"I AM NOT ILL."
Hartley Salis did not tell the doctor the whole of his trouble, neither
did he say a word to Mary upon the subject; but she divined the cause of
his auger as she lay helpless there, and sighed as she wished that she
could set matters right.
For Tom Candlish had ridden home with Leo, and parted at the gate.
"I might have known that they would meet," said Salis, as he sat
thinking; "but I never imagined that he would have the assumption to
come again to the house."
But Tom Candlish had helped Leo when she was in great peril of being
drowned; and as the curate learned this he felt his impotence, and was
coldly courteous, while, on his side, Tom Candlish was defiant, almost
to the point of insolence; and his manner to Leo seemed intimate enough
to startle Salis, and make him wonder whether they had met since the
scene at the river-side.
Hartley Salis soon had something to divert his attention from this
point, for the next day Leo was not very well. She was tired, she said.
It had been a very long run, but delightful all the same; and she
allowed now that perhaps it would have been better if she had listened
to the doctor's advice.
"I shall be quite well to-morrow," she cried. "Why, Hartley, how
serious you look!"
"Do I?" he said, smiling, for he had been communing with himself as to
whether he should ask Leo plainly if she had kept her word.
"Do you? Yes!" she cried angrily; and, without apparent cause, she
flashed out into quite a fit of passion. "I declare it is miserable now
to be at home. It is like living between two spies."
"My dear Leo!" began Salis.
"I don't care: it is. Mary here watches me as a cat does a mouse. You
always follow me about whenever I stir from home; and then you two
compare notes, and plot and plan together how to make my life a burden."
"Leo, dear," said Mary gently, "you are irritable and unwell, or you
would not speak like this."
"I would. I am driven to it by my miserable life at home. I am treated
like a prisoner."
"Leo, my child," began Salis.
"Yes, that's it--child! You treat me as if I were a child, and I will
not bear it. Anything more cruel it is impossible to conceive."
"Nonsense, dear," said Salis, smiling gravely, as he took his sister's
hand.
She snatched it away; not so quickly, though, but that he had time to
feel that it was burning hot, as her scarlet cheeks seemed to be, while
her eyes were unusually brilliant.
It was no time to question or reproach, and the curate set himself to
soothe.
"Why, Leo, my dear," he said, smiling. "I shall begin to think you are
cross."
"If you mean indignant," she retorted, "I am. My very soul seems to
revolt against the wretched system of espionage you two have established
against me."
"No, no, Leo, dear!" said Mary. "How can you say such things of
Hartley, whose every thought is for your good?"
"Good--good--good!" cried Leo; "I'm sick of the very word! Be good! Be
a good girl! Oh! it's sickening!"
Salis made a sign to Mary to be silent, but Leo detected it.
"There!" she cried, with her eyes flashing. "What did I say? You two
are always plotting against me. Ah!"
She shivered as from a sudden chill, and drew her chair closer to the
fire.
"Do you feel unwell, dear?" said Salis anxiously.
"No, _no_, no! I have told you both a dozen times over that I am quite
well. It is a cold morning, and I shivered a little. Is there anything
extraordinary in that?"
"I only felt anxious about you, dear."
"Then, pray don't feel anxious, but let me be in peace."
She caught up a book, and tried to read; while, to avoid irritating her,
Salis and Mary resumed their tasks--the one writing, the other busy over
her needle; and to both it seemed as if they were performing penance, so
intense was the desire to keep on glancing at Leo, while they felt the
necessity for avoiding all appearance of noticing her.
She held her book before her, and appeared to be reading, but she did
not follow a line; for the letters were blurred, and a curious, dull,
aching sensation racked her from head to foot, rising, as it were, in
waves which swept through her brain, and made it throb.
This, with its accompanying giddiness, passed off, and with obstinate
determination she kept her place, and the pretence of reading was
carried on till towards evening.
They had dined--a weary, comfortless meal--at which Leo had taken her
place, and made an attempt to eat; but it was evident to the others that
the food disgusted her, and almost everything was sent untasted away.
The irritability seemed to have died out, but every attempt to draw her
into conversation failed; and after a time the meal progressed in
silence, till they drew round the fire at the end to resume their tasks,
almost without a word.
Salis was busy over a formal report of the state of the parish for the
rector. Mary was hard at work stitching, to help a poor widow who
gained a precarious living by needlework, and Leo still had her book
before her eyes.
Mary's were aching, and she was about to ring for the lamp, for the
short December afternoon was closing in, and Salis was in the act of
wiping his pen, when Leo suddenly let fall her book, to sit up rigidly,
staring wildly at them.
"Leo, my child!"
"Well, what is it?" she said; and her voice sounded harsh and strange.
"Why did you say that? You knew I should say yes."
"Yes, yes, of course, my dear; but I did not speak."
"You did. You said I lied unto you, quite aloud, and"--with a return of
her irritable way--"are we never going to have dinner?"
Salis rose from the table where he had been writing, and laid his hand
upon his sister's arm.
"Leo, dear," he said anxiously; and he gazed in her wild eyes, which
softened and looked lovingly in his.
"No," she said, as she nestled to him and laid her cheek upon his arm;
"a bit of a wrench. My shoulder aches, but it will soon be well, dear."
"Lie back in your chair," said Salis, as he laid his hand upon her
throbbing brow.
"Yes, that's nice," she said, smiling as she obeyed. "So cool and
refreshing--so cool."
"Do you feel drowsy? Would you like to have a nap?"
"Yes, if you wish it," she said. "I am sleepy. Don't tell them at
home, dear."
Salis started, and his face grew convulsed, as he exchanged glances with
Mary, who read his wish, wrote a few lines in pencil, and softly rang
the bell.
"Take that at once," she whispered to Dally Watlock, who entered,
round-eyed and staring.
"To Mr Tom Candlish, miss?"
"No, no, girl; to Mr North."
Mary drew her breath hard as the door closed behind the girl, for she
read in her words a tale of deceit and also who had been the messenger,
perhaps, in many a love missive sent on either side.
She tried to rise, feeling that this was a time of urgent need; but her
eyes became suffused with tears as she sank back helpless in her seat.
"Take my arm, Leo, dear," said Salis. "You would be better if you went
up to your room and lay down."
"Yes, dear; if you wish it," she said softly; and she started up, but
caught at her brother, and clung to him as if she had been seized by a
sudden vertigo, and then stared wildly round.
Salis gave Mary a nod, and then, drawing Leo's arm through his, led her
up to the door of her room, which she entered while he ran quickly down.
"Quite delirious," he said quickly. "I hope North will not be long. I
thought he would have been here this morning."
He was busy as he spoke preparing for a task which he had performed
twice daily since Mary's convalescence. For, taking her in his arms as
easily as if she had been a child, he bore her out of the room and up to
Leo's door.
As Mary, trembling with anxiety, pressed it open, Leo uttered an angry
cry, dashed forward, and thrust the door back in her face.
"No, no!" she said hoarsely; "not you. Let me be. Let me rest in
peace."
"But Leo, dear, you are ill."
"I am not ill," she cried fiercely. "Go away!"
"Don't irritate her," whispered Salis gently. "Leo, dear, Mary will be
in her own room. Lie down now."
The phase of gentleness had passed, and Leo turned upon him almost
savagely, in her furious contempt.
"Lie down! Lie down! as if I were a dog! Oh! there must be an end to
this. There must be an end to this."
She had partly opened the door so as to speak to her brother, but now
she closed it loudly, and they heard her walking excitedly to and fro.