Earlier on that day Dally sat in her bedroom watching from the window,
as she had often watched before when it was night.
Her little, rosy face was a study, and her dark eyes glistened like
those of an eager rat.
She had well calculated her time, and before long saw Leo come out, book
in hand, for her customary walk up and down the garden.
Dally wasted no time, but hurried to Mary's room to listen for a few
moments, and then steal into Leo's, where she peered in for a moment,
and then hurried out to return with a dustpan and brush and a duster.
These she placed upon chair and floor to cover her appearance should Leo
return; while, after a rummage in her pocket, she brought out a little
key.
Before using this she darted to the window, and waited till she could
see Leo going from the house, when, with rat-like action, she made for a
chest of drawers, upon which stood a desk, opened it with the speed of
one accustomed to the task, and lifting one side, thrust in her hand, to
draw out a packet of letters tied with a ribbon.
The top one bore a postmark only two days old, and this the girl drew
out, skimmed over as rapidly as her illiterate brain would allow, and as
she read her countenance changed again and again.
"Ah!" she ejaculated, at last. "You would, would you?" and taking up a
pencil from the tray, and a new envelope, she laboriously copied out
what seemed to be an address.
Then, with a smile of triumph, she hurriedly refolded the letter and
replaced it in the packet, thrust the newly addressed envelope in her
bosom, re-locked the desk, and had hardly destroyed all signs of her
action, when she heard a slight cough.
Dally ran more rat-like than ever to the place where the dustpan and
brush lay, plumped down on her knees, and began to work with her back to
the door, humming away in a low tone as busily as could be amongst the
dust she raised.
"Dally!" cried Leo, opening the door.
"Yes, miss."
"Oh, what a dreadful dust! You know I don't like this unnecessary
sweeping going on."
"But it wanted doing so badly, miss, and you were gone out in the
garden."
"Yes, yes; but leave off, that's a good girl, now. I want to sit down
and read."
"Yes, miss," said Dally, hurriedly using the duster.
"Do you know where my brother has gone?"
"No, miss; don't you?"
"No," said Leo wearily.
"Oh, yes, I do, miss; he went to the Manor House, and then he come back
to Miss Mary, and I think now he's gone to King's Hampton."
"Oh," said Leo wearily. "That will do; and don't come to tidy up my
room again without asking leave."
"No, miss," said Dally, retreating and going back to her own room, where
she threw her housemaid's utensils on the bed, and took out and read the
address on the envelope, "Telacot's Hotel, Craven Street, Strand."
"Don't you be afraid, miss," she muttered, "I won't tidy up your room
again. Oh, what treachery there is in this world! But wait, my dear,
and you shall see!"
She replaced the envelope, and stood thinking for a few moments before
coming to a decision, and then--
"I haven't been there dozens of time for gran'fa for nothing," she said,
half aloud. "I know, and I will.
"But suppose--
"He wouldn't," she said, after a pause. "They say he never comes out of
his room except at night--I will."
Five minutes after she was going down the garden ostensibly to pick that
bunch of parsley, and to obtain it she went to the very bottom of the
kitchen garden, and thence into the meadows, through which she almost
ran till she reached the bottom of the Manor House grounds, and then,
knowing the place as she had from childhood, she easily made her way,
unseen, to the surgery, to be found by North.
Dally returned triumphantly, but she did not take the brandy to her
grandfather, but deposited it in her box in the bedroom before going
about her work as calmly as if she had nothing more important in her
mind than dusters and brooms, and the keeping tidy of the portions of
the Rectory within her province.
But nothing missed her piercing little eyes, which seemed to glitter as
the various matters occurred, and in the intervals she packed a few
necessaries in a large reticule bag, which she hung over the iron knob
of her bedstead in company with her jacket and hat.
No servant could have been more attentive, or apparently
innocent-looking as she stared at Joe Chegg, who, after helping Salis to
bear North into the drawing-room, was relegated to the kitchen to be
refreshed.
Joe stared hard at her with an indignant frown, as he slowly ground up
masses of bread and cheese, and washed them down with copious draughts
of ale.
But Joe's frowns had no effect upon Dally, and her aspect was simplicity
itself, as, after a time, he took to shaking his head at her solemnly,
following up each shake of the head with a sigh, and then apparently
easing his sufferings by an angry bite at the bread.
