ON THE SUDDEN SOMETHING ILL.
"Dull days had hung like curtained mysteries,
And nights were weary with the starless skies.
At once came life, and fire, and joys untold,
And promises for violets to unfold;
And every breeze had shreds of melodies,
So faint and sweet."
J. F. HERBIN.
One midnight, three weeks later, when perfect silence and darkness
brooded over Sleeping Water, and the only lights burning were the stars
up aloft, and two lamps in two windows of the inn, Vesper opened his
eyes and looked about him.
He saw for some dreamy moments only a swimming curtain of black, with a
few familiar objects picked out against the gloom. He could distinguish
his trunk sailing to and fro, a remembered mirror before which he had
brushed his hair, a book in a well-known binding, and a lamp with a soft
yellow globe, that immediately took him to a certain restaurant in
Paris, and made him fancy that he was dining under the yellow lights in
its ceiling.
Where was he,--in what country had he been having this long, dreamless
sleep? And by dint of much brain racking, which bathed his whole body in
a profuse perspiration, he at length retraced his steps back into his
life, and decided that he was in the last place that he remembered
before he fell into this disembodied-spirit condition of mind,--his room
in the Sleeping Water Inn.
There was the open window, through which he had so often listened to the
soothing murmur of the sea; there were the easy chairs, the chest of
drawers, the little table, that, as he remembered it last, was not
covered with medicine-bottles. The child's cot was a wholly new object.
Had the landlady's little boy been sharing his quarters? What was his
name? Ah, yes, Narcisse,--and what had they called the sulky Acadien who
had hung about the house, and who now sat reading in a rocking-chair by
the table?
Agapit--that was it; but why was he here in his room? Some one had been
ill. "I am that person," suddenly drifted into his tortured mind. "I
have been very ill; perhaps I am going to die." But the thought caused
him no uneasiness, no regret; he was conscious only of an indescribably
acute and nervous torture as his weary eyes glued themselves to the
unconscious face of his watcher.
Agapit would soon lift his head, would stare at him, would utter some
exclamation; and, in mute, frantic expectation, Vesper waited for the
start and the exclamation. If they did come he felt that they would kill
him; if they did not, he felt that nothing less than a sudden and
immediate felling to the floor of his companion would satisfy the
demands of his insane and frantic agitation.
Fortunately Agapit soon turned his anxious face towards the bed. He did
not start, he did not exclaim: he had been too well drilled for that;
but a quick, quiet rapture fell upon him that was expressed only by the
trembling of his finger tips.
The young American had come out of the death-like unconsciousness of
past days and nights; he now had a chance to recover; but while a
thanksgiving to the mother of angels was trembling on his lips, his
patient surveyed him in an ecstasy of irritation and weakness that found
expression in hysterical laughter.
Agapit was alarmed. He had never heard Vesper laugh in health. He had
rarely smiled. Possibly he might be calmed by the offer of something to
eat, and, picking up a bowl of jelly, he approached the bed.
Vesper made a supreme effort, slightly moved his head from the
descending spoon, and uttered the worst expression that he could summon
from his limited vocabulary of abuse of former days.
Agapit drew back, and resignedly put the jelly on the table. "He
remembers the past," he reflected, with hanging head.
Vesper did not remember the past; he was conscious of no resentment. He
was possessed only of a wild desire to be rid of this man, whose
presence inflamed him to the verge of madness.
After sorrowfully surveying him, while retreating further and further
from his inarticulate expressions of rage, Agapit stepped into the hall.
In a few minutes he returned with Rose, who looked pale and weary, as if
she, too, were a watcher by a sick-bed. She glanced quickly at Vesper,
suppressed a smile when he made a face at Agapit, and signed to the
latter to leave the room.
Vesper became calm. Instead of sitting down beside him, or staring at
him, she had gone to the window, and stood with folded hands, looking
out into the night. After some time she went to the table, took up a
bottle, and, carefully examining it, poured a few drops into a spoon.
Vesper took the liquid from her, with no sense of irritation; then, as
she quickly turned away, he felt himself sinking down, down, through his
bed, through the floor, through the crust of the earth, into regions of
infinite space, from which he had come back to the world for a time.
The next time he waked up, Agapit was again with him. The former
pantomime would have been repeated if Agapit had not at once
precipitated himself from the room, and sent Rose to take his place.
This time she smiled at Vesper, and made an effort to retain his
attention, even going so far as to leave the room and reënter with a wan
effigy of Narcisse in her arms,--a pale and puny thing that stared
languidly at him, and attempted to kiss his hand.
Vesper tried to speak to the child, lost himself in the attempt, then
roused his slumbering fancy once more and breathed a question to Mrs.
Rose,--"My mother?"
"Your mother is well, and is here," murmured his landlady. "You shall
see her soon."
Vesper's periods of slumber after this were not of so long duration, and
one warm and delicious afternoon, when the sunlight was streaming in and
flooding his bed, he opened his eyes on a frail, happy figure fluttering
about the room. "Ah, mother," he said, calmly, "you are here."
She flew to the bed, she hovered over him, embraced him, turned away,
came back to him, and finally, rigidly clasping her hands to ensure
self-control, sat down beside him.
At first she would not talk, the doctor would not permit it; but after
some days her tongue was allowed to take its course freely and
uninterruptedly.
