INTERRUPTION.
But it was Adela herself who failed next time. I had seen her during
the reading draw her shawl about her as if she were cold. She seemed
quite well when the friends left, but she had caught a chill; and
before the morning she was quite feverish, and unable to leave her bed.
"You see, Colonel," said Mrs. Cathcart at breakfast, "that this doctor
of yours is doing the child harm instead of good. He has been
suppressing instead of curing the complaint; and now she is worse than
ever."
"When the devil--" I began to remark in reply.
"Mr. Smith!" exclaimed Mrs. Cathcart.
"Allow me, madam, to finish my sentence before you make up your mind to
be shocked.--When the devil goes out of a man, or a woman either, he
gives a terrible wrench by way of farewell. Now, as the prophet Job
teaches us, all disease is from the devil; and--"
"The prophet Job!--Mr. Smith?"
"Well, the old Arab Scheik, if you like that epithet better."
"Really, Mr. Smith!"
"Well, I don't mind what you call him. I only mean to say that a
disease sometimes goes out with a kind of flare, like a candle--or like
the poor life itself. I believe, if this is an intermittent fever--as,
from your description, I expect it will prove to be--it will be the
best thing for her."
"Well, we shall see what Dr. Wade will say."
"Dr. Wade?" I exclaimed.
"Of course, my brother will not think of trusting such a serious case
to an inexperienced young man like Mr. Armstrong."
"It seems to me," I replied, "that for some time the case has ceased to
be a serious one. You must allow that Adela is better."
"Seemed to be better, Mr. Smith. But it was all excitement, and here is
the consequence. I, as far as I have any influence, decidedly object to
Mr. Armstrong having anything more to do with the case."
"Perhaps you are right, Jane," said the colonel. "I fear you are. But
how can I ask Dr. Wade to resume his attendance?"
Always nervous about Adela, his sister-in-law had at length succeeded
in frightening him.
"Leave that to me," she said; "I will manage him."
"Pooh!" said I, rudely. "He will jump at it. It will be a grand triumph
for him. I only want you to mind what you are about. You know Adela
does not like Dr. Wade."
"And she does like _Doctor_ Armstrong?" said Mrs. Cathcart, stuffing
each word with significance.
"Yes," I answered, boldly. "Who would not prefer the one to the other?"
But her arrow had struck. The colonel rose, and saying only, "Well,
Jane, I leave the affair in your hands," walked out of the room. I was
coward enough to follow him. Had it been of any use, coward as I was, I
would have remained.
But Mrs. Cathcart, if she had not reckoned without her host, had, at
least, reckoned without her hostess. She wrote instantly to Dr. Wade,
in terms of which it is enough to say that they were successful, for
they brought the doctor at once. I saw him pass through the hall,
looking awfully stiff, important, and condescending. Beeves, who had
opened the door to him, gave me a very queer look as he showed him into
the drawing-room, ringing, at the same time, for Adela's maid.
Now Mrs. Cathcart had not expected that the doctor would arrive so
soon, and had, as yet, been unable to make up her mind how to
communicate to the patient the news of the change in the physical
ministry. So when the maid brought the message, all that her cunning
could provide her with at the moment was the pretence, that he had
called so opportunely by chance.
"Ask him to walk up," she said, after just one moment's hesitation.
Adela heard the direction her aunt gave, through the cold shiver which
was then obliterating rather than engrossing her attention, and
concluded that they had sent for Mr. Armstrong. But Mrs. Cathcart,
turning towards her, said--
"Adela, my love, Dr. Wade had just called; and I have asked him to step
up stairs."
The patient started up.
"Aunt, what do you mean? If that old wife comes into this room, I will
make him glad to go out of it!"
You see she was feverish, poor child, else I am sure she could not have
been so rude to her aunt. But before Mrs. Cathcart could reply, in came
Dr. Wade. He walked right up to the bed, after a stately obeisance to
the lady attendant.
"I am sorry to find you so ill, Miss Cathcart."
"I am perfectly well, Dr. Wade. I am sorry you have had the trouble of
walking up stairs."
As she said this, she rang the bell at the head of her bed. Her maid,
who had been listening at the door, entered at once.--I had all this
from Adela herself afterwards.
