Luttrell Of Arran Part 66

"O yes, let us talk, it is so delightful; tell me of all the fine people you see daily. Do you speak to them as kindly as to me, or are you more reserved and distant? Do tell me."

"I will tell you all about these things another time, when it will be safer for you to hear them. You must have perfect rest and quiet now."

"It would quiet me far more to listen to you than to let me think on and on, as I have been doing. You are going away already?"

"I cannot help it, my child; I have many others waiting for me to see them."

"But you wouldn't hurry away from me in this fas.h.i.+on if I were a great person?"

"Pardon me; you are a very great person to _me_."

"How so? Tell me what you mean; do tell me," cried she; and she started up and caught his hand with both her own. "I must know what that means."

"Listen to me, my child," and he spoke in a graver, almost a stern manner; "I can only do the work of my daily life by being very despotic.

I have replied to more questions of yours now, than I should have answered to a Royal Highness. Good-by."

"Good-by!" said she, and pressed his hand to her hot lips. "Good-by; don't forget me."

As the Doctor, followed by Mrs. Simc.o.x, left the room, he stood for a moment in the corridor, deep in thought. "Her mind is collected now,"

said he, at last; "there is only excitement; there is no aberration."

"She has those intervals every now and then, Sir, and she'll speak as sensibly as any one; and, indeed, it's hard to say when she is not talking rational, for she is odd and strange when she's well."

"Yes, I see that; she is no ordinary person."

"And no later than last night, Sir, when we imagined that she was talking a mere gibberish of her own, our second housemaid, that was in the room, went over and answered her, and there they talked together for more than a quarter of an hour, Sir; and I asked Molly what it was, and she said it was Irish. So, when the girl came into the room this morning, I told her to talk it again; but, would you believe it, Sir, our young lady began to laugh, and asked what the creature meant by that nonsense. She did not know one word, Sir, Molly was saying, any more than ourselves."

The Doctor nodded a.s.sentingly, as though such a case was familiar to him, and pa.s.sed on. At the foot of the stairs he found Sir Within waiting for him.

"I will talk to Price," said Sir Henry; "I shall see him to-night, and to-morrow I will take another opportunity of seeing her before I return to town.

"Are you hopeful as to the result?" asked Sir Within, with much anxiety in his look.

"She has youth in her favour," said he, as he b.u.t.toned up his overcoat.

"And you think well of her case, then?"

"I did not say so, Sir; I don't think any man would go so far; for it will be tedious, and consequently precarious. And there are now and then recoveries that can scarcely be called benefits. How many miles do you call it to Wrexham?"

"You speak of the effects upon the brain--the permanent effects?" said Sir Within, with trembling eagerness.

"Brain or membranes, I don't think it signifies much which. And Wrexham--how far is it?"

"Your postboy will tell you, Sir; this case is of much more moment to me."

Sir Henry turned a full steady look on the old envoy, as though he were contemplating an order of being wholly new and strange to him; and then turning to the housekeeper, who still stood at his side, said: "Stop the ice--apply mere cold water; don't talk to her, and no more Irish--take care of that--no more Irish. Good night, Sir Within;" and stepping hastily down the steps, he entered his carriage and drove away.

"What did he mean by that last direction, no more Irish, Mrs. Simc.o.x?"

asked Sir Within.

"La, Sir, it was about a thing that happened last night;" and she recounted the incident, at somewhat greater length than we have given it.

"Send the girl to me," said Sir Within, as she finished; "let me speak to her in the library."

The interview lasted about half an hour, and at the end of it Molly was seen to hasten to her room, pack her clothes, and descend to the stable-yard, where a conveyance was in waiting for her.

"This is a hasty way to leave us, Molly," said one of her fellow-servants, as she mounted the cart.

"It's my mother that was sick, and sent for me," said the girl.

"Drive on," added she to the groom, for Sir Within was leaning on the window-sill, overhead, and watching the scene.

Sir Henry arrived the next morning to find Kate worse than he had left her; and, though greatly pressed for time, he remained nigh an hour in consultation with Doctor Price, who had accompanied him. There was more fever, and far more of excitement than on the day before, and she talked incessantly to herself, occasionally giving way to bursts of laughter.

"How grave you both look this morning," said she, with a derisive smile, as they arose to leave her bedside. "I think I can guess what's pa.s.sing in your mind." Morland shook his head in dissent, and she went on: "Of course you would be reluctant to say it, but the simple truth is, Doctor, you think me very, very ill."

"So far, you are right," said he, gently.

"Yes, but you suspect more. You believe that I am dying."

"You have many things in your favour, my dear child. You have youth, you have strength, and you have what is sometimes worth them both--good courage."

"You do me justice, Doctor, I have plenty of courage, more even than you know of; and I have another thing," added she, while her eyes flashed wildly and her lip shook with agitation--"I have no great desire to live!"

"Come, come, young lady," broke in Price, "it is not at your age that one is weary of the world."

"I never said I was," cried she, impatiently; and then, turning from him as though he were not one to understand her aright, she addressed the other. "May I speak to you alone?"

"Certainly; my friend here will have no objection, I'm sure."

"None whatever," said Doctor Price, as he moved towards the door.

"And you, Simc.o.x, you must go too; and take Nelly with you."

"La, Miss----"

"Do as you are told," said the Doctor, peremptorily.

"And now we are alone, child," said he, as having closed the door, he returned to the bedside.

"Sit down, sit there," said she, pointing to the chair, "and wait a moment till I collect myself. I don't like that man; his voice jars on--there is so much in a voice. Yours, for instance, soothes me." He smiled kindly on her, and she continued: "I was not always so captious, but illness makes one very fretful. Ain't it so?"

"Naturally."

"I must be very ill, then, if irritability be the measure. Do you know"--and here she spoke with immense rapidity, and with a jarring vibration in her voice--"do you know that there are times, mere moments, in which it needs all my self-control not to scream aloud? Yes, I feel as though I would give life itself to cry out--to fling this weary load off my poor heart, and tell all--all!"

"You must be calm, young lady, or I shall think I have done amiss in permitting this interview."

"Don't call me young lady. The other, that man I dislike, called me young lady. You must call me Kate." He only smiled, and she took his hand in her own burning hand, and said, in a coaxing, caressing tone, "Say Kate--Kate!"