Each time Joe looked and frowned, Dally replied with a simple, innocent
maiden's round-eyed, wondering gaze, which seemed to ask why he did not
speak and say what he had to say.
But Joe Chegg said nothing, only ate, and frowned, and shook his head
till he had done; and after a time Dally, having nothing else to do,
thrust a little plump hand right down a black stocking till her knuckles
represented the heel which had been peering through a large hole, and
then and there she began to make worsted trellis-work which looked to
Joe Chegg very similar to what he had often done in wood.
The drawing-room bell rang, but before Dally could answer it, Salis
appeared at the door.
"Don't go away, Chegg, my lad," he said. "I don't know what visitors
may come, and I should like you to hang about the place and watch."
"Well, you see, sir," said Joe sturdily, "there's a man's time."
"Oh, yes," said Salis, smiling; "you shall be paid double time."
"For how long, sir?"
"Wait and see; and keep a good lookout about the premises."
He said these words as he was leaving the kitchen door, and met Leo in
the hall, directly after, with her handsome eyes looking at him
inquiringly.
It was observable, too, in the kitchen that Dally's countenance looked a
little more intent and she bent a little more over her stocking, and
began to hum as she darned, while Joe Chegg took up the ale mug, and,
after looking into it meditatively, began to work the table-spoonful
left at the bottom round and round as if he were preparing an experiment
whose aim was to keep one little blot of froth right in the centre like
a tiny island of foam in a small sea of beer.
"Yes; I'll watch," he said to the mug; "and it won't be the first time.
It arn't much goes on as I don't see."
Dally hummed and ceased to look catlike in her quiescence, for her
aspect was kittenish now, and her hum deepened every now and then into a
purr.
"Strange things goes on in this here village," continued Joe, gazing
into the mug; "and I sees a deal of what young ladies and persons does."
Daily's purr would now have done credit to a Persian puss: it was so
soft and pleasant and round.
"But of all the things as ever I've see o' young ladies, I never see
aught as ekalled the way as Miss Mary's got strong and well."
Dally hummed now, and her tones were those of a musical bee, while the
trellis-work in the stocking grew and grew.
"Well," said Joe, after getting the drop of froth to stand very high out
of its beery-whirlpool, "I'm a-goin' to play policeman now."
He tossed the remainder of the beer into his throat, and set down the
mug.
"There arn't many jobs as comes amiss to me."
He rose and walked out of the kitchen, and as Dally saw him from the
window on his way round to the front, she gave her stocking-covered fist
a dab down on the table and uttered an angry "_Ugh_!"
Joe Chegg was not playing policeman long before he ran to the front door
and knocked.
"Mist--Salis, sir! Mist--Salis. Here's one on 'em."
Salis was with North, and did not hear, so that when a keen old
gentleman with white hair alighted from a fly, it was to find the door
barred by the sturdy young workman.
"Is Dr North here?"
"What do you want with Dr North?" cried Joe surlily.
"I am a medical man, my lad," said the old gentleman, smiling. "I have
come down from London to see him."
"Yes, I thought you had," said Joe; "and you can't see him, so you may
just go back, as the t'others have done before. Eh? Oh, I beg pardon,
sir. I thought it was the wrong sort."
For Salis, hearing the altercation, had hurried out, and a brief
explanation had set all straight.
"Poor fellow, poor fellow!" said the doctor, after following Salis into
his room and hearing an explanation of the case. "Overwrought, I
suppose. Well, let's see him."
They went to the darkened drawing-room to pause at the door, the doctor
making a sign to Salis to stay while he watched the patient, who was
ignorant of his presence.
North was lying back on the sofa with his eyes nearly closed, and Mary
seated near, holding his hand, and bent towards him as if listening to
his breathing.
Suddenly he started--crying out wildly as his eyes opened with a dilated
stare; but as he tried to rise, Mary's soft white hand was laid upon his
forehead, and he sank back with a sigh of restfulness; his eyes closed
again, and he lay breathing calmly.
Salis looked at Mr Delton, but the old man did not stir. Here was the
case developing itself before him, and he could not study it better than
unobserved.
Salis was about to re-enter the room, when Dally came and summoned him
by pulling his sleeve.
"What is it?" he said sharply, as he turned.
"Mrs Milt, to see you, sir."
Salis hesitated.
"I will wait till you return," whispered the old doctor. "I am well
employed."
