Emmeline Part 41

Still, however, the busy imagination of Emmeline perpetually represented to her impending sorrow, and her terror hourly encreased. She figured to herself the decided phrenzy, or the death of her poor friend; and unable to conquer apprehensions which she was yet compelled to conceal, she lived in a continual effort to appear chearful, and to soothe the wounded mind of the sufferer, by consolatory conversation; while she watched her with an attention so sedulous and so painful, that only the excellence of her heart, which persuaded her she was engaged in a task truly laudable, could have supported her thro' such anxiety and fatigue.

She was, however, very desirous that as Mr. G.o.dolphin was now in England he might be acquainted with his sister's calamitous and precarious situation; and she gently hinted to Lady Adelina, how great a probability she thought there was, that such a man as her brother was represented to be, would in her sorrow and her suffering forget her error.

But by the most distant idea of such an interview, she found Lady Adelina so violently affected, that she dared not again urge it; and was compelled, in fearful apprehension, to await the hour which would probably give the fair penitent to that grave, where she seemed to wish her disgrace and affliction might be forgotten.

To describe the anxiety of Emmeline when that period arrived, is impossible; or the mingled emotions of sorrow and satisfaction, pleasure and pity, with which she beheld the lovely and unfortunate infant whose birth she had so long desired, yet so greatly dreaded.

Lady Adelina had, till then, wished to die. She saw her child--and wished to live.--The physical people who attended her, gave hopes that she might.--Supported by the tender friendship of Emmeline, and animated by maternal fondness, she determined to attempt it.

Emmeline, now full of apprehension, now indulging feeble hopes, prayed fervently for her recovery; and zealously and indefatigably attended her with more than her former solicitude. For three days, her hopes gradually grew stronger; when on the evening of the third, as she was sitting alone by the side of the bed where Lady Adelina had fallen into a quiet sleep, she suddenly heard a sort of bustle in the next room; and before she could rise to put an end to it, a gentleman to whom she was a stranger, walked hastily into that where she was. On seeing her, he started and said--

'I beg your pardon, Madam--but I was informed that here I might find Lady Adelina Trelawny.'

The name of Trelawny, thus suddenly and loudly p.r.o.nounced, awakened Lady Adelina. She started up--undrew the curtain--and fixing her eyes with a look of terrified astonishment on the stranger, she exclaimed, faintly--'Oh! my brother!--my brother William!' then sunk back on her pillow, to all appearance lifeless.

Mr. G.o.dolphin now springing forward, caught the cold and insensible hand which had opened the curtain; and throwing himself on his knees, cried--

'Adelina! my love! are you ill?--have I then terrified and alarmed you?

Speak to me--dear Adelina--speak to me!'

Emmeline, whose immediate astonishment at his presence had been lost in terror for his sister, had flown out of the room for the attendants, and now returning, cried--

'You have killed her, Sir!--She is certainly dead!--Oh, my G.o.d! the sudden alarm, the sudden sight of you, has destroyed her!'

'I am afraid it has!' exclaimed G.o.dolphin wildly, and hardly knowing what he said--'I am indeed afraid it has! My poor sister--my unhappy, devoted Adelina!--have I then found you only to destroy you? But perhaps,' continued he, after a moment's pause, during which Emmeline and the nurse were chafing the hands and temples of the dying patient--'perhaps she may recover. Send instantly for advice--run--fly--let me go myself for a.s.sistance.'

He would now have run out of the room; but Emmeline, whose admirable presence of mind this sudden scene of terror had not conquered, stopped him.

'Stay, Sir,' said she, 'I beseech you, stay. You know not whither to go.

I will instantly send those who do.'

She then left the room, and ordered a servant to fetch the physician; for she dreaded least Mr. G.o.dolphin should discover the real name and quality of the patient to those to whom he might apply; and on returning to the bed side, where Lady Adelina still lay without any signs of existence, and by which her brother still knelt in speechless agony, her fears were again alive, least when the medical gentlemen arrived, his grief and desperation should betray the secret to them. While her first apprehension was for the life of her friend, these secondary considerations were yet extremely alarming--for she knew, that should Lady Adelina recover, her life would be for ever embittered, if not again endangered, by the discovery which seemed impending and almost inevitable.

The women who were about her having now applied every remedy they could think of without success, began loudly to lament themselves. Emmeline, commanding her own anguish, besought them to stifle their's, and not to give way to fruitless exclamations while there was yet hope, but to continue their endeavours to recover their lady. Then addressing herself to Mr. G.o.dolphin, she roused him from the stupor of grief in which he had fallen, while he gazed with an impa.s.sioned and agonizing look on the pale countenance of his sister.

'Pardon me, Sir,' said she, 'if I entreat you to go down stairs and await the arrival of the advice I have sent for. Should my poor friend recover, your presence may renew and encrease the alarm of her spirits, and embarra.s.s her returning recollection; and should she not recover, you had better hear such mournful tidings in any place rather than this.'

'Oh! if I _do_ hear them,' answered he, wildly, 'it matters little where. But I _will_ withdraw, Madam, since you seem to desire it.'

He had hardly seen Emmeline before. He now turned his eyes mournfully upon her--'It is, I presume, Miss Mowbray,' said he, 'who thus, with an angel's tenderness in an angel's form, would spare the sorrows of a stranger?'

Emmeline, unable to speak, led the way down to the parlour, and G.o.dolphin silently followed her.

'Go back,' said he, tremulously, as soon as they reached the room--'go back to my sister; your tender a.s.siduity may do more for her than the people about her. Your voice, your looks, will soothe and tranquillize her, should she awaken from her long insensibility. Ah! tell her, her brother came only to rescue her from the misery of her unworthy lot--Tell her his affection, his brotherly affection, hopes to give her consolation; and restore her--if it may yet be--to her repose. But go, dearest Miss Mowbray go!--somebody comes in--perhaps the physician.'

