The Rosery Folk Part 26

"Yes: for heaven's sake, stay."

"I will not leave you; and if I can, I'll bring you back to health."

"Yes," said Scarlett, shuddering. "And you will not let them drag me away. Jack!--Kate has been planning it with Arthur--an asylum--and I dare not speak, I should be so violent, and make it worse."

"You shan't be dragged away, old man, and you need not fancy that any such plans are being made."

"Even if it came to the worst," said Scarlett pitifully, "you could keep me down. O Jack, I could not bear it; I'd sooner die!"

"Let me speak out at once, my dear boy," said the doctor. "The terrible shock to your nerves has made you so weak that you fancy all these things. It is the natural outcome of such a state as yours. Now, listen: you said you would believe me."

"Yes, yes; and I will."

"I am glad you have spoken. I knew all this; but I am not sorry you indorsed it. You are haunted by a horrible dread that you are about to lose your reason."

"Yes," moaned Scarlett; "and it is so hard--so hard!"

"Then you may take this comfort to your heart: you are not in the slightest degree likely to become insane; and, what is more, I am as good as certain that, sooner or later, you will recover your health."

"Jack!"

"You said that you would trust in me."

"Yes--I did--and I will try--so hard. There, I am trying--you see how I am trying. Stand by me, Jack, and help me. Tell me what to do--do you hear! Tell me what to _do_!"

"I will," cried Scales. "Give me your hand. Stand up--like a man.

Now, grasp it firmly. Firmly, man; a good grip.--That's better. Now, listen! What are you to do?"

"Yes: tell me quickly. My own strength is gone."

"I'll tell you, then," said the doctor. "Give yourself up to me as if you were a man who could not swim."

"Don't talk about the water, Jack. For G.o.d's sake, don't!"

"I _will_ talk about the water, and you shall listen. Now, then, you must act as if you were helpless and I a strong swimmer. You must trust to me. Recollect, if you struggle and fight against me, you must drown--morally drown: the black waters will close over your spirit, and nothing that I can do will save you. Now, then, drowning man, is it to be trust in the swimmer?--That's right!" he cried, as Scarlett placed his hands upon his arm--"that's well. I won't leave you, James Scarlett, till you are sound and strong as I am now!"

The stricken man made an effort to speak, but the words would not come.

He could only gaze wistfully in his friend's face, his wild eyes looking his grat.i.tude, while they seemed to promise the fidelity of a dog.

"That's right, old fellow. Now, we pretty well understand each other, only I've got to preach at you a little. First of all, I must have full confidence, you know. You must come to me with every symptom and sensation."

"I will tell you everything," said Scarlett humbly.

"And I would just make up my mind to meet my troubles like a man. You have yours now; and they come the more painfully after a long course of prosperity and happiness; but even then, old fellow, life is too good a gift to talk of throwing it away."

Scarlett shuddered, and the doctor watched him narrowly.

"Existence accompanied by a most awful fit of neuralgia would not be pleasant; but all the same I would not refuse it, even with those conditions, for the intervals when the neuralgia is not stinging you are about the most delicious moments by contrast that can be imagined."

"Yes, yes; of course."

"Well, then, now let us go and join them on the lawn. What do you say to beginning to fight the nervous foe at once?"

"Yes, at once," said Scarlett, speaking as if under the influence of the doctor.

"Come along, then; and we shall master yet."

Scarlett hesitated and hung back; but the doctor did not speak. He could see that his patient was trying to avoid his eye. Once Scarlett glanced up, but the look was rapid as lightning. He saw that the doctor was watching him, and he avoided his look again instantly, like a schoolboy who had committed some fault. At the end of a minute, though, he gradually raised his eyes again, slowly and furtively, and in a way that troubled the doctor more than he would have cared to own; but he had his consolation directly in finding his patient gazing fully at him while Scarlett uttered a low sigh of satisfaction, as if he rejoiced at being in charge of a stronger will than his own; and then, without a word, they moved towards the lawn.

"I must do my bit of fighting too," said the doctor to himself, as his eyes fell upon Lady Martlett. "She's very handsome; she knows it; and she wants to make me feel it; but she shall not.--Humph! How that fellow Prayle hangs about Lady Scarlett's side. They can't always be wanting to talk over business matters."

"Well, James, have you had a pleasant stroll?" said Aunt Sophia, as the two men joined the group.

"Yes--very," he answered quietly.

"Have you seen how the peaches are getting on upon the little bush?" she continued.

"I? No. I have not been in the peach-house for days."

"You don't go half often enough. Let's go now."

"What, I? N--" The poor fellow met the doctor's eye, and said hastily: "Well, yes; I will, aunt.--Will you come too, Naomi?"

"O yes," cried the girl eagerly.

"Perhaps Lady Martlett will come and see the rosy-cheeked beauties of the peach-house?" said the doctor half-mockingly.--"She'll give me such a snub," he added to himself.

"Yes; I should like to see them," said her Ladyship quietly; "my gardener tells me that they are far more beautiful than mine."

"I should have thought it impossible," cried the doctor. "Your Ladyship's wealth and position ought to be able to secure for you everything."

"But it does not," said Lady Martlett; "not even such a simple thing as deference or respect."

"Ah, but money could not buy those--at least not genuine, sterling qualities of that kind, Lady Martlett," said the doctor, as they moved towards the end of the garden.

"So it seems, Doctor Scales."

"There are some people who even have the impertinence to look down upon the rich who do not carry their honours with graceful humility."

"How dares he speak to me like this!" thought Lady Martlett; "but I'll humble him yet."

"Let me see," she replied coolly; "what do you cull that cla.s.s of person--a radical, is it not?"

"Yes; I suppose that is the term."

"And I understand that there are radicals of all kinds: in politics; in those who pa.s.s judgment on social behaviour; and even in medicine."

"That's a clever thrust," thought the doctor.--"Just so, Lady Martlett; and I am one of the radicals in medicine."