THE END.
Next day Mabel was no better. Minnie called two or three times during
the day, but she was unconscious each time, and remained so all that
night, and most of the next day. But towards evening she revived
slightly and her consciousness returned.
Minnie was not with her at the time, but as soon as she became
acquainted with the fact she hastened to her friend's side. She was
allowed to see her only for a few moments, and during that time they
were not permitted to exchange more than half-a-dozen words.
On the same evening, immediately after her short interview with her
friend, Mr. Kimberly called Minnie into his study, saying he wished to
have a little conversation with her.
Having first inquired for her friend, and expressed his pleasure on
hearing of her improvement, opened the subject on his mind by inquiring
how long she had known Miss Cameron.
Minnie was somewhat astonished by the question, and especially by the
abruptness of her father's manner of putting it, but she gave a clear
and concise account of her friendship with Mona, and of her previous
acquaintance with her in Miss Marsden's school.
"Then you have only been friends for a very short time," was his comment
when she had finished.
"Only for a few weeks, papa," she replied.
"And has she never mentioned to you since the date of your friendship
her former acquaintance with your brother Charlie?"
"No, she has not, but I am aware of it notwithstanding," confessed she,
wondering more than ever.
"Well, it seems they became acquainted in London at the house of my
friend Mrs. Cameron--Mr. Cameron's sister it turns out, although I was
not aware of the circumstance until to-day."
Here Mr. Kimberly paused, looked at Minnie with an amused expression for
a minute or two, and then went on--
"You look rather bewildered, and now I come to think of it, I dare say
it is rather a bewildering thing to be treated like an old woman of
fifty. I need scarcely have told you of this so soon--especially as you
will hear of it soon enough from lips fitter to speak of it than mine,
but one always feels the need of a confidante, however old he may be and
young she may be."
"And I shall be prouder of nothing than of being yours," she returned,
stroking his grey hair lovingly.
"Not even of the Presidentship of the Hollowmell Mission?" enquired he
incredulously.
"O, Mabel is that," she replied, her face clouding again as the thought
flashed across her mind that perhaps Mabel would be that no more.
"Well, the position of arbitrator between discontented miners and their
employers," he suggested, anxious to divert her thoughts from the gloomy
subject he had unwittingly touched on.
"Not even of that," she declared, brightening a little. "Besides, all
the girls have a share in that--but to our confidences again. What of
Charlie and Mona?"
"I suppose you couldn't guess?"
"I am sure I couldn't," she asserted. Then added laughingly, "unless
they've fallen in love with each other--by-the-way," she continued,
growing suddenly serious again; "that isn't as altogether an improbable
think as it looks--I remember coming to the conclusion that Charlie had
fallen in love with her writing, and thinking that it was almost
equivalent to falling in love with herself."
"Well, that is just what has happened to them--though I rather think it
happened before the creation of your ingenious theory. It appears they
had some misunderstanding, or quarrel or something of that nature,
before Miss Cameron left London, and they had never met again till he
saw her along with you decorating the hall down there."
"And they've made it up!" exclaimed Minnie, clapping her hands in her
delight.
"Yes, it is settled--the girl's only nineteen, and in my opinion too
young. But her father doesn't seem to think so."
"O, that's what he was here for then," remarked Minnie, "I met him as I
was going up to Mabel's."
"Yes," replied her father, smiling. "He seems to have fully made up his
mind on one point."
"What point?"
"That there is nothing and nobody worth considering in comparison with
his daughter, and in that conviction his wife and he seem to be
completely at one."
Minnie laughed.
"I know somebody who is pretty nearly as decided in his opinions on a
similar subject," she hinted.
"Come, now, not quite," protested he.
"Well, he's a great deal older than Mr. Cameron, and consequently ought
to have a great deal more sense."
"And his daughter snubs him too much--I wonder if Miss Mona has as sharp
a tongue?"
"I would advise you not to rouse it," was Minnie's reply, as she flitted
away.
Next day the mid-summer holidays commenced, much to Minnie's joy, for
now she could sit by her friend many hours during the day, cheering her
in her intervals of consciousness, and watching and soothing her at
other times--thereby not only greatly aiding her slow recovery, but also
rendering her aunt inestimable service in her present harassing
position.
Mabel's great danger did not lie so much in the ruptured blood-vessel,
as in a sharp attack of brain fever, which had followed upon her late
excitement, and the slackening of the strain she had borne so long.
She was yet very far from being out of danger, but there was scarcely so
much need for apprehension, and even such a slight crumb of comfort was
eagerly caught at.
