The Patient interrogated.
So Doctor Pratt scribbled a few lines on the back of his card, and
Tomlinson was summoned to the door, and told to expedite its despatch,
and "send one of the men in a dog-cart as hard as he could peg, and to
be sure to see Doctor Hoggins," who had been an apprentice once of
honest Pratt's.
"Tell her not to wait for dressing, or packing, or anything. She'll come
just as she is, and we'll send again for her things, d'ye mind? and let
him drive quick. It's only two miles, he must not be half an hour about
it;" and in a low whisper, with a frown and a nod, he added to Tomlinson
on the lobby, "I _want_ her here."
So he sat down very grave by Sir Jekyl, and took his pulse, very low and
inflammatory, he thought.
"You lost a good deal of blood? It is not all here, eh?"
"No; I lost some beside."
"Mind, now, don't move. You may bring it on again; and you're not in a
condition to spare any. How did it happen?"
"A knife or something."
"A thrust, eh? Not a _cut_; I mean a _stab_?"
"Yes."
"About how long ago? What hour?"
Sir Jekyl hesitated.
"Oh! now come, Sir Jekyl, I beg pardon, but I really must know the
_facts_."
"Remember your promise--awfully tired."
"Certainly. What o'clock?"
"Between one and two."
"You must have some claret;" and he opened the door and issued orders
accordingly. The Doctor had his fingers on his pulse by this time.
"Give me some water; I'm dying of thirst," said the patient.
The Doctor obeyed.
"And there's no gout at all, then?" said he.
"Not a bit," answered Sir Jekyl, pettishly; his temper and his breath
seemed to be failing him a little.
"Did you feel faint when it happened, or after?"
"Just for a moment, when it happened, then pretty well; and when I got
here, in a little time, worse, very faint; I think I did faint, but a
little blood always does that for me. But it's not deep, I know by the
feel--only the muscle."
"H'm. I shan't disturb these things till the nurse comes; glad there's
no gout, no complication."
The claret-jug was soon at the bedside, and the Doctor helped his
patient to a few spoonfuls, and felt his pulse again.
"I must go home for the things, d'ye see? I shan't be long away though.
Here, Tomlinson, you'll give Sir Jekyl a spoonful or a glassful of this
claret, d'ye mind, as often as he requires it. About every ten minutes a
little to wet his lips; and mind, now, Sir Jekyl, drink any quantity
rather than let yourself go down."
As he went from the room he signed to Tomlinson, who followed him
quietly.
"See, now, my good fellow, this is rather a serious case, you understand
me; and he must not be let down. Your master, Sir Jekyl, I say, he must
be kept up. Keep a little claret to his lips, and if you see any pallor
or moisture in his face, give it him by a glassful at a time; and go on,
do you mind, till he begins to look natural again, for he's in a very
critical state; and if he were to faint, d'ye see, or anything, it might
be a very serious thing; and you'd better ring for another bottle or
two; but don't leave him on any account."
They were interrupted here by a tapping in Sir Jekyl's room. Lying on
his back, he was rapping with his penknife on the table.
"Why the plague don't you come?" he muttered, as Tomlinson drew near.
"Where's Pratt? tell him I want him."
"Hey--no--no _pain_?" asked the Doctor.
"No; I want to know--I want to know what the devil you've been saying to
him out there."
"Nothing; only a direction."
"Do you think--do you think I'm in _danger_?" said Sir Jekyl.
"Well, _no_. You needn't be if you mind, but--but don't refuse the
claret, mind, and don't be afraid of it if you feel a--a sinking, you
know, any quantity; and I'll be back before the nurse comes from the
hospital; and--and don't be excited, for you'll do very well if you'll
only do as I tell you."
The Doctor nodded, standing by the bed, but he did not look so
cheerfully as he spoke.
"I'll be back in twenty minutes. Don't be fidgety, you know; don't stir,
and you'll do very nicely, I say."
When the Doctor was gone, Sir Jekyl said--
"Tomlinson."
"Yes, sir, please."
"Tomlinson, come here; let me see you."
"Yes, Sir Jekyl; sir--"
"I say, Tomlinson, you'll tell the truth, mind."
"Yes, sir, please."
"Did that fellow say anything?"
"Yes, sir, please."
"Out with it."
"'Twas claret, Sir Jekyl, please, sir."
"None of your d--d lies, sir. I heard him say 'serious.' What _was_ it?"
"Please, sir, he said as how you were to be kep up, sir, which it might
be serious if otherwise. So he said, sir, please, it might be serious if
you was not properly kep up with claret, please, sir."
"Come, Tomlinson--see I _must_ know. Did he say I was in a bad
way--likely to die?--come." His face was certainly hollow and earthy
enough just then to warrant forebodings.