Salis hurried to where the old housekeeper was waiting.
"I've just heard that master is here, sir," cried the old woman
excitedly. "Oh, I am thankful! I found these papers in the study, sir;
they were in an envelope directed to me, sir, and this one for the
doctor master knows in London."
Salis uttered a cry of joy.
"Mr Delton is with your master," he said.
Mrs Milt sighed.
"Let me go to him, sir, please."
Salis signed to her to follow, and led the way to where North lay now as
if asleep, with Mary's hand held to his brow.
The old housekeeper stood for a few moments watching, and then drew
back.
"No, sir," she said; "I won't disturb him. I haven't seen him look like
that for weeks."
"And I will not disturb him," said the old doctor. "Rest like that must
be good."
He followed Salis into the dining-room, where he sat down to read the
communication North had written, and after studying it carefully for
some time, he looked up to find the curate's eyes fixed upon him
intently.
"Well?"
"Well, Mr Salis, I think I can say a comforting word or two. By the
way, I thought I would come on straight to you instead of calling first
at the Manor House, and it is as well I did."
"But the letter, sir--the letter from my poor friend?"
"Ah, yes, the letter," said the old doctor dreamily. "I have read and
studied it well."
"And you think?"
"A great deal, my dear sir--a great deal; but I have not finished yet.
A clear case of overtaxed brain. I should say that he had worked
himself into a state of exhaustion, and then some shock must have
occurred to destroy the tottering balance. Not a money trouble, for I
think Mr North is well off. Not a love trouble, for judging from what
I saw--"
"You are mistaken in that, sir," said Salis. "My poor friend suffered a
grievous shock a short time since."
"Ah! just as I expected. That is quite sufficient to account for it
all."
"But the future, sir? For goodness' sake, speak! Your reticence
tortures me."
"I beg your pardon. I am thoughtful and slow, Mr Salis. Let me try
and set you at rest. As far as I can judge without further study of the
case, I should say that you need be under very little uneasiness."
"You do not consider his case necessitates his being placed in a private
asylum?"
"I should say the people who placed him in one deserved to be hanged.
Well, no," he added, smiling; "not so bad as that, but to be placed in a
private asylum themselves."
"Thank God!" said Salis fervently, and the tears stood in his eyes as he
grasped the old doctor's hands.
The evening was growing old as Mr Delton sat facing Salis in his study,
nursing his knee, and calmly watching the curate smoking his one per
diem cigar.
"No," said the old man, smiling; "I rarely smoke now; but North was
right; it is good for you. I don't mind a bit. Pray go on."
So Salis smoked and sat talking with the tea-things on the table.
Leo had begged to be excused. The excitement had upset her, she said,
and she was in her room, where Dally had taken her up some tea, and
paused for some moments on the landing, in the dark, to set the saucer
down upon the large window sill, and as she bent over the tray a faint
gurgling sound was heard, and click as of glass against glass.
The doctor had been in twice to see North, who was sleeping heavily,
with Mary and the old housekeeper seated by him, the lamp being shaded
and placed where the light could not trouble the patient; and, after a
stormy day, all seemed to have settled down to calm repose.
"My dear sir," said the doctor, "it is not the first time that Nature
has performed a miracle of this kind. Your sister's nervous excitement
did what we doctors were unable to perform--triumphed over the inert
muscles. They obeyed; the latent force was set in action, and she rose
from her couch to go to her poor friend's help--in time to save him from
a very terrible fate, whether that fate was the private asylum, or that
which he had evidently in mind. Poor fellow! I wish I had seen him
sooner. No; it is better as it is, and he will say so when we have him
once more himself."
"Then you really do feel hopeful?"
"My dear Mr Salis," said the old man, "if I am not wrong in my ideas,
that sweet-faced lady in the next room will slowly and patiently repay
our poor friend for unknowingly restoring her to a life of activity.
She will bring him back to calm reason."
"You think this?" said Salis hoarsely.
"Indeed I do. His long and lucid statement to me shows that in every
point but one he was as sane as you or I. He had one little crotchet,
due to the overstrain, and that will, I feel sure, with a little help,
soon disappear. Mr Salis, take my word for it, you may be perfectly at
rest."
"Good heavens!" cried Salis, springing to his feet, for at that moment a
wild shriek resounded through the house, followed by a heavy fall in the
room above.
Volume 3, Chapter XXII.