SCARLET FEVER
There was a meeting of one of the many charitable societies to which
Bertha had made Lord Northmoor give his name, and she persuaded him to
stay on another day for it, though he came down in the morning with a
sore throat and heavy eyes, and, contrary to his usual habits, lay about
in an easy-chair, and dozed over the newspaper all the morning.
When he found himself unable to eat at luncheon, she allowed that he was
not fit for the meeting, but demurred when he declared that he should go
home at once that afternoon to let Mary nurse his cold. The instinct of
getting back to wife and home were too strong for Bertha to contend with,
and he started, telegraphing to Northmoor to be met at the station.
Perhaps there were delays, as in his oppressed and dazed state he had
mistaken the trains, for he did not arrive at home till nine o'clock
instead of seven, and then he looked so ill as he stumbled into the hall,
dazzled by the lights, that Mary looked at him in much alarm.
'Yes,' he said hoarsely, 'I have a bad cold and sore throat, and I
thought I had better come home at once.'
'Indeed you had! If only you have not made it worse by the journey!'
Which apparently he had done, for he could scarcely swallow the warm
drinks brought to him, and had such a night, that when steps were heard
in the house, he said--
'Mary, dear, don't let Mite come in. I am afraid it is too late to keep
you away, but if I had felt like this yesterday, I would have gone
straight to the fever hospital.'
'Oh no, no, what should you do but come home to me? Was it that horrible
place at Rotherhithe?'
'Perhaps. It is just a fortnight since, and I felt a strange shudder and
chill as I was talking. But it may be nothing; only keep Mite away till
I have seen Trotman. My Mary, don't look like that! It may be nothing,
and we have been very happy--thank God.'
Poor Mary, in a choking state, hurried away to send for the doctor, and
to despatch orders to Nurse Eden to confine Master Michael to the nursery
and garden for the present, her sinking and foreboding heart forbidding
her to approach the child herself.
The verdict of the doctor confirmed these alarms, for all the symptoms of
scarlet fever had by that time manifested themselves. Mary had gone
through the disease long before, and had nursed through more than one
outbreak at Miss Lang's, so her husband might take the comfort of knowing
that there was little anxiety on her account, though the doctor,
evidently expecting a severe attack, insisted on sending in a trained
nurse to assist her.
As the little boy had fortunately been in bed and asleep long before his
father came home, there was as yet no danger of infection for him, though
he must be sent out of the house at once.
Lady Adela was not at home, and Mary would have doubted about sending him
to the Cottage, even if she had been there; so she quickly made up her
mind that Eden and the young nursery-maid should take him at once to
Westhaven, to be either in the hotel or at Northmoor Cottage, according
as his aunt should decide.
How little she had thought, when she heard him say his prayers, and
exchanged kisses with him at the side of his little bed, that it was the
last time for many a long day; and that her hungry spirit would have to
feed itself on that last smile and kiss of the fat hand, as she looked
out of her husband's window as the carriage drove away.
Lady Adela knew too well what it was to be desolate not to come home so
as to be at hand, though she left her little daughter at her uncle's.
Bertha came on the following day.
'I feel as if it were all my doing,' she said. 'I could not bear it, if
it does not go well with him, after being the saving of poor little Cea.'
'There is nothing to reproach yourself with,' said sober-minded Lady
Adela. 'Neither you nor he could guess that he was running into
infection.'
'No,' said Bertha; 'of course, one never thinks of such things with
grown-up people, especially one whom one has always thought of as a
stick, and to whom perhaps ascribed some of its toughness,' she added,
smiling; 'but he did come home looking very white and worn-out, and
complained of horrible smells. No, dear man, he was far too punctilious
to use the word, he only said that he should like to send the Sanitary
Commission down the alley. I ought to have dosed him with brandy on the
spot, for of course he was too polite to ask for it, so I only gave him a
cup of _tea_,' said Bertha, with an infinite tone of scorn in the name of
the beverage.
'Will it be any comfort to tell you that most likely it would have been
too late even if he would have accepted it? Come, Bertha, how often are
we told that we are not to think so much of consequences as of actions,
and there was nothing blameworthy in the whole business.'
'Except that I was such a donkey as not to have begun by asking for the
man's proofs, but I was so much afraid that he would pounce on the child
that I only thought of buying him off from time to time. I did not know
I was so weak. Well, at any rate, with little Mite to the fore, the
place will be left in good hands. I like Herbert on the whole, but to
have that woman reigning as Madame Mere would be awful.'
'Nay, I trust we are not coming to that! Trotman says it is a thoroughly
severe attack, but not abnormally malignant, as he calls it. It is a
matter of nursing, he tells me, and that he has of the best--a matter of
nursing and of prayer, and that,' added Adela, her eyes filling with
tears, 'I am sure he has.'
'And yet--and yet,' Bertha broke off.
'Ah, you are thinking how we prayed before! And yet, Birdie, after these
six years of seeing his rule and recognising what mine would have been, I
see it was for the best that my own little Michael was taken to his happy
home.'
'You'll call it for the best now,' said Bertha grimly.
'If it be so, it will prove itself; but I really do not see any special
cause for extra fear.'
Lady Adela and Bertha both thought themselves as far safe as any one can
be with scarlet fever, and would gladly have taken a share in the
nursing. Bertha, however, had far too much of the whirlwind in her to be
desirable in a sick house, and on the principle that needless risk was
wrong, was never admitted within the house doors, but Lady Adela insisted
on seeing Mary every day, and was assured that she should be a welcome
assistant in case of need; but at present there was no necessity of
calling in other help, the form of fever being lethargic with much
torpidity, but no violence of delirium, and requiring no more watching
than the wife and nurse could give.
Frank never failed to know his Mary, and to respond when she addressed
him; but she was told never to attempt more than rousing him when it was
needful to make him take food. He had long ago, with the precaution of
his legal training, made every needful arrangement for her and for his
son; and even on the first day, he had not seemed to trouble himself on
these points, being too heavy and oppressed for the power of looking
forward. So the days rolled on in one continual watch on Mary's part,
during which she seemed only to live in the present, and, secure that her
boy was safe, would not risk direct communication with him or with his
nurse.
Lady Adela had undertaken to keep Constance, the person who really loved
her uncle best, daily informed, and she also wrote at intervals to Mrs.
Morton, by special desire of Lady Northmoor, and likewise to her own old
servant, Eden, the nurse. She wrote cheerfully, but Eden had other
correspondents in the servants' hall, who dwelt sensationally on the
danger, as towards Whitsun week the fever began to run higher towards the
crisis, the strength was reduced, the torpor became heavier; and anxiety
increased as to whether there would be power of rally in a man who,
though healthy, had never been strong.
The anxiety manifested by the entire neighbourhood was a notable proof of
the estimation in which the patient was held, and was very far from
springing only from pity or humanity. Half the people who came to Lady
Adela for further information had some cause going on in which 'That
Stick' was one of the most efficient of props.