Family Pride Or Purified by Suffering Part 37

"I have not been to Father Cameron's. I had business somewhere else, but you must not tell. I am in trouble, Esther, or rather, I have been. I guess it's over now. You are a good girl, and I can trust you. There's a letter in that drawer, please bring it to me."

Either complied, and Katy held in her hand the letter left for Wilford.

It had not been opened. It must never be opened now, and holding it until a fire was kindled in the grate, she tossed it into the flames, watching it as it crispened and blackened upon the glowing coals.

The quick-witted Esther saw that something was wrong, and traced it readily to Wilford, whose exacting nature she thoroughly understood. She had not been blind during the two years and a half she had been Katy's maid, and no impatient word of Wilford's, or frown upon his face, had escaped her when occurring in her presence, while Katy's uniform sweetness and entire submission to his will had been noted as well, so that in Esther's opinion Wilford was a domestic tyrant, and Katy was an angel. There was no danger then of Esther's repeating anything forbidden. She had, of course, her own private speculation on the subject, and when she learned that the tall, handsome man who came within an hour after Katy's arrival was Dr. Grant, about whom she had heard both her young mistress and Mrs. Cameron talk so much, her woman's wits came to her aid again, and to herself she said:

"It's to Silverton Mrs. Cameron went, though how she could get there and back so soon is a mystery to me, or why she went at all."

Then as she remembered all the circ.u.mstances which followed the dinner for which Katy had dressed with so much care, and the burning of the letter, a wild conjecture pa.s.sed through her mind as to the nature of the trouble which had taken Katy to Silverton in her husband's absence, leaving a letter for him, and then burning it up when she came back, accompanied by Dr. Grant. For that he did come with her Esther was sure, as she saw him on the steps when she answered Katy's ring, and knew the man who now sat in the parlor waiting for her to take his name to Katy was the same.

"There is something in the wind," she thought, as she carried Morris'

name to Katy, who did not seem to hear, or if she did, she paid no heed, but talked of the blinding snow, and the grave in St. Mary's churchyard, which was no grave at all.

Her manner, more than her looks, frightened the girl, who retreated down the stairs, meeting Morris in the hall, and saying as she grasped his arm:

"You are a doctor, Dr. Grant. Come, then, to Mrs. Cameron. She is taken out of her head, and talks so queer and raving."

Morris had expected this, but he was not prepared to find the fever so high, or the symptoms so alarming.

"Shall I send for Mrs. Cameron and another doctor, please?" Esther asked.

Morris had faith in himself, and he would rather no other hand should minister to Katy; but he knew he could not stay there long, for there were those at home who needed his services. Added to this, her family physician might know her const.i.tution now better than he knew it, and so he answered that it would be well to send for both the doctor and Mrs.

Cameron.

It was growing dark now in the city, and the shadows were stealing into the room where Morris sat down to wait for other counsel and the arrival of Mrs. Cameron. To the servants in the kitchen Esther stated, with a very matter-of-course air, that her mistress had come home, feeling sick, and that as she seemed getting worse, she was to send to Madam Cameron, adding that it was a piece of great good luck that Dr. Grant, from Silverton, who was her cousin, happened to be in the city, and had called just when he was needed the most.

"He was the doctor whom Jamie talked so much about," she said; "the doctor whom the family met in Paris," dwelling so long on Dr. Grant and discussing him so volubly that Phillips and the other servants lost sight entirely of what had struck them a little oddly, to wit: that Mrs.

Wilford should leave Father Cameron's if she was so very sick.

It was Esther who met Mrs. Cameron in the hall, conducting her into the parlor and adopting a different style of argument with her from that used in the bas.e.m.e.nt. "Mrs. Wilford was not well when her husband went away; but of course he thought nothing of it, neither did she--Esther--until to-day, when she came in from the street, looking very badly, and going directly to her bed, where she had been growing worse ever since."

"Yes," and Mrs. Cameron beat her foot thoughtfully. "I wish I had called yesterday. I did speak of it, fearing she would be lonely."

"I dare say she was," Esther replied, never changing color in the least, although somewhat afraid she was being driven to the wall. "She seemed downcast all the morning, but went about noon. I thought maybe she would call on you."

