One Maid's Mischief Part 50

"I--I think I would sooner trust to you, Henry," said the little lady, softly; "but do make haste and get a good breakfast. If you want me, send a message, and I will come directly."

"All right," said the doctor, rising once more. "Now I'm off."

"But one moment, Henry," said the little lady, whose feelings now got the upper hand. "Tell me, dear--do you think anything dreadful has happened?"

"What do you call dreadful, my dear?" said the doctor, cheerily.

"That the crocodiles--"

She did not finish, but looked imploringly at her lord.

"Bah!--stuff!--nonsense! No, Mary, I don't."

"Then that this dreadful Rajah has carried them off?"

"If it had only been Madam Helen, I should have felt suspicious; but what could he want with Hilton and Chumbley, or with our Arthur?"

"To marry them," suggested Mrs Bolter.

"Stuff! my dear, not he. If Murad had carried her off, he would not have bothered about a parson."

"But Arthur was waiting about her all the evening."

"So he was, my dear."

"And he may have killed Hilton and poor Mr Chumbley, while they were defending her."

"Yes, he might, certainly," said the doctor, drily; "but how the--"

"Henry!"

"I only meant d.i.c.kens. I say how the d.i.c.kens he was going to carry her off when he was at the party all the time I can't see."

"But was he?"

"To the very last. Oh! it will all settle itself into nothing, unless Arthur has taken Helen off into the jungle and married her himself, with Hilton and Chumbley for witnesses."

"Is this a time for joking, Henry?" said the little lady, reproachfully.

"Really, my dear, it would be no joke if Arthur had his own way."

"I'm afraid," sighed little Mrs Bolter, "that Helen Perowne had a good deal to with my brother accepting the chaplaincy."

"I'm sure she had," chuckled the doctor.

"If I had thought so I would never have consented to come," said the lady with asperity.

"Wouldn't you, Mary? Wouldn't you?" said the little doctor, taking her in his arms; and the lady withdrew her words just as a step was heard outside.

"Here's another stoppage," cried the doctor, impatiently. "Why, it's Mrs Barlow. What does she want?"

Mrs Barlow was a widow lady of about forty, the relict of a well-to-do merchant of the station, who, after her widowhood, preferred to stay and keep her brother's house to going back to England; at any rate, as she expressed it, for a few years.

She was one of the set who visited at Mr Perowne's, and had also been at the trip up the river to the Inche Maida's home; but being a decidedly neutral-tinted lady, in spite of her black attire, she was so little prominent that mention of her has not been necessary until now.

"Stop a minute;" she exclaimed, excitedly, as she arrested the doctor on his step.

"Not ill, are you, Mrs Barlow?" queried the doctor.

"Not bodily, doctor," she began, "but--"

"My wife is inside, my dear madam," cried the doctor, "and I must be off."

"Stop!" exclaimed Mrs Barlow, authoritatively; and she took the little doctor's arm, and led him back into the breakfast-room. "You are his brother, Dr Bolter. Mrs Bolter, you are his sister, ma'am. I can speak freely to you both."

"Of course, madam, of course," said the doctor; and then to himself, "Has the woman been taking _very_ strong tea?"

"I have only just learned the terrible news, Dr Bolter--Mrs Bolter,"

cried the lady, "and I came on to you."

"Very kind of you I am sure, ma'am."

"What do you think, doctor? You have some idea."

"Not the least at present, ma'am. I was just off to see."

"That is good of you; but tell me first," cried the widow, half hysterically. "You do not--you cannot think--that that dreadful woman--"

"What, the Inche Maida, ma'am?"

"No, no! I mean Helen Perowne--has deluded him into following her away to some other settlement."

"Whom, ma'am, Hilton or Chumbley?"

"Oh, dear me, no, doctor; I mean dear Mr Rosebury."

"Oh, you mean dear Mr Rosebury, do you?" said the doctor.

"Yes, Dr Bolter; oh, yes. Tell me; do you think that dreadful girl has deluded him away?"

"No, ma'am, I don't," cried the doctor, stoutly. "Hang it all, no! I'd give her the credit of a good deal, but not of that. Hang it, no."

"Thank you, doctor," said the lady hysterically. "Of course I should have forgiven it, and set it all down to her; but you do me good, doctor, by a.s.suring me that my surmise is impossible. What do you think then?"

"That it's all a mystery for us to find out, and I was going to hunt it up when you stopped me, ma'am."

"Excuse me, Mrs Barlow," said little Mrs Bolter, who had been fidgeting about, and waiting for an opportunity to speak, "but will you kindly explain what you mean by your very particular allusions to my brother?"