Emmeline now opening the parlour door, found it to be indeed the physician she expected; and with a fearful heart she followed him, informing him, as they went up stairs, that the sudden appearance of Mrs. St. Laure's brother, whom she had not seen for two or three years, had thrown her into a fainting fit, from which not all their endeavours had recovered her.

He remonstrated vehemently against the extreme indiscretion of such an interview. Emmeline, who knew not by what strange chain of circ.u.mstances it had been brought about, had nothing to reply.

So feeble were the appearances of remaining life, that the physician could p.r.o.nounce nothing certainly in regard to his patient. He gave, however, directions to her attendants; but after every application had been used, all that could be said was, that she was not actually dead.

As soon as the physician had written his prescription and retired, Emmeline recollected the painful state of suspense in which she had left Mr. G.o.dolphin, and trying to recover courage to go thro' the painful scene before her, she went down to him.

As she opened the door, he met her.

'I have seen the doctor,' said he, in a broken and hurried voice--'and from his account I am convinced Adelina is dying.'

'I hope not,' faintly answered Emmeline. 'There is yet a possibility, tho' I fear no great probability of her recovery.'

'My Adelina!' resumed he, walking about the room--'my Adelina! for whose sake I so anxiously wished to return to England--Gracious G.o.d! I am come too late to a.s.sist her! Some strange mystery surely hangs over her!

Long lost to all her friends, I find her here dying! The sight of me, instead of relieving her sorrow seems to have accelerated her dissolution! And you, Madam, to whose goodness she appears to be so greatly indebted--may I ask by what fortunate circ.u.mstance, lost and obscure as she has been, she has acquired such a friend?'

Emmeline, shuddering at the apprehension of enquiries she found it impossible to answer, was wholly at a loss how to reply to this. She knew not of what Mr. G.o.dolphin was informed--of what he was ignorant; and dreaded to say too much, or to be detected in a false representation. She therefore, agitated and hesitating, gravely said--

'It is not now a time, Sir, to ask any thing relative to Lady Adelina. I am myself too ill to enter into conversation; and wish, as you have been yourself greatly affected, that you would now retire, and endeavour to make yourself as easy as you can. To-morrow may, perhaps, afford us more chearful prospects--or at least this cruel suspense will be over, and the dear sufferer at peace.'

She sobbed, and turned away. G.o.dolphin rising, said in a faultering voice--

'Yes, I will go! since my stay can only encrease the pain of that generous and sensible heart. I will go--but not to rest!--I cannot rest!

But do you try, most amiable creature! to obtain some repose--Try, I beseech you, to recover your spirits, which have been so greatly hurried.'

He knew not what he said; and was hastening out of the room, when Emmeline, recollecting how ardently Lady Adelina had desired the concealment of her name and family, stopped him as he was quitting her.

'Yet one thing, Captain G.o.dolphin, allow me to entreat of you?'

'What can I refuse you?' answered he, returning.

'Only--are you known at Bath?'

'Probably I may. It is above three years since I was in England, and much longer since I have been here. But undoubtedly some one or other will know me.'

'Then do indulge me in one request. See as few people as you can; and if you accidentally meet any of your friends, do not say that Lady Adelina is here.'

'Not meet any one if I can avoid it!--and if I do, not speak of my sister! And why is all this?--why this concealment, this mystery?--why--'

Emmeline, absolutely overcome, sat down without speaking. G.o.dolphin, seeing her uneasiness, said--

'But I will not distress _you_, Madam, by farther questions. Your commands shall be sufficient. I will stifle my anxiety and obey you.'

Then bowing respectfully, he added--'To-morrow, at as early an hour as I dare hope for admittance, I shall be at the door. Heaven bless and reward the fair and gentle Miss Mowbray--and may it have mercy on my poor Adelina!'--He sighed deeply, and left the house.

Lady Adelina, tho' not so entirely insensible, was yet but little amended. But as what alteration there was, was for the better, Emmeline endeavoured to recall her own agitated and dissipated spirits. The extraordinary scene which had just pa.s.sed, was still present to her imagination; the last words of G.o.dolphin, still vibrated in her ears.

'Fair and gentle Miss Mowbray!' repeated she. 'He knows my name; yet seems ignorant of every thing that relates to his sister!'

Her astonishment at this circ.u.mstance was succeeded by reflecting on the unpleasant task she must have if Mr. G.o.dolphin should again enquire into her first acquaintance with his sister. To relate to him the melancholy story she had heard, would, she found, be an undertaking to which she was wholly unequal; and she was equally averse to the invention of a plausible falsehood. From this painful apprehension she meditated how to extricate herself; but the longer she thought of it, the more she despaired of it. The terrors of such a conversation hourly augmented; and wholly and for ever to escape from it, she sometimes determined to write. But from executing that design, was withheld by considering that if G.o.dolphin was of a fiery and impetuous temper, he would probably, without reflection or delay, fly to vengeance, and precipitate every evil which Lady Adelina dreaded.

After having exhausted every idea on the subject, she could think of nothing on which her imagination could rest, but to send to Mrs.

Stafford, acquaint her with the danger of Lady Adelina, and conjure her if possible to come to her. This she knew she would do unless some singular circ.u.mstance in her own family prevented her attention to her friends.

Resolved to embrace therefore this hope, she dispatched an hasty billet by an express to Woodfield; and then betook herself to a bed on the floor, which she had ordered to be placed by the side of that where Lady Adelina, in happy tho' dangerous insensibility, still seemed to repose almost in the arms of death.