"My dear boy, what a horrible fright you gave me! Your letters came
every day for a week, then they stopped. I waited two days, thinking you
had gone to some other place, then I telegraphed. You were ill. You can
imagine how I hurried here, with Henry to take care of me. And what do
you think I found? Such a curious state of affairs. Do you know that
these Acadiens hated you at first?"
"Yes, I remember that."
"But when you fell ill, that young man, Agapit, installed himself as
your nurse. They spoke of getting a Sister of Charity, but had some
scruples, thinking you might not like it, as you are a Protestant. Mrs.
de Forêt closed her inn; she would receive no guests, lest they might
disturb you. She and her cousin nursed you. They got an English doctor
to drive twelve miles every day,--they thought you would prefer him to a
French one. Then her little boy fell ill; he said the young man Agapit
had hurt you. They thought he would die, for he had brain fever. He
called all the time for you, and when he had lucid intervals, they could
only convince him you were not dead by bringing him in, and putting him
in this cot. Really, it was a most deplorable state of affairs. But the
charming part is that they thought you were a pauper. When I arrived,
they were thunderstruck. They had not opened your trunk, which you left
locked, though they said they would have done so if I had not come, for
they feared you might die, and they wanted to get the addresses of your
friends, and every morning, my dear boy, for three days after you were
taken ill, you started up at nine o'clock, the time that queer, red
postman used to come,--and wrote a letter to me."
Mrs. Nimmo paused, hid her face in her hands, and burst into tears. "It
almost broke my heart when I heard it,--to think of you rousing yourself
every day from your semi-unconsciousness to write to your mother. I
cannot forgive myself for letting you go away without me."
"Why did they not write from here to you?" asked Vesper.
"They did not know I was your mother. I don't think they looked at the
address of the letters you had sent. They thought you were poor, and an
adventurer."
"Why did they not write to _The Evening News_?"
"My dear boy, they were doing everything possible for you, and they
would have written in time."
"You have, of course, told them that they shall suffer no loss by all
this?"
"Yes, yes; but they seem almost ashamed to take money from me. That
charming landlady says, 'If I were rich I would pay all, myself.'
Vesper, she is a wonderful woman."
"Is she?" he said, languidly.
"I never saw any one like her. My darling, how do you feel? Mayn't I
give you some wine? I feel as if I had got you back from the grave, I
can never be sufficiently thankful. The doctor says you may be carried
out-of-doors in a week, if you keep on improving, as you are sure to do.
The air here seems to suit you perfectly. You would never have been ill
if you had not been run down when you came. That young man Agapit is
making a stretcher to carry you. He is terribly ashamed of his dislike
for you, and he fairly worships you now."
"I suppose you went through my trunk," said Vesper, in faint, indulgent
tones.
"Well, yes," said Mrs. Nimmo, reluctantly. "I thought, perhaps, there
might be something to be attended to."
"And you read my great-grandfather's letter?"
"Yes,--I will tell you exactly what I did. I found the key the second
day I came, and I opened the trunk. When I discovered that old yellow
letter, I knew it was something important. I read it, and of course
recognized that you had come here in search of the Fiery Frenchman's
children. However, I did not think you would like me to tell these
Acadiens that, so I merely said, 'How you have misunderstood my son! He
came here to do good to some of your people. He is looking for the
descendants of a poor unhappy man. My son has money, and would help
you.'"
Vesper tried to keep back the little crease of amusement forming itself
about his wasted lips. He had rarely seen his mother so happy and so
excited. She prattled on, watching him sharply to see the effect of her
words, and hovering over him like a kind little mother-bird. In some way
she reminded him curiously enough of Emmanuel de la Rive.
"I simply told them how good you are, and how you hate to have a fuss
made over you. The young Acadien man actually writhed, and Mrs. de Forêt
cried like a baby. Then they said, 'Oh, why did he put the name of a
paper after his name?' 'How cruel in you to say that!' I replied to
them. 'He does that because it reminds him of his dead father, whom he
adored. My husband was editor and proprietor of the paper, and my son
owns a part of it.' You should have seen the young Acadien. He put his
head down on his arms, then he lifted it, and said, 'But does your son
not write?' 'Write!' I exclaimed, indignantly, 'he hates writing. To me,
his own mother, he only sends half a dozen lines. He never wrote a
newspaper article in his life.' They would have been utterly overcome if
I had not praised them for their disinterestedness in taking care of
you in spite of their prejudice against you. Vesper, they will do
anything for you now; and that exquisite child,--it is just like a
romance that he should have fallen ill because you did."
"Is he better?"
"Almost well. They often bring him in when you are asleep. I daresay it
would amuse you to have him sit on your bed for awhile."
Vesper was silent, and, after a time, his mother ran on: "This French
district is delightfully unique. I never was in such an out-of-the-world
place except in Europe. I feel as if I had been moved back into a former
century, when I see those women going about in their black
handkerchiefs. I sit at the window and watch them going by,--I should
never weary of them."
Vesper said nothing, but he reflected affectionately and acutely that in
a fortnight his appreciative but fickle mother would be longing for the
rustle of silks, the flutter of laces, and the hum of fashionable
conversation on a veranda, which was her idea of an enjoyable summer
existence.