Minnie was sitting beside Mabel's bed on the third day of the holidays,
when she heard a step outside the door. The handle was turned
noiselessly, and Mona came in on tip-toes, fearful of creating the least
sound.
"Miss Chartres didn't tell me you were here," she said, her voice
trembling. "How is she?"
"I think the fever isn't quite so bad--she hasn't been wandering so much
this afternoon."
Mabel had lain almost motionless all this time, but now her pale lips
began to move, although for some moments no sound issued from them. Then
she began to speak in a voice so thin and weak that Mona could hardly
recognize it.
For some time they could make nothing of her words, and only tried to
soothe her, but after a while it became clear to them that she was
repeating something which sounded like poetry. Still they could make
nothing out of it, for sometimes several words would be lost from a
line, and occasionally a whole line would be repeated by those pale lips
without a sound.
At length Minnie caught a whole line. What the words were which went
before she could not tell, but the words she caught came clear and
distinct:
"It went up Single, Echoless,--'My God I am deserted.'"
The words "Single, Echoless" were uttered with a strange sort of
triumphant emphasis which struck both the girls, and then the feeble
voice went on more brokenly even than before with a few lines more, and
then suddenly ceased.
Minnie repeated the line over.
"I wonder what it is from," she said. "I am sure I have read it often,
but I cannot remember where."
"I can't tell just at this minute either," remarked Mona, "I know it
perfectly well though. If we could only get hold of it, reading it to
her might do her any amount of good."
"That is just what I was thinking about," returned Minnie, "I wish we
could find it."
"I've got it!" exclaimed Mona, at last, with a suppressed shriek of
triumph. "It's in Mrs. Browning."
* * * * *
He looked very grave indeed on this occasion which was his third visit
that day. A crisis, he said, would probably take place that night; he
promised to come again before the time he expected it would occur; but
held but very little hope as to its ultimate issue.
When he arrived, Mabel was in a state of high delirium, and raved in a
way which made Minnie pale with terror. After about half-an-hour of
wild, disconnected raving, she became a little quieter, and at last
settled down to the old habit of repeating verses--verses which Minnie
now recognised as belonging to Mrs. Browning's poem on Cowper's Grave.
She drew the doctor out into an adjoining room and explained to him the
idea which had occurred to her in connection with Mabel's constant
repetition of this poem, asking if he did not think it might have some
good effect.
"Well," he said, "I must tell you plainly that I am afraid it cannot
have any good effect, but at any rate it cannot have any bad effect, and
she is only wearing herself out more quickly as it is."--"Yes," he
continued more kindly, noticing for the first time how young she was,
and how terribly in earnest, "read it to her by all means. It will do
_you_ good, and it cannot do her harm."
She thanked him with tears in her eyes, and they both went back into the
sick-chamber together.
She had brought the book with her, so, turning at once to the place, she
began to read in a low, soft tone, with slow and measured accents,
well-suited to the subject and the measure as well as the purpose she
had in view.
At first it produced no visible effect, but she gradually became quieter
as Minnie proceeded and the hopes of the watchers rose. She did not
attempt to follow it at all till the line Minnie had caught so
distinctly was reached, and then she repeated it after her in the same
tone as before, and with the same triumphant emphasis on the words,
"Single, Echoless."
Then she went on with the lines following along with Minnie, her voice
growing gradually weaker and weaker as she proceeded:--
"It went up from the holy lips amid His lost creation
That of the lost no one should use those words of desolation--
That earth worst frenzies, marring hope, might mar not hope's fruition."
Here her voice died away, and she lay back with a long sigh of content.
"She's conscious!" exclaimed Minnie in a whisper as she closed the book,
"and the fever's gone. You said she would be safe--" and she stood with
bated breath while the doctor bent over her.
"Yes, the fever is gone," replied the doctor, "and she is safe--for
ever."
* * * * *
For some time Minnie could not bear to go near Hollowmell, so strongly
did its associations with her lost friend move her. Her father took her
away altogether for a while, and when she returned, though her grief was
in no way lessened, it was so much softened that she could resume her
work with a holier and tenderer interest in it, since it had been shared
by one who was now an angel of light.
There was also much sorrow felt among the inhabitants of Hollowmell, for
Mabel had made for herself many friends there, and her quiet goodness
made more impression than much of the activity which characterised the
greater number of the young ladies.
No one had thought very much about what Mabel was doing; the girls had
shown deference to her mainly because Minnie did so; and so none knew
how much good she had accomplished until it was too late to give her
credit for it. Many of them, too, were astonished to find what a hold
she had upon their hearts until death loosened it, and left in its stead
a cord of love wherewith to draw them nearer Heaven.