"I wish she had," Mrs. Cameron replied, and then Esther told her how providential it was that a Dr. Grant from Silverton happened to come to New York that very day. Of course he called upon his cousin, first sending up his card, and then going himself when told that Mrs. Cameron was out of her head and did not understand who was waiting to see her.

Completely befogged with regard to a part of the play enacting before her eyes, Mrs. Cameron exclaimed: "Dr. Grant, of Silverton! I have the utmost confidence in his skill. Still, it may be well for Dr. Craig to see her. I think that is his ring."

The city and country physicians agreed exactly with regard to Katy's illness, or rather the city physician bowed in acquiescence when Morris said to him that the fever raging so high had perhaps been induced by natural causes, but was greatly aggravated by some sudden shock to the nervous system. This was before Mrs. Cameron came up, but it was repeated in her presence by Dr. Craig, who thus left the impression that the idea had originated with himself rather than with Dr. Grant, as perhaps he thought it had. He was at first inclined to patronize the country doctor, but soon found that he had reckoned without his host.

Morris knew more of Katy and quite as much of medicine as he did himself, and when Mrs. Cameron begged him to stay longer he answered that her son's wife was as safe in his brother physician's hands as she could be in his.

"Indeed, she's safer," he added, "for Dr. Grant can watch her every moment, and I leave her in his care, calling again of course in the morning."

Mrs. Cameron was very glad that Dr. Grant was there, she said. It was surely Providence who sent him to New York on that particular day, and Morris shivered as he wondered if it were wrong not to explain the whole to her.

"Perhaps it is best she should not know of Katy's journey to Silverton,"

he thought, and merely bowing to her remarks, he turned to Katy, who was growing very restless and moaning as if in pain.

"It hurts," she said, turning her head from side to side; "I am lying on Genevra."

With a sudden start Mrs. Cameron drew nearer, but when she remembered the little grave at Silverton, she said: "It's the baby she's talking about."

Morris knew better, and as Katy still continued to move her head as if something were really hurting her, he pa.s.sed his hand under her pillow and drew out the picture which she had held as long as her consciousness remained. He knew it was Genevra's picture, and was about to lay it away when the cover dropped from his hand and his eye fell upon a face which was not new to him, while an involuntary exclamation of surprise broke from his lips as Katy's a.s.sertion that Genevra was living was thus fully confirmed. Marian had not changed past recognition since her early girlhood, and Morris knew the likeness at once, pitying Katy more than he had pitied her yet, as he remembered how closely Marian Hazelton had been interwoven with her married life and the life of the little child which had borne her name.

"What is that?" Mrs. Cameron asked, and Morris pa.s.sed the case to her, saying: "A picture was under Katy's pillow."

Morris did not look at Mrs. Cameron, but tried to busy himself with the medicines upon the stand, while she, too, recognized Genevra Lambert, wondering how it came in Katy's possession, and how much she knew of Wilford's secret.

"She most have been rummaging," she thought, and then, as she remembered what Esther had said about her mistress appearing sick and unhappy when her husband left, she repaired to the parlor and summoning Esther to her presence, asked her again: "When she first observed traces of indisposition in Mrs. Cameron."

Considerably flurried and anxious to prove true to Katy, Esther replied, at random: "When she came home from that dinner at your house. She was just as pale as death, and her teeth fairly chattered as I took off her things."

"Dinner? What dinner?" Mrs. Cameron asked, and Esther replied: "Why, the night Mr. Wilford went away or was to go. She changed her mind about meeting him at your house and said she meant to surprise him. But she came home before Mr. Cameron, looking like a ghost and saying she was sick. It's my opinion something she ate at dinner hurt her."

"Very likely; yes. You can go now," Mrs. Cameron said, and Esther departed, never dreaming how much light she had inadvertently thrown upon the mystery.

"She must have been in the library and heard all we said," Mrs. Cameron thought, as she nervously twisted the fringe of her breakfast shawl. "I remember we talked of Genevra, and I remember, too, that we both heard a strange sound from some quarter, but thought it came from the kitchen.

