DISPERSING CLOUDS.
Two months had slipped away, and still Charles Williams remained a
patient in the Westlake Hospital at Sydney. At length, after a
consultation of the doctors, it was proposed that he should be
consigned to the workhouse infirmary.
"We can't keep him here forever," said Dr. Emerton; "and as all the
beds will be wanted with this outbreak of diphtheria, I see nothing
else to be done."
"Well," said Dr. Belton, "I am deeply interested in his case, and if
you agree, I will take him under my own particular charge. You know I
have a few rooms set apart for such cases in my house at Brookmere. I
will take him there, and see what I can do for him."
"Very kind of you, I am sure," said Dr. Emerton. "You can afford that
sort of thing--I can't. I should have sent him to the infirmary, where
he would be under Dr. Hutchinson's care; but, of course, he will be
better off in your private hospital."
And one day in the following week, Dr. Belton took home with him the
invalid, whose case he had already described to his wife and children,
so that when the stooping figure emerged from the carriage leaning
heavily on the arm of the nurse who accompanied him, he was received
with kindness and warmth, Mrs. Belton herself meeting him with
outstretched hands of welcome.
"Very glad to see you, Mr. Williams. You will soon get better here, I
think."
Cardo looked at her with no intelligence in his eyes. "Yes, thank
you," was all he said, as he passed with his nurse into the bright,
cosy room relegated to the use of the patients, who were so fortunate,
or so unfortunate as to arouse more than usual interest in Dr. Belton's
mind.
"Now, nurse," said the doctor, "give him a good tea, and a little of
that cold quail, and after tea I will come and have a chat with him."
Later on in the evening he kept his word and found Cardo sunk in the
depths of an arm-chair, watching with lack-lustre eyes, while the Dr.'s
two boys tried their skill at a game of bagatelle.
"Well, Williams, and how are you now? tired, eh?" he asked.
"Yes," said Cardo, turning his eyes upon the doctor with a look of
bewilderment, which reminded him of the look of dumb inquiry in the
eyes of a troubled dog.
"You will like this better than the hospital I am sure. Do you love
children?"
"No," was Cardo's laconic reply, at which the doctor smiled.
He tried many subjects but failed to get any further answer than "yes"
or "no." Most men would have been discouraged when several weeks
passed over, and still his patient showed very little signs of
improvement. It is true, now he would answer more at length, but he
was never heard to volunteer a remark, though he sat for hours in what
looked like a "brown study," in which probably only indistinct forms
and fantastic shapes passed before his mind's eye. And latterly the
doctor too had frequently been observed to fall into a reverie, while
his eyes were fixed on Charles Williams's motionless attitude. After
much thought, he would sit beside his patient and try to interest him
in something going on around him.
Indeed, Cardo's gentle ways, together with his handsome person, had
endeared him to all who came in contact with him, and there was not one
in the house, from the cook in the kitchen to Dr. Belton's youngest
child, who would not have rejoiced to see health restored to the
invalid.
One evening, when Jack, a boy of twelve, returned from school, he came
bounding into the room in which Cardo sat with his eyes fixed on a
newspaper, which he had not turned nor moved for an hour, Sister Vera
sitting at the window with her work.
"See, Mr. Williams," said the boy, "what Meta Wright gave me, some
gilded gingerbread! isn't it pretty? I have eaten a pig and a
lamb--now there is a ship for you."
Cardo put down the paper, and taking the gingerbread in his thin
fingers, looked at it with eyes that gradually filled with tears.
"Gingerbread?" he said, looking next at the boy, "gilded gingerbread in
the moonlight!"
Sister Vera's eyes and ears were instantly on the alert, while she made
a sign of silence to the boy.
Cardo continued to look at the gingerbread. Suddenly he held up his
finger and seemed to listen intently.
"Hush!" he whispered, "do you hear the Berwen?" and he ate his
gingerbread slowly, sighing heavily when it was finished.
This was good news for Dr. Belton, told garrulously at tea by his young
son, and more circumstantially by Sister Vera; but for long afterwards
there was no further sign of improvement in Cardo.
It was not until three more months had passed that another sign of
reviving memory was seen in him, and again it was Jack who awoke the
sleeping chord.
