A Reconstructed Marriage Part 22

The next morning Dr. Robertson called to see Theodora, and was delighted with her selection. He did not stay long, but Mrs. Campbell was deeply offended because she was neither personally visited by him, nor yet invited by Theodora to meet him in her parlor. The lunch table was made a fiery furnace for her, and she had not the physical power to resist the evil. a.s.sailed by a sudden faintness, she was obliged to leave the room.

"Dora looks ill," said Christina.

"She is always complaining lately. She had Dr. Fleming in the house twice last week, had she not, Isabel?" Isabel sighed deeply, and Christina absently nodded a.s.sent. She was counting the custard cups and considering the best way to appropriate the one intended for Theodora.

Jepson, however, had noticed the white face and unsteady steps of the sick woman and a.s.sisted her to her own apartments. On his return he was confronted by the angry face of his mistress. She laid down her knife and fork with a clash and asked:

"How dared you leave the room, Jepson? I hired you to wait on the Miss Campbells and myself."

"I thought Mrs. Campbell looked very ill, ma'am."

"You are here to obey orders, not to think. And _I_ am Mrs. Campbell, the other is Mrs. Robert. Do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am."

For some hours Theodora lay on the sofa in deep sleep, or in some other form of oblivion. She came back to consciousness with the feeling of one shipwrecked on a dark, desolate land, and after a little sobbing cry, went upstairs to try and dress for dinner. A depressing anxiety, a horror of the great darkness from which she had just returned was on her, and as soon as her exhausting toilet was over, she went back to the parlor, and lifting a book sat down at a small table with it in her hand.

Isabel, who was with her mother, heard both the ascent and descent, and directed her attention to it. "Dora has been dressing for dinner," she said. "Her sickness has not lasted long."

"There was nothing the matter with her."

"You are looking very well, mother, but I must change my gown. Why not go and question Dora about the minister's visit? She ought to tell you the why and the wherefore of it."

"She _shall_ tell me. I will make the inquiry at once."

Theodora was sitting with her elbows on the small table, her head in her hands and the open pages of the book below her heavy eyes, when the door was imperiously opened and Mrs. Campbell entered.

"You have got over your impromptu attack, I see, very readily."

"I feel better than I did a few hours ago."

"Why did Dr. Robertson call on you this morning?"

"He called on business--not socially."

"Money as usual, I suppose."

"He did not name money."

"Then what did he name?"

"His business."

"And what was his business?"

"I cannot tell you--yet."

"So you are the doctor's confidant! You are the doctor's adviser! You are set up before me, about the doctor's business. You! You, indeed!

Have you argued the matter out with the devil, as to how far you can go with a minister?"

"I never argue with the devil. 'Get thee behind me' is enough for him."

"I perfectly think scorn of you and your pretensions. I suppose the doctor is trying to save your soul!"

"My soul is saved."

"You are an impertinent huzzy!"

"I do not intend to be impertinent--and I do not deserve such a contemptuous word as huzzy."

"You are a fifty-fold huzzy! You are not reading. Lift your eyes and look at me!"

"I would rather not."

"I say, look at me. Why do you keep your eyes dropped? Do you think yourself beautiful in that att.i.tude? You are full of tricks."

Then Theodora lifted her eyes and looked steadily at her tormentor. They were pleading and reproachful, and full of tears. "I should like to be alone," she said slowly, "I am not well."

"I wish to know the minister's business."

"I must tell Robert first."

"I must tell Robert first," cried Mrs. Campbell with mocking mimicry.

"Let me tell you, Robert would rather you never spoke to him! He wishes you far away--he is sick of you, as I am--he is sorry he ever saw your face."

"I do not believe these things. Will you leave me? You are very cruel--I have not deserved such abuse." Once more she dropped her eyes on her book, but the letters were blurred and the solid earth seemed reeling.

"Give me that book and listen to what I say!"

There was no answer.

"Do you hear me? Give me that book."

Theodora neither spoke nor moved, and in a tragic frenzy of pa.s.sion Mrs.

Campbell seized the book and flung it to the other end of the room.

With a shriek, shrill yet weak, Theodora tottered to where it lay with its pages crumpled against the floor, and in the effort to lift the volume she fell like one dead beside it.

Then Ducie screamed for McNab and Jepson, and the two came hurrying in.

"She flung the Bible across the room! She flung the Bible!"

"Stop talking, Ducie, and help me get the dress of the poor lady slackened. Jepson, run for Dr. Fleming."

"I will if you say so, McNab."

"Run awa', and don't stand there like a born idiot, then."