Vashti Part 21

Hush! I will not hear it!"

Palette and brushes fell upon the carpet, and she wrung her fingers until the diamond-eyed asp set its blue fangs in her cold flesh.

"Robert was merely bruised, but his mother was very badly injured, and is still insensible. Every precaution has been taken to counteract the effect of the severe blow on her head, and I hope that after an hour or two she will recover her consciousness. Robert is bringing her home as carefully as possible, and you may expect them momentarily. Only his urgent entreaties that I would precede him and prepare you for the reception of his mother could have induced me to waive ceremony and thrust myself into the presence of a lady who seems little disposed to pardon the apparent presumption of my visit."

She evidently did not heed his words, and, suddenly clasping her hands across her forehead, she said, bitterly,--

"Coward! why can't you speak out, and tell me that the corpse will soon be here, and a coffin must be ordered? This is the last blow!

Surely, G.o.d will let me alone, now; for there is nothing more that He can send to afflict me. Oh, Elsie,--my sole comfort! The only one who ever loved me!"

A bluish pallor settled about her mouth, and Dr. Grey shuddered as he looked into the dry, defiant eyes, so beautiful in form and color but so mournfully desperate in their expression.

"Mrs. Gerome, your servant is neither dead nor dying, and I have told you the worst. Down the road I can see the wagon coming slowly, and I would advise you to call the household together, in order to a.s.sist in lifting Elsie, who is very stout and heavy. Calm yourself, madam, and trust your favorite servant to my care."

"Servant! Sir, she is mother, father, husband, friends,--all,--everything to me! She is the only human being who cares for, or understands, or sympathizes with me,--and I could not live without her. Oh, sir, do not ask me to trust you! The time has gone by when I could trust anybody but Elsie. You are a physician,--you ought to know what should be done for her; and, Dr. Grey, if you have any pity in your soul, and any skill in your profession, save my old Elsie's life! Dr. Grey--"

She paused a few seconds, and added, in a whisper,--

"If she dies, I am afraid I might grow desperate, and commit what you happy people call a crime."

He felt an unwonted moisture dim his eyes, as he watched the delicate face, white as the hair that crowned it, and wondered if the wide, populous world could match her regal form and perfect features.

"Mrs. Gerome, I think I can promise that Elsie will recover from her injuries; but a prayer for her safety would bring you more comfort than my feeble words of a.s.surance and encouragement. The mercy of G.o.d is surer than the combined medical skill of the universe."

"The mercy of G.o.d!" she repeated, with a gesture of scorn and impatience. "No, no! G.o.d set his face like a flint against me, long, long ago, and I do not mock myself by offering prayers that only call down smitings upon me. Seven years since I prayed my last prayer, which was for speedy death; and, from that hour, I seem to have taken a new lease on life. Now I stand still and keep silent, and I hoped that G.o.d had forgotten me."

She covered her face with her hands and Dr. Grey drew a chair close to her and endeavored to make her sit down, but she resisted and shrank from his touch on her arm.

"Madam, the wagon has stopped at the door. Will you direct your servants, or shall I?"

"If she is not dead, tell Robert to carry her into my room. Oh, Dr.

Grey, you will not let her die!"

As she looked up imploringly into his calm, n.o.ble face, she met his earnest gaze, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with compa.s.sion and sympathy, and her lips and chin quivered.

"Trust your G.o.d, and have faith in me."

He went out to a.s.sist in removing his patient, and when they had carried the mattress and its occupant into the room opposite the parlor and laid it on the carpet near the window, he had the satisfaction of observing a favorable change in Elsie's condition.

While he stood by a table preparing some medicine, Robert stole up, and asked:

"Do you notice any improvement? She groaned twice on the road, and once I am sure she opened her eyes."

"Yes; I think that very soon she will be able to speak, for her pulse is gaining strength every hour."

"How did my mistress take it?"

"She was much shocked and grieved. Maclean, where are her friends and relatives?"

There was no reply, and, glancing over his shoulder to repeat the inquiry, Dr. Grey saw Mrs. Gerome leaning against the door.

"Robert, have you killed her?"

"Oh, no, ma'am! She is doing very well, the doctor says."

She crossed the room, and sat down on the edge of the mattress, taking one of the large brown hands in both of hers and bending her face over the pillow.

"Elsie! mother! Elsie, speak to your poor child!"

That wailing voice pierced the stupor, and Dr. Grey was surprised to see the woman's eyes unclose and rest wonderingly upon the countenance hovering over her.

"My dear Elsie, don't you know me?"

"Yes, my bairn. What ails you?"

She spoke indistinctly, and shut her eyes once more, as if exhausted.

"If she was in her coffin, I verily believe she would rise, if she heard your voice calling her," said Robert, wiping away the tears of joy that trickled across his sunburnt cheeks.

Dr. Grey stooped to put his finger on Elsie's pulse, and Mrs. Gerome threw herself down on the carpet, and buried her face in the pillow, where her silver hair mingled with the grizzled locks that straggled from beneath the old woman's torn lace cap.

CHAPTER XII.

"Well, Ulpian, are you convinced that 'Solitude' is an unlucky place, and that misfortune dogs the steps of all who make it a home? Once you laughed at my 'superst.i.tion.' What think you now, my wiseacre?"

"My opinion has not changed, except that each time I see the place I admire it more and more; and, were it for sale, I should certainly purchase it."

"Not with the expectation of living there?"

"Most a.s.suredly."

Miss Jane had suspended for a moment the swift clicking of her knitting-needles in order to hear her brother's reply, and now she rejoined, almost sharply,--

"You will do no such silly thing while there is breath left in my body to protest, or to persuade. Pooh! you only talk to tease me; for five grains of observation and common sense will teach you that there is a curse hanging over that old piratical nest."

"Dear Janet, when headstrong drivers persist in carrying a pair of fiery, vicious horses into the midst of a procession of wild beasts that would have scared even your sober dull Dapples out of their lazy jog-trot, it is not at all surprising that snapped harness, broken carriage, torn flesh, and strained joints should attest the folly of the experiment. The accident occurred not far from my office, which is haunted by nothing worse than your harmless sailor-boy."

"All very fine, my blue-eyed oracle, but I notice that the horses belonging to 'Solitude' were the only ones that made mischief and came to grief; and I promise you that all the hawsers in Gosport Navy-Yard will never drag me inside the doomed place. How is your patient? If you expect her to get well, you had better take a 'superst.i.tious' old woman's counsel, and send her away from that valley of Jehoshaphat."

"I am very sorry to tell you that she was more seriously hurt than I was at first inclined to believe. Her spine was so badly injured that although there is no danger of immediate death, she will never be able to sit up or walk again. She may linger many months, possibly years; but must, as long as life lasts, remain a bed-ridden cripple.

It is one of the saddest cases I have had to deal with during my professional career; and Elsie Maclean bears her sufferings with such n.o.ble fort.i.tude, such genuine Christian patience, coupled with stern Scotch heroism, that I cannot withhold my admiration and earnest sympathy. Yesterday I held a consultation with four physicians, and, when we told her the hopelessness of her condition, she received the announcement without even a sigh, and seemed only to dread that instead of an a.s.sistant she might prove a burden to her mistress."

"She appears to be a very important personage in the household."

"Yes; she is Mrs. Gerome's nurse, housekeeper, and counsellor,--and I have rarely seen such warm affection as exists between them. I wish, Janet, that you were strong enough to call at 'Solitude,' for its mistress leads a lonely, secluded life, and must require some society."