Within twenty-four hours Sir Charles was in a condition bordering on
coma. Arrangements were hurriedly made for a consultation of
physicians to be held the following day, it being Lady Clifford's wish
that no stone should be left unturned in the effort to save her
husband. However, everyone realised that the consultation would be a
mere formality: there was scarcely any possibility of stemming the
tide. Yet Thérèse's zeal was not without its effect on both her
sister-in-law and her stepson.
"No one can say she hasn't done her best for the poor old boy," Roger
confided in subdued tones to Esther. "He's had every chance. I
suppose there's no hope whatever?"
Reluctantly she shook her head.
"It would be wrong for me to tell you there was. You know what happens
at this stage of typhoid----" And she went on to describe the
condition now prevailing.
"It's the suddenness I can't get over," Roger said for the fourth time.
"Nor I."
In fact, she felt still dazed. Her eyes dwelt with compassion on
Roger's face until she saw him pass his hand heavily over his forehead
with a suggestion of pain. Then she spoke impulsively:
"Roger--do you mind? I'd like to take your temperature."
"Mine? What for?"
"Don't be cross, I really think I'd better."
"Oh, all right, go ahead."
A moment later, when she was in the act of counting his pulse and while
the thermometer was sticking out of his mouth, Lady Clifford entered,
followed by her sister-in-law, the latter looking tired and much older.
Both women looked on with interest and concern.
"Miss Rowe--you don't think----?"
"It is up a little," Esther admitted, holding the thermometer to the
light. "Just a hundred. I thought so last night. It isn't much, of
course."
"So did I. You see, Roger! You wouldn't believe me."
"Well, what if it is? It's nothing worth mentioning."
Miss Clifford glanced helplessly at the others, and Thérèse gave a
pathetic shrug. She looked fragile and wan, all life gone out of her.
"My dear," she said gently to Roger, going up to him and putting her
hand on his shoulder, "I had the same symptoms that you have--the same
that poor Charles had. This is a dreadful epidemic; no one is safe.
But look at me--I escaped it, I am perfectly well. Why? Because I
took the anti-toxin."
"Of course, Roger," his aunt urged eagerly. "You must let the doctor
see you at once; you mustn't waste a minute!"
"You think I ought to have typhoid anti-toxin, do you?"
Thérèse shrugged her shoulders again very slightly before replying, "I
think so, naturally. But I should leave it to the doctor. He'll
advise you."
Roger turned to Esther.
"What do you think about it, Miss Rowe?" he asked. "Would you have it
if you were I?"
"The anti-toxin? Oh--that is something you must decide."
Why on earth did she make such an inane reply? She saw Lady Clifford
smile a little and raise her eyebrows, as if amused by what she
considered a stupid conversation. The old lady merely looked troubled.
"Well," remarked Roger, rising, "you women may think what you like, but
there's one thing I never have been able to stand the thought of, and
that is having a needle stuck into me."
"My dear, that's simply childish," his aunt chid him mildly. "It's
only a tiny prick."
"Yes and it's just that tiny prick that is worse for me than going over
the top ever was. You'll think me no end of a fool, but I mean it."
He left the room to avoid argument. Miss Clifford turned to Esther for
sympathy.
"Miss Rowe, did you ever know anyone so stupid?"
"Yes, Miss Clifford. He's not the first man I've met who felt like
that."
"You don't mean it! What cowards men are! I wonder what we ought to
do? Of course I'll manage to persuade him."
"Of course you will," Lady Clifford assured her. "When such a small,
small thing can prevent a bad illness, one must try to find a way of
removing a silly prejudice."
"Oh, leave him to me, I'll talk him round."
"Only, don't let him wait too long--stupid boy! It might be too late
to do any good. Persuade him to let the doctor examine him now."
"I will. I'll go after him this minute. He mustn't be allowed to
trifle with his health in this way," and the elder woman left the room,
glad of the relief of action.
As Esther rose to go back into the bedroom. Lady Clifford inquired
wearily:
"Is there any change, nurse?"
"I'm afraid not, Lady Clifford. He's barely conscious, that's all."
The Frenchwoman sighed slightly as she turned away.
"It only there were something one could do," she murmured. "If one
didn't feel so helpless!"
The afternoon dragged by, the invalid drifting surely towards the other
world in spite of all the efforts made to anchor him to this one.
Esther stayed close beside the bed, even though there was little she
could do, mildly saddened because of sympathy for at least two members
of the old man's family who would mourn his loss. The "case," now so
nearly finished, appeared, as she reviewed it, quite an ordinary one,
all the tiny things that had struck her as odd or arresting seemed
trivial in retrospect, unworthy of the attention she had bestowed on
them. No doubt everything had grown out of the rather peculiar
personality of Sartorius from whom she would soon be
dissociated--without regret. She would certainly not continue to work
for him, even if he wanted her, and of course he would not want her.
No, if nothing prevented her, she would probably spend a few free weeks
in Cannes, then take passage back to America.
_If nothing prevented_: would Roger try to stop her going? Or had his
feeling for her not risen above the plane of mild flirtation? He had
said nothing, there was nothing for her to go on beyond the look in his
eyes. She was ashamed to confess to herself how much she hoped that he
really cared. Thank goodness she had not committed herself in any way;
that was one good thing.
That evening there was a dreadful feeling of low ebb about everything.
