The Rosery Folk Part 14

"You are not deceiving me?"

"Indeed, no. Here is the case for yourself: he has been nearly drowned."

"Yes, yes," sobbed Lady Scarlett.

"Well, he has his breathing apparatus in order again, and is fast asleep. There is no disease."

"No; I understand that," said Lady Scarlett excitedly; "but--a relapse?"

"Relapse?" said the doctor in a low voice and laughing quietly. "Well, the only form of relapse he could have would be to tumble in again."

"Don't; pray, don't laugh at me, doctor," said Lady Scarlett piteously.

"You cannot tell what I suffer."

"O yes, I can," he said kindly. "If I laughed then, it was only to give you confidence. He will wake up with a bad nervous headache, and that's all.--Now, suppose you go and lie down."

"No; I shall stay with my husband," she said firmly. "I cannot go."

"Well," he said, "you shall stay.--Perhaps you will stay with us as well, Miss Raleigh," he added. "We can shade the light; and he is so utterly exhausted, that even if we talk, I don't think he will wake."

"And he will not be worse?" whispered Lady Scarlett.

"People _will_ not have any confidence in their medical man. Come, now, I think you might trust me, after what I have done."

"I do trust you, Doctor Scales, and believe in you as my husband's best and dearest friend," cried Lady Scarlett. "Heaven bless you for what you have done!" She hurriedly kissed his hand; and then, after a glance at her husband's pale face, she went and sat upon the floor beside Aunt Sophia's chair, laid her hands upon the elder lady's knees, and hid her face, sitting there so motionless that she seemed to be asleep.

"I wish she would not do that," muttered the doctor; and then: "I hate a woman who behaves in that lapdog way. I never liked her, and I don't think I ever shall."

It was a change indeed, the long watch through that night, and it was with a sigh of relief that the doctor saw the first grey light of morning stealing through the window. Only a few hours before and all had been so bright and sunny, now all was depression and gloom. When they started for their water trip trouble seemed a something that could not fall upon so happy a home. Aunt Sophia's fears had only been a motive for mirth, and since then, with a rapidity that was like the lightning's flash, this terrible shock had come upon them.

"Ah, well!" mused the doctor, as he stood at the window holding the blind a little on one side so as to gaze out at the grey sky, "it might have been worse, and it will make him more careful for the future. My word though, it was precious lucky that I was in the boat."

He yawned slightly now, for there was no denying that the doctor was terribly sleepy. It was bad enough to lose a night's rest, but the exhaustion he had suffered from his efforts made it worse, and in spite of his anxiety and eagerness to save his friend, there was no concealing the fact that unless he had risen and walked about now and then he would have fallen asleep.

Just as the sky was becoming flecked with tiny clouds of gold and orange, the first brightness that had been seen since the evening before, a few muttered words and a restless movement made doctor and wife hurry to the extempore couch.

"Kate! Where's Kate?" exclaimed Scarlett in a hoa.r.s.e cracked voice.

"I am here, dear--here at your side," she whispered, laying her cheek to his.

"Has the boat gone over? Save Kate!"

"We are all safe, dear husband."

"Fool!--idiot!--to go so near. So dangerous!" he cried excitedly.

"Jack--Jack, old man--my wife--my wife!"

"It's all right, old fellow," said the doctor cheerily. "There, there; you only had a bit of a ducking--that's all."

"Scales--Jack!--Where am I? Where's Kate?"

"Here, dear love, by your side."

"My head!" panted the poor fellow. "I'm frightened. What does it mean?

Why do you all stare at me like that? Here! what's the matter? Have I had a dream?"

"He calm, old fellow," said the doctor. "You're all right now."

"Catch hold of my hand, Kate," he cried, drawing in his breath with a hiss. "There's something wrong with--here--the back of my neck, and my head throbs terribly. Here! Have I been overboard? Why don't you speak?"

"Scarlett, old fellow, be calm," said the doctor firmly. "There; that's better."

"Yes; I'll lie still. What a frightful headache! But tell me what it all means.--Ah! I remember now. The oar broke, and I went under. I was beaten down.--Jack--Kate, dear--do you hear me?"

"Yes, yes, dear love; yes, yes," whispered Lady Scarlett, placing her arm round his neck and drawing his head upon her breast. "It was a nasty accident; but you are quite safe now."

"Safe? Am I safe?" he whispered hoa.r.s.ely. "That's right, dear; hold me--tightly now." He closed his eyes and shuddered, while Lady Scarlett gazed imploringly in the doctor's face.

"The shock to his nerves," he said quietly. "A bit upset; but he'll be all right soon;" and as he spoke, the doctor laid his hand upon his friend's pulse.

Scarlett uttered a piercing cry, starting and gazing wildly at his old companion. "Oh! It was you," he panted, and he closed his eyes again, clinging tightly to his wife, as he whispered softly, "Don't leave me, dear--don't leave me."

He seemed to calm down then and lay quite still muttering about the boat--the oar breaking--and the black water.

"It kept me down," he said with another shudder, and speaking as if to himself. "It kept me down till I felt that I was drowning. Jack Scales," he said aloud, "how does a man feel when he is drowned?"

"Don't know, old fellow. Never was drowned," said the doctor cheerily.--"Now, look here; it's only just sunrise, so you'd better go to sleep again, and then you'll wake up as lively as a cricket."

"Sunrise?--sunrise?" said Scarlett excitedly--"sunrise?" And as he spoke he looked round from one to the other. "Why, you've been sitting up all night! Of course, I'm down here. Have I been very bad?"

The doctor hesitated for a few moments, and then, deeming it best to tell him all, he said quietly:

"Well, pretty bad, old fellow, but we brought you to again, and it's all right now."

"Yes, it's all right now. It's all right now," muttered Scarlett, looking from one to the other, and then clinging tightly to his wife's hand he closed his eyes once more, lay muttering for a time, and then seemed to be fast asleep.

Lady Scarlett kept following the doctor's every movement with her wistful eyes till he said in a whisper: "Let him sleep, and I'll come back presently."

"Don't you leave me, Kate," cried Scarlett, shuddering.

"No, no, dear," she said tenderly; and the poor fellow uttered a low sigh, and remained with his eyes closed, as the doctor softly left the room, beckoning to Aunt Sophia to follow him.

"I'm going to get a prescription made up," he said. "I'll send off the groom on one of the horses; there will be a place open in the town by the time he gets there."

"Stop a moment," said Aunt Sophia, clutching at his arm. "Tell me what, this means. Why is he like this?"

"Oh, it is only the reaction--the shock to his nerves. Poor fellow!" he muttered to himself, "he has been face to face with death."

"Doctor Scales," said Aunt Sophia, with her hand tightening upon his arm--"shock to his nerves! He is not going to be like that patient of yours you spoke of the other day?"