That was Katy. She was there all the time and let herself quietly out of the house. I wonder does Wilford know," and then there came over her an intense desire for Wilford to come home, a desire which was not lessened when she returned to Katy's room and heard her talking of Genevra and the grave at St. Mary's "where n.o.body was buried."

In a tremor of distress, lest she should betray something which Morris must not know, Mrs. Cameron tried to hush her, talking as if it was the baby she meant, the Genevra who died at Silverton; but Katy answered promptly: "I'm not to be hoodwinked any longer. It's Genevra Lambert I mean, Wilford's other wife; the one across the sea, whom you and he browbeat. She was innocent, too--as innocent as I, whom you both deceived."

Here was a phase of affairs for which Mrs. Cameron was not prepared, and excessively mortified that Morris should hear Katy's ravings, she tried again to quiet her, consoling herself with the reflection that as Morris was Katy's cousin, he would not repeat what he heard, and feeling gratified now that Dr. Craig was absent, as she could not be so sure of him. If Katy's delirium continued, no one must be admitted to the room except those who could be trusted, and as there had been already several rings, she said to Esther that as the fever was probably malignant and contagious, no one must be admitted to the house with the expectation of seeing the patient, while the servants were advised to stay in their own quarters, except as their services might be needed elsewhere. And so it was that by the morrow the news had spread of some infectious disease at No. ---- on Madison Square, which was shunned as carefully as if the smallpox itself had been raging there instead of the brain fever, which increased so fast that Morris suggested to Mrs. Cameron that she telegraph for Wilford.

"They might find him, and they might not," Mark Ray said, when the message came down to the office. "They could try, at all events," and in a few moments the telegraphic wires were carrying the news of Katy's illness, both to the West, where Wilford had gone, and to the East, where Helen read with a blanched cheek that Katy perhaps was dying, and she was needed again.

This was Mrs. Cameron's suggestion, wrung out by the knowing that some woman besides herself was needed in the sickroom, and by the feeling that Helen could be trusted with the story of the first marriage, which Katy talked of constantly, telling it so accurately that only a fool would fail of being convinced that there was much of truth in those delirious ravings.

CHAPTER x.x.xIX.

THE FEVER AND ITS RESULTS.

On every business paper Wilford wrote or signed, and in every object he met in his journey, one face had been prominent, and that the face of Katy as it looked in the gray dawn when it lifted itself up to kiss him, while the white lips tried to speak his pardon. Sometimes Wilford was very sorry and full of remorse, knowing how Katy was suffering for his sin; and then, when he remembered her long refusal to pardon him, notwithstanding that he sued for it so earnestly, his self-importance was touched, and he felt she had no right to be so obstinate. He did not deserve it. He was a very kind, indulgent husband, who had raised her from the humblest position to the very highest, and she ought not to feel so indignant because he had kept from her an act which, after all, did not affect her materially. If Genevra was living, and on this side of the water, he could understand how it might be unpleasant for Katy and for him, too, knowing, as they both did, that she was innocent of the charges alleged against her.

"I should not myself like to run the risk of meeting a divorced wife at any time," he thought; "but Genevra is dead, and Katy ought to be more reasonable. I did not suppose there was so much spirit in her."

But reason as he might, Wilford could not forget Katy's face, so full of reproach. It followed him continually, and was the magnet which turned his steps homeward before his business was quite done, and before the telegram found him. Thus it was with no knowledge of existing circ.u.mstances that he reached New York just at the close of the day after Katy's return, and ordering a carriage, was driven rapidly toward home. All the shutters in the front part of the house were closed and not a ray of light was to be seen in the parlors as he entered the hall, where the gas was burning dimly.

"Katy is at home," he said, as he went into the library, where a shawl was thrown across a chair, as if some one had lately been there.

It was his mother's shawl, and Wilford was wondering if she was there, when down the stairs came a man's rapid step, and the next moment Dr.

Grant stepped into the room, starting when he saw Wilford, who felt intuitively that something was wrong.

"Is Katy sick?" was his first question, which Morris answered in the affirmative, holding him back as he was starting for her room, and saying to him: "Let me send your mother to you first." What pa.s.sed between Wilford and his mother was never known exactly, but at the close of the interview Mrs. Cameron was very pale, while Wilford's face looked dark and anxious, as he said: "You think he understands it, then?"