two little kittens'; but only not your sister, as for her I prescribe the same--until it is effective."

The rattle of the britzka interrupted further conversation. The doctor swallowed the hot coffee and took his leave. Dolhanski followed him and mounted a horse, held by a stable-boy. He announced that he would accompany the doctor through the forest.

"If that is for my safety, then it is absolutely unnecessary," said the doctor.

"I ride on horseback daily," replied Dolhanski, "and besides I want to see whether some May party has not again come to the Jastrzeb forest."

"No," answered the doctor, laughing. "I do not think that they will reappear so soon. They have in these matters a certain method. They prefer to be the hunters rather than the quarry, and understand that now it might come to a man hunt. In about a week or two, when they find out that their attempt was unsuccessful, it will be necessary to be more guarded."

"When will Krzycki be able to leave?"

"It all depends upon the purity of his blood; and I presume that it is pure. After all, it will not be necessary to wait in Jastrzeb for a complete cure. He had a pretty close call; that cannot be gainsaid. For if I had not come the same day, infection might have set in. But the antiseptic did its work. Ah, that Englishwoman who looks through a heavenly mist. There is a woman for me. What? Would you believe that at first I was upset with indignation at you gentlemen for permitting her to drive under those circ.u.mstances? Only later did she tell me the actual facts. If I do not fall in love with her, I am a marinated herring without milt."

"I would not advise it," said Dolhanski, "as it seems that in that territory there already has appeared a William the Conqueror."

"Do you think so? It may be possible! That also has occurred to my mind."

"Was it because the English prudery has disappeared in a corner?"

"No. Nursing a wounded man is a woman's duty and, in view of that, prudery must retire to a corner. Even yesterday's expedition demonstrated only courage and energy. But through that heavenly mist there reach our wounded friend such warm rays that--oh! But that does not prevent me from being in love. If old Dzwonkowski fell in love with your little cousin why should not I indulge in the same pleasure."

"In the same way you might fall in love with Saint Cecilia," said Dolhanski. "My cousin is not a woman on two feet, but a symbol."

And he stopped abruptly for he heard some voices coming from the depth of the forest and he sped his horse towards them.

"Nevertheless this clubman does not carry his soul on his shoulder,"

thought the doctor.

But it was only a false alarm, as it was merely village boys tending cattle. The doctor, who alighted from the britzka to rush to Dolhanski's a.s.sistance in case of need, soon saw them among the forest thickets. After a while Dolhanski reappeared and pressing on his eye the monocle which some twigs had displaced, said:

"That is only an innocent rural picture; cowherds and cows trespa.s.sing in other people's forests; nothing more."

After which he bade the doctor adieu and returned to the house.

Miss Anney had not yet retired to sleep, for he found her conversing with Gronski and engaged in winding iodoform gauze. At the sight of him, she raised her eyes from her work and asked:

"Anything new in the forest?"

"Yes, indeed; something has happened to the doctor. He has been shot."

At this, both suddenly rose, startled:

"What? Where? In the forest?"