"Emma, bring me my desk. Dr. Wade, there must be some mistake. It was
my aunt, Mrs. Cathcart, who sent for you. Had she given me the
opportunity, I would have begged that the interview might take place in
her room instead of mine."
Dr. Wade retreated towards the fireplace, where Mrs. Cathcart stood,
quite aware that she had got herself into a mess of no ordinary
complication. Yet she persisted in her cunning. She lifted her finger
to her forehead.
"Ah?" said Dr. Wade.
"Yes," said Mrs. Cathcart.
"Wandering?"
"Dreadfully."
After some more whispering, the doctor sat down to write a
prescription. But meantime, Adela was busy writing another. What she
wrote was precisely to this effect--
"Dear Mr. Armstrong,
"I have caught a bad cold, and my aunt has let loose Dr. Wade upon me.
Please come directly, if you will save me from ever so much nasty
medicine, at the least. My aunt is not my mother, thank heaven! though
she would gladly usurp that relationship.
"Yours most truly,
"Adela Cathcart."
She folded and sealed the note--sealed it carefully--and gave it to
Emma, who vanished with it, followed instantly by Mrs. Cathcart. As to
what took place outside the door--shall I confess it?--Beeves is my
informant.
"Where are you going, Emma? Emma, come here directly," said Mrs.
Cathcart.
Emma obeyed.
"I am going a message for mis'ess."
"Who is that note for?"
"I didn't ask. John can read well enough."
"Show it me."
Emma, I presume, closed both lips and hand very tight. "I command you."
"Miss Cathcart pays me my wages, ma'am," said Emma, and turning, sped
down-stairs like a carrier-pigeon.
In the hall she met Beeves, and told him the story.
"There she comes!" cried he. "Give me the letter. I'll take it myself."
"You're not going without your hat, surely, Mr. Beeves," said Emma.
"Bless me! It's down-stairs. There's master's old one! He'll never want
it again. And if he does, it'll be none the worse."
And he was out of the door in a moment. Beeves's alarm, however, as to
Mrs. Cathcart's approach, was a false one. She returned into the sick
chamber, with a face fiery red, and found Dr. Wade just finishing an
elaborate prescription.
"There!" said he, rising. "Send for that at once, and let it be taken
directly. Good morning."
He left the room instantly, making signs that he was afraid of exciting
his patient, as she did not appear to approve of his presence.
"What is the prescription?" said Adela, quite quietly, as Mrs. Cathcart
approached the bed, apparently trying to decipher it.
"I am glad to see you so much calmer, my dear. You must not excite
yourself. The prescription?--I cannot make it out. Doctors do write so
badly. I suppose they consider it professional."
"They consider a good many things professional which are only stupid.
Let me see it."
Mrs. Cathcart, thrown off her guard, gave it to her. Adela tore it in
fragments, and threw it in a little storm on the floor.
"Adela!" screamed Mrs. Cathcart. "What is to be done?"
"Pay Dr. Wade his fee, and tell him I shall never be too ill to refuse
his medicines. Now, aunt! You find I am determined.--I declare you make
me behave so ill that I am ashamed of myself."
Here the poor impertinent child crept under the clothes, and fell
a-weeping bitterly. Mrs. Cathcart had sense enough to see that nothing
could be done, and retired to her room. Getting weary of her own
society after a few moments of solitude, she proceeded to go
down-stairs. But half-way down, she was met full in the face by Harry
Armstrong ascending two steps at a time. He had already met Dr. Wade,
as he came out of the dining-room, where he had been having an
interview with the colonel. Harry had turned, and held out his hand
with a "How do you do, Dr. Wade?" But that gentleman had bowed with the
utmost stiffness, and kept his hand at home.
"So it is to be open war and mutual slander, is it, Dr. Wade?" said
Harry. "In that case, I want to know how you come to interfere with my
patient. I have had no dismissal, which punctilio I took care to know
was observed in your case."
"Sir, I was sent for," said Dr. Wade, haughtily.
"I have in my pocket a note from the lady of this house, requesting my
immediate attendance. If you have received a request to the same
purport from a visitor, you obey it at your own risk. Good morning."