"Isn't it a shame?" he said, excitedly running into the room one day;
"mother is cutting Ethel's hair; says she's getting headaches from the
weight of it. Rot, I call it! See what a lovely curl I stole," and he
handed it to Cardo, who first of all looked at it with indifference,
but suddenly clutching it, curled it round his finger, and became very
excited.
"Whose is it?" said Sister Vera, standing over him.
His lips trembled and with a husky voice he said.
"Valmai--" The sound of the name seemed to charm his ear, for he
continued to speak it in all sorts of varying tones--sometimes in
whispering tones of love--at others in loud and imploring accents.
"Oh, Valmai, Valmai!" he called, and when Dr. Belton entered the room,
he held out his hands towards him, and in a beseeching voice cried,
"Valmai! Valmai!"
There was no rest for anyone in the hospital that night, for all night
long the house echoed with the cry of "Valmai! Valmai!"
On the following morning, endeavouring to create some distraction from
this ever-recurring cry, Dr. Belton drove his patient with him for some
miles into the bush; the fresh air and motion seemed to quiet his
brain, and he fell into the silent stupor so constantly hanging over
him.
"Come, Williams," said the doctor at last, as they emerged into a
well-kept road leading up to a handsome house which stood on a rising
ground before them, surrounded by its broad acres of well-cultivated
land. "You must brighten up now, for I am going to take you to see an
old friend of mine. Why, here he is!" and they were greeted by a
jovial shout as a portly, pleasant-faced man caught them up.
"Hello! doctor, glad to see you; you havent honoured us with a visit
for some time."
"I have been so busy lately, and even now you see I have brought a
patient with me. I thought a little change would do him good."
"Of course, of course! the more the merrier. I'll ride on and prepare
Nellie for your coming," and off he galloped on his well-kept, spirited
horse, looking as he felt, perfectly at home in the saddle.
"Nellie," a sweet-looking lady with a brunette's face, which retained
much of the beauty of youth, although she had now attained to middle
age, was as hearty as her husband in her greeting.
"So glad to see you--you are just in time for dinner; for a wonder
Lewis is punctual today."
She shook hands with Cardo, and placed a chair for him at the
well-filled table. He took his seat with a pleasant smile, but soon
fell into his usual dreamy state, which the company at a sign from Dr.
Belton took no notice of.
"I do believe, Williams," said Dr. Belton at last, "that I have never
introduced you to my friends. These are Mr. and Mrs. Wynne."
Cardo looked up almost eagerly.
"Cardo Wynne?" he said.
"No," said the doctor; "Mr. Lewis Wynne. But do you know that name?"
"Yes, Cardo Wynne."
"Is that your name?" asked the shrewd doctor.
"Yes, Cardo Wynne."
"Merciful goodness!" said the host, in excited astonishment, which his
wife seemed in a great measure to share, "that is the name of my
brother's son, Caradoc, commonly called Cardo Wynne; that is what Dr.
Hughes told us, Nellie, didn't he?"
"Yes, I have often thought of the name and wondered what he was like.
How sad," she said, "and such a handsome fellow, too."
"Caradoc!" Dr. Belton called suddenly.
"Yes," said Cardo, with one of his pleasant smiles, "Cardo Wynne,
Brynderyn."
"Good heavens!" said Mr. Wynne, "there can be no doubt about it; that
is my brother's home."
And both he and Dr. Belton, aided by Mrs. Wynne's gentle suggestions,
made every endeavour to elicit further information from Cardo, but in
vain. He had fallen again into an apparently unconscious and deadened
stupor.
"Sunstroke, did you say? are you sure of that, Belton?"
"Not at all," said the doctor; "in fact, I have had serious doubts of
it lately, and to-day's experience decides me. I will have a thorough
examination of his skull."
"I will ride in to-morrow, to hear what further discoveries you have
made," said Mr. Wynne. And Dr. Belton returned home early, leaving his
host and hostess deeply interested.
Calling Sister Vera to him he told her of his plans.
"I have long thought it possible that poor fellow might have had a blow
of some kind on his head, and that he is still suffering from the
effects of it. I shall at once administer an anaesthetic and have a
thorough examination of his head. The idea of sunstroke was so
confirmed by the symptoms when he was brought to the hospital that no
one thought of anything else."
"How soon?" asked the nurse.
"To-morrow--three o'clock."
And the next afternoon, Cardo's head was thoroughly examined, with the
result that Dr. Belton soon found at the back of the skull near the top
a small but undoubted indentation.