"No, sir; certainly not, sir. No, sir, please, nothing of the kind."
The Baronet looked immeasurably more like himself.
"Give me some wine--a glass," said he.
The Doctor, stumping away rapidly to his yellow door, and red and green
twin bottles, in the village, was thinking how the deuce this
misadventure of Sir Jekyl's had befallen. The Baronet's unlucky
character was well known wherever he resided or had property.
"Who the devil did it, I wonder?" conjectured the Doctor. "Two o'clock
at night. Some pretty fury with a scissors, maybe. We'll know time
enough; these things always come out--always come out, egad! It's a
shame for him getting into scrapes at his time of life."
In the breakfast-parlour, very merry was the party then assembled,
notwithstanding the absence of some of its muster-roll. Lady Jane
Lennox, an irregular breakfaster, stood excused. Old Lady Alice was no
more expected than the portrait of Lady Mary in her bed-room. General
Lennox had business that morning, and was not particularly inquired
after. Sir Jekyl, indeed, was missed--bustling, good-natured,
lively--his guests asked after him with more than a conventional
solicitude.
"Well, and how is papa now?" inquired Sir Paul, who knew what gout was,
and being likely to know it again, felt a real interest in the Baronet's
case. "No _acute_ pain, I hope?"
"I'm afraid he _is_ in pain, more than he admits," answered Beatrix.
"Tomlinson told me it's all in the--the extremity, though that's well.
Intelligent fellow, Tomlinson. Mine is generally what they call atonic,
not attended with much pain, you know;" and he illustrated his
disquisition by tendering his massive mulberry knuckles for the young
lady's contemplation, and fondling them with the glazed fingers of the
other hand, while his round blue eyes stared, with a slow sort of
wonder, in her face, as if he expected a good deal in the way of remark
from the young lady to mitigate his astonishment.
Lady Blunket, who was beside her, relieved this embarrassment, and
nodding at her ear, said--
"Flannel--_flannel_, chiefly. Sir Paul, there, his medical man, Doctor
Duddle, we have great confidence in _him_--relies very much on warmth.
My poor father used to take Regent's--Regent's--I forget what--a
_bottle_. But Doctor Duddle would not hear of Sir Paul there attempting
to put it to his lips. Regent's--_what_ is it? I shall forget my own
name soon. _Water_ is it? At all events he won't hear of it--diet and
flannel, that's his method. My poor father, you know, died of gout,
quite suddenly, at Brighton. Cucumber, they said."
And Lady Blunket, overcome by the recollection, touched her eyes with
her handkerchief.
"Cucumber and salmon, it was, _I_ recollect," said Sir Paul, with a new
accession of intelligence.
"But he passed away most happily, Miss Marlowe," continued Lady Blunket.
"I have some verses of poor mamma's. _She_ was _very_ religious, you
know; they have been very much admired."
"Ay--yes," said Sir Paul, "he was helped _twice_--very im_pru_dent!"
"I was mentioning dear mamma's verses, you remember."
Sir Paul not being quite so well up in this aspect of the case, simply
grunted and became silent; and indeed I don't think he had been so
loquacious upon any other morning or topic since his arrival at Marlowe.
"They are beautiful," continued Lady Blunket, "and so resigned. I was
most anxious, my dear, to place a tablet under the monument, you know,
at Maisly; a mural tablet, just like the Tuftons', you know; they are
very reasonable, inscribed with dear mamma's verses; but I can't
persuade Sir Paul, he's so poor, you know; but certainly, some day or
other, I'll do it myself."
The irony about Sir Paul's poverty, though accompanied by a glance from
her ladyship's pink eyes, was lost on that excellent man, who was by
this time eating some hot broil.
Their judicious conversation was not without an effect commensurate with
the rarity of the exertion, for between them they had succeeded in
frightening poor Beatrix a good deal.
In other quarters the conversation was proceeding charmingly. Linnett
was describing to Miss Blunket the exploits of a terrier of his, among a
hundred rats let loose together--a narrative to which she listened with
a pretty girlish alternation of terror and interest; while the Rev.
Dives Marlowe and old Doocey conversed earnestly on the virtues of
colchicum, and exchanged confidences touching their gouty symptoms and
affections; and Drayton, assisted by an occasional parenthesis from that
prodigious basso, Varbarriere, was haranguing Beatrix and Mrs. Maberly
on pictures, music, and the way to give agreeable dinners; and now
Beatrix asked old Lady Blunket in what way she would best like to
dispose of the day. What to do, where to drive, an inquiry into which
the other ladies were drawn, and the debate, assisted by the gentlemen,
grew general and animated.