In addition to Sir Charles, who was steadily sinking, there was now
Roger to worry about. He had apparently allowed the doctor to examine
him, but continued to hold firm against the anti-toxin, out of sheer
obstinacy, it seemed. His aunt could not understand his stubbornness,
and began to be filled with anxiety, particularly as he had gone off to
bed with the headache unabated and a temperature still upon him.
"As if one didn't have enough to make one unhappy," the old lady sighed
to Esther. "Now if Roger is going to be ill, it will be too utterly
dreadful!"
Esther comforted her as well as she could, but she herself felt a load
of apprehension upon her. Of course Roger was a young, vigorous man,
there was no special reason to fear for him, and yet until two days ago
they had felt such confidence in Sir Charles's recovery. What if the
same sudden thing should happen again? It was perhaps stupid to
entertain such fancies, but she was shaken, unnerved.
Ten o'clock found her alone in the drawing-room, tired, but not ready
for bed, so restless she was unable to pin her attention to a book.
How could she occupy her mind for a little? She looked vaguely about,
and was about to pick up some cards for a game of patience when her eye
fell on a large portfolio of colour-prints, reproductions of the work
of modern Russian painters. The cover, reminiscent of the
Chauve-Souris, attracted her, she recalled having noticed it upstairs
in the boudoir several days ago. She had meant then to look at the
book, but it had disappeared and she had forgotten it till now. She
lifted it to her lap and opened it--or rather, to be exact, it fell
open, by reason of some obstruction wedged in the crutch. A pencil,
perhaps....
It was the hypodermic needle!
Dumbfounded, she stared at it. How on earth did it get there? Then
all at once the whole thing flashed on her. The book had lain open on
the table in the boudoir; she had put the needle down upon it when she
first began to minister to Roger. His aunt had cleared the table to
make room for the basin of water and bandages, closed the book hastily,
no doubt, and pushed it aside. Then at some time later one of the
servants had removed it, with others in the same pile, to this room.
She had not seen the book when she had searched for the needle, else
she would have recalled the whole thing, and this suggested that the
book had been taken away within the next half-hour or so. Of course!
How plain it all was now!
Well, there was nothing to do but to restore it to the doctor and
finish up that unfortunate episode. She would do so at once.... And
yet--why reopen the matter? She had taken her scolding, why should she
give him the satisfaction of... Stay! Was it possible, after all her
theorising, that what the doctor had been so disturbed about was this
actual needle itself? She had rejected that explanation as wholly
absurd, but now that she held the concrete object in her hand, she
began to wonder. Certainly he had made strong efforts to recover it,
had even joined in the search. For that matter--why, what about that
smell of tobacco in her room? What about her conviction that someone
had gone through her things? Suppose, incredible as it seemed, the
doctor had really been there while she was out of the house, turning
everything over in the hope of finding his lost property? Odd that she
had never thought of that possibility until now.
She turned the little instrument over, looking at it thoughtfully. If
what she had been thinking was really true, why was it that he wanted
this particular needle back? what was there about it? ... All at once
it came upon her like a thunderbolt that it was soon after the last
injection, only a few hours, that she had noticed the change in Sir
Charles. Iron and arsenic, that could have no bad effect--on the
contrary, it put strength into one. With an idea forming in her mind,
she furtively raised the needle to the light and examined it closely.
A trace of palish liquid remained. Was it the exact hue of the
familiar mixture? She could almost think it was slightly different in
colour, but it was impossible to be sure. Fixedly she regarded it,
recalling meantime the mottled red of the doctor's face, his
unreasoning fury. If he had been only a little less enraged!
There was a tightness in her chest. The suspicion, monstrous,
unthinkable, seemed likely to burst her head asunder. She heard within
her two voices arguing. The first said, "What utter nonsense! Such
things don't happen, at least, not to you, not in this atmosphere of
safety." The second retorted promptly, "Why should it be nonsense?
Such things do happen, why not to you?"
Chalmers entered softly, removed the coffee things and placed whisky
and soda, although there was no one to want it. His quiet step, the
ticking of the buhl clock, the very roses on the Aubusson carpet gave
her gross suspicions the lie. And yet...
Now, to think clearly, she mustn't let the thing run away with her.
What was it she had often heard? That the motive was everything. That
was it, one must look for a motive. In this instance, was there a
motive? _She knew there was_. Or at least it might be construed into
one. But, after all, was she sure even of this? The young man
Holliday had departed on his way to South America, Lady Clifford had
let him go. Didn't that rather knock the bottom out of this dreadful
idea? For a moment she felt contused, then came a revulsion. Of
course, the whole thing was perfectly ridiculous; how could she ever
have thought it for a moment? In this day and time, in this house!
She was filled with unutterable relief, ready to laugh hysterically at
her own mad notion.
A heavy step in the doorway, and she realised that the doctor was on
the point of entering. Now was the opportunity to give him back his
needle, get it over quickly. Her hand closed over it; the next instant
Sartorius came and stood just inside the room.
"The consultation, nurse, is arranged for three o'clock to-morrow
afternoon. I thought you might like to know."
"Yes, doctor. Thank you."
Why he should take the trouble to inform her she had no idea. It
wasn't exactly like him. Moreover, he continued to stand in the
doorway, looking at her, as if there were something on his mind. She
was screwing up her courage to tell him of her find when he spoke
again, as an afterthought, in a casual manner.
"By the way, I suppose you've never come across that needle you
mislaid?"
Now was the moment. She opened her lips to speak, then heard herself
saying quietly:
"No, doctor, isn't it odd? I can only think it must have got thrown
into the fire."