"Of course," he said, "we must have been blind not to guess it before;
but we are blind sometimes--very blind and very stupid."
Cardo was kept under the influence of a sedative that night, and next
day Dr. Belton, with the promptness of action which he now regretted he
had not sooner exercised, procured the help of one of the most noted
specialists in Sydney, and an operation was successfully performed.
Mr. and Mrs. Wynne's visits of inquiry and sympathy were of almost
daily occurrence during the next month, while Cardo in the darkened,
quiet room, slowly regained his powers of mind and body. It was a very
slow progress, though it did not seem to be wholly unsatisfactory to
Dr. Belton. That good man, after weeks, nay months, of anxious
interest, was, however, at last rewarded by the pleasant spectacle of a
young and ardent temperament gradually re-awakening to the joys of life.
The mind which had been darkened for so long could not be expected to
regain its elasticity and spring at once, in an hour, or a day. But it
was evident to the doctor that the healing process which had begun
would continue, unless retarded by some unforeseen accident. Gradually
the children were admitted into his presence, and while they played
with Cardo, Mrs. Belton came and chatted with Sister Vera.
A few days later on Mr. and Mrs. Wynne entered through the verandah
with Dr. Belton, and although Cardo looked a little flustered and
puzzled, the pleasant smile and warm clasp of the hand with which he
greeted them showed there was no great depth of distrust or fear in his
mind. His uncle and aunt possessed much good sense and judgment, and
did not hurriedly thrust the recognition of themselves upon their
nephew, but waited patiently, and let it dawn gradually upon him.
One afternoon, while Cardo, accompanied by his uncle and aunt, were
walking up and down the verandah conversing on things in general, in a
friendly and unconstrained manner, he suddenly stopped, and looking
full into his uncle's face, said:
"Uncle Lewis, I cannot imagine how you and I have come here together;
some things seem so very clear to me, and others so dim and indistinct."
"But every day they grow clearer, do they not?"
"Yes, I think so. Have I been ill?"
"Yes, my dear fellow," said his uncle, gently laying his hand on his
arm, "you have been very ill, and your recovery depends entirely upon
your keeping your mind calm and restful. Do not attempt to remember
anything that does not come clearly into your mind; in fact, live in
the present as much as you can, and the past will come back to you
gradually."
At this moment Dr. Belton appeared on the verandah, having just
returned from a visit to one of the Sydney hospitals. After greeting
his friends, he sat down on a rustic chair, and with a stretch and a
yawn brought out from his coat pocket a leather pocket-book which he
flung across to Cardo.
"There, Cardo, is that yours?"
"Yes," he answered, carelessly taking the pocketbook and placing it in
his pocket.
"Come, you have disposed of it quickly; look at it again."
Cardo drew it out once more, and, looking at it more carefully, said:
"I do not remember where I dropped it; but I do remember being in a
hot, scorching atmosphere, and feeling a terrific blow on my head, and
then--nothing more but cloud and darkness, until I awoke here to light
and memory, though that sometimes fails me, for I cannot remember
exactly what happened before that day of burning heat."
"Well! the blow on your head and the loss of your pocket-book I can
explain, for to-day in the Eastlake Hospital, I was with a dying man,
who confessed that about a year and a half ago he was standing idly on
the docks, when he saw a gentleman suddenly struck on the back of his
head by the swinging arm of a huge crane, used for lifting heavy
weights to and from the shipping. The young man fell forward, his
pocket-book--that one I have just given you--fell out of his pocket,
and was pounced upon by the man who died to-day. That was you, Cardo
Wynne; you were struck down insensible by the iron bar, and while you
were quickly surrounded by a crowd and carried to the hospital, the man
escaped with your pocket-book. He returned it to me with great
penitence, having spent all your money, I am afraid; but your papers, I
think, are intact, and I see you have in it a letter of credit upon the
Bank of Australasia."
"Why, yes," said Cardo, "I remember coming to the harbour in a ship.
What was it called? The _Burrawalla_!" and as he fingered the papers
in the pocket-book, and came upon his father's signature, Meurig Wynne,
he became much excited, and hunted eagerly until he found a folded
paper, out of which he drew a long curl of golden hair.
"Valmai!" he said, "oh, Valmai, Valmai!" and dropping on to a seat, he
covered his face with his hands, and through his fingers trickled some
silent tears.