Then Harry walked quietly up the first half of the stair, while Beeves
hastened to open the door to the crest-fallen Dr. Wade; but by the time
he met Mrs. Cathcart, his rate of ascent had considerably increased. As
soon as she saw him, however, without paying any attention to the usual
formality of a greeting, she turned and re-entered her niece's room.
Her eyes were flashing, and her face spotted red and white with
helpless rage. But she would not abandon the field. Harry bowed to her,
and passed on to the bed, where he was greeted with a smile.
"There's not much the matter, I hope?" he said, returning the smile.
"It may suit you to make light of my niece's illness, Mr. Armstrong;
but I beg to inform you that her father thought it serious enough to
send for Dr. Wade. He has been here already, and your attendance is
quite superfluous."
"No doubt; no doubt. But as I am here, I may as well prescribe."
"Dr. Wade has already prescribed."
"And I have taken his prescription, have I not, aunt?--and destroyed
it, Mr. Armstrong, instead of my own chance."
"Of what?" said Mrs. Cathcart, with vulgar significance.
"Of getting rid of two officious old women at once," said Adela--in a
rage, I fear I must confess, as the only excuse for impertinence.
"Come, come," said Harry, "this won't do. I cannot have my patient
excited in this way. Miss Cathcart, may I ring for your maid?"
For answer, Adela rang the bell herself. Her aunt was pretending to
look out of the window.
"Will you go and ask your master," said Harry, when Emma made her
appearance, "to be so kind as come here for a moment?"
The poor colonel--an excellent soldier, a severe master, with the
highest notions of authority and obedience, found himself degraded by
his own conduct, as other autocrats have proved before, into a
temporizing incapable. It was the more humiliating that he was quite
aware in his own honest heart that it was jealousy of Harry that had
brought him into this painful position. But he obeyed the summons at
once; for wherever there was anything unpleasant to be done, there,
with him, duty assumed the sterner command. As soon as he entered the
room, Harry, without giving time for anyone else to determine the
course of the conference, said:
"There has been some mistake, Colonel Cathcart, between Dr. Wade and
myself, which has already done Miss Cathcart no good. As I find her
very feverish, though not by any means alarmingly ill, I must, as her
medical attendant, insist that _no_ one come into her room but yourself
or her maid."
Every one present perfectly understood this; and however, in other
circumstances, the colonel might have resented the tone of authority
with which Harry spoke, he was compelled, for his daughter's sake, to
yield; and he afterwards justified Harry entirely. Mrs. Cathcart walked
out of the room with her neck invisible from behind. The colonel sat
down by the fire. Harry wrote his prescription on the half sheet from
which Dr. Wade had torn his; and then saying that he would call in the
evening, took his leave of the colonel, and bowed to his patient,
receiving a glance of acknowledgment which could not fail to generate
the feeling that there was a secret understanding between them, and
that he had done just what she wanted. He mounted his roan horse,
called Rhubarb, with a certain elation of being, which he tried to hide
from everyone but himself.
When doctors forget that their patients are more like musical
instruments than machines, they will soon need to be reminded that they
are men and women, and not dogs or horses. Yet, alas for the poor dogs
and horses that fall into the hands of a man without a human sympathy
even with them! I, John Smith, bless you, my doctor-friends, that ye
are not doctors merely, but good and loving men; and, in virtue
thereof, so much the more--so exceedingly the more _Therapeutae_.
I need not follow the course of the fever. Each day the arrival of the
cold fit was longer delayed, and the violence of both diminished, until
they disappeared altogether. But a day or two before this happy result
was completed, Adela had been allowed to go down to the drawing-room,
and had delighted her father with her cheerfulness and hopefulness. It
really seemed as if the ague had carried off the last remnants of the
illness under which she had been so long labouring. But then, you can
never put anything to the _experimentum crucis_; and there were other
causes at work for Adela's cure, which were perhaps more powerful than
even the ague. However this may have been, she got almost quite well in
a very short space of time; and with her father's consent, issued
invitations to another meeting of the story-club. They were at once
satisfactorily responded to.