"I must forbid any more excitement for the present," said the doctor;
"let us go in to dinner."
And as they gathered round the table, Cardo took his seat next to his
uncle, with more cheerfulness and alacrity than usual.
The thread of memory, once awakened, never wholly slept again. Daily
and almost hourly memories of the past returned to him, and as he
gained bodily and mental strength, he gradually unfolded to his uncle
the incidents which had preceded his coming to Australia.
When Lewis Wynne became fully aware of his brother's deep-seated
affection for him, and of the penitence and remorse which had darkened
his life, he was filled with an impatient anxiety to return to the land
of his birth and the brother whom he had loved so much. Indeed, before
his acquaintance with his nephew, he had already begun to arrange his
affairs with the intention of disposing of his property in Australia,
for he had prospered in all his undertakings, and was now a wealthy man.
It was delightful news therefore to Cardo when his uncle one day
appeared at Dr. Belton's, with the information that he had concluded a
satisfactory sale of his property.
"So we'll go back together, old boy," he said, slapping Cardo on the
back in his usual jovial manner; "you can write to your father, and
tell him to look out for a house for Nellie and me."
"I will write to him to-day," said Cardo; "poor old dad, poor old dad!
What he must have suffered! I only hope the suspense has not killed
him!"
"Well, if he is alive," said his uncle, "your good news will make up to
him for all the past! We'll have some happy days in the old country
yet. You must get married, Cardo, and settle down near us!"
"I am married," said Cardo, with a whole-hearted laugh at Dr. Belton's
look of astonishment.
"Married!" said the doctor, "I never suspected that! I did think that
long golden curl pointed to some love-affair."
"It did, indeed," said Cardo; "it is one of my sweet wife Valmai's
curls!"
"Where is she now?" said Mr. Wynne, "with your father?"
"No," he said, with a more serious look, "living with her uncle. The
truth is, my father knows nothing about our marriage, and I have only
yesterday written to tell him the whole truth; and now that I am able
to add the delightful news that you are returning with me, I think it
will soften his heart, and he will forgive our secrecy."
"What objection has he to the lady?"
"She is the Methodist minister's niece."
At this remark Lewis Wynne burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.
"The richest thing I ever heard of. Ha, ha, ha! Meurig Wynne's son
married to a Methodist preacher's niece. My dear boy, he'll never give
his consent. Why, he hated them like the very devil himself, and now
you expect him to agree to your marrying a Methodist."
"He'll have to," said Cardo, "and I think he will."
"Never, my boy, never," said Lewis, rubbing his hands gleefully. "I
expect we shall have some exciting times down there, Nellie?"
"Yes; there will be one thing missing, and that will be dear Agnes."
"It will always be a mystery to me," said Lewis Wynne, "how I missed
your father's letter, although certainly I was roaming about a good
deal at the time, and afterwards never hearing my brother's name from
Dr. Hughes, who wrote occasionally, I naturally thought he was still
keeping up his unaccountable anger against me; and the busy life of an
Australian station soon occupied my life entirely; but, hurrah! for old
Cymry now. We'll go back and make it all right, Cardo."
And in less than a month from this time, a very bright and cheerful
party went on board the fast sailing steamer _Wellingtonia_. Mr. and
Mrs. Wynne especially were full of life and spirits.
Dr. Belton went on board with them, and when the last good-byes were
said, he declared that Cardo's leaving would cause a great blank in his
life, as not only had he been greatly interested in the young man as "a
case," but he had also grown much attached to him as a friend.
The bell rang, the gangway was raised, and the _Wellingtonia_ moved
from the side of the quay; and when at last they had fairly bid
good-bye to Australia, they turned to look at each other, and to
realise that another leaf in the book of life had been turned over.
Cardo was full of the brightest hopes, but shaded by anxiety, for he
knew now that two whole years had passed away since he bade good-bye to
Valmai on the quay at Fordsea. What had been her fate since then? How
had she borne his long and unexplained absence and silence? And as he
paced up and down the deck he was full of troubled thought, as well as
of bright hopes and anticipations.
"She must think me dead, but she will soon hear; in another week she
will receive my letter, and, oh! I will make up to her in the future
for all she may have suffered. Valmai, my darling! I am coming back
to you, to kiss away your tears, and to shield you from every trouble
in the future!"