A week or so passed on. Janet was up to her eyes in preparations,
expecting a visitor. And the visitor was no other than Miss
Cattledon--if you have not forgotten her. Being fearfully particular
in all ways, and given to fault-finding, as poor Janet only too well
remembered, of course it was necessary to have things in apple-pie
order.
"I should never hear the last of it as long as Aunt Jemima stayed, if
so much as a speck of dust was in any of the rooms, or a chair out of
place," said Janet to me laughingly, as she and the maids dusted and
scrubbed away.
"What's she coming for, Janet?"
"She invited herself," replied Janet: "and indeed we shall be glad to
see her. Miss Deveen is going to visit some friends in Devonshire, and
Aunt Jemima takes the opportunity of coming here the while. I am sorry
Arnold is so busy just now. He will not have much time to give to
her--and she likes attention."
The cause of Dr. Knox's increased occupation, was Mr. Tamlyn's illness.
For the past few days he had had feverish symptoms, and did not go out.
Few medical men would have found the indisposition sufficiently grave to
remain at home; but Mr. Tamlyn was an exception. He gave in at the least
thing now: and it was nothing at all unusual for Arnold Knox to find all
the patients thrown on his own hands.
Amongst the patients so thrown this time was Lady Jenkins. She had
caught cold at that soirée I have just told of. Going to the door in
her old-fashioned, hospitable way, to speed the departure of the last
guests, she had stayed there in the draught, talking, and began at once
to sneeze and cough.
"There!" cried Madame St. Vincent, when my lady got back again, "you
have gone and caught a chill."
"I think I have," admitted Lady Jenkins. "I'll send for Tamlyn in the
morning."
"Oh, my dear Lady Jenkins, we shall not want Tamlyn," dissented madame.
"I'll take care of you myself, and have you well in no time."
But Lady Jenkins, though very much swayed by her kind companion, who
was ever anxious for her, chose to have up Mr. Tamlyn, and sent him a
private message herself.
He went up at once--evidently taking madame by surprise--and saw his
patient. The cold, being promptly treated, turned out to be a mere
nothing, though Madame St. Vincent insisted on keeping the sufferer some
days in bed. By the time Mr. Tamlyn was ill, she was well again, and
there was not much necessity for Dr. Knox to take her: at least, on the
score of her cold. But he did it.
One afternoon, when he was going up there late, he asked me if I would
like the drive. And, while he paid his visit to Lady Jenkins, I went in
to Rose Villa. It was a fine, warm afternoon, almost like summer, and
Mrs. Knox and the girls were sitting in the garden. Dicky was there
also. Dicky was generally at school from eight o'clock till six, but
this was a half-holiday. Dicky, eleven years old now, but very little
for his age, was more troublesome than ever. Just now he was at open war
with his two younger sisters and Miss Mack, the governess, who had gone
indoors to escape him.
Leaning against the trunk of a tree, as he talked to Mrs. Knox, Mina,
and Charlotte, stood Captain Collinson, the rays of the sun, now drawing
westward, shining full upon him, bringing out the purple gloss of
his hair, whiskers, beard, and moustache deeper than usual. Captain
Collinson incautiously made much of Dicky, had told him attractive
stories of the glories of war, and promised him a commission when he
should be old enough. The result was, that Dicky had been living in the
seventh heaven, had bought himself a tin sword, and wore it strapped to
his waist, dangling beneath his jacket. Dicky, wild to be a soldier,
worshipped Captain Collinson as the prince of heroes, and followed him
about like a shadow. An inkling of this ambition of Dicky's, and of
Captain Collinson's promise, had only reached Mrs. Knox's ears this very
afternoon. It was a ridiculous promise of course, worth nothing, but
Mrs. Knox took it up seriously.
"A commission for Dicky!--get Dicky a commission!" she exclaimed in a
flutter that set her bracelets jangling, just as I arrived on the scene.
"Why, what can you mean, Captain Collinson? Do you think I would have
Dicky made into a soldier--to be shot at? Never. He is my only son. How
can you put such ideas into his head?"
"Don't mind her," cried Dicky, shaking the captain's coat-tails. "I say,
captain, don't you mind her."
Captain Collinson turned to young Dicky, and gave him a reassuring wink.
Upon which, Dicky went strutting over the grass-plat, brandishing his
sword. I shook hands with Mrs. Knox and the girls, and, turning to
salute the captain, found him gone.
"You have frightened him away, Johnny Ludlow," cried Charlotte: but she
spoke in jest.
"He was already going," said Mina. "He told me he had an engagement."
"And a good thing too," spoke Mrs. Knox, crossly. "Fancy his giving
dangerous notions to Dicky!"
Dicky had just discovered our loss. He came shrieking back to know where
the captain was. Gone away for good, his mother told him. Upon which
young Dicky plunged into a fit of passion and kicking.
"Do you know how Lady Jenkins is to-day?" I asked of Charlotte, when
Dicky's noise had been appeased by a promise of cold apple-pudding for
tea.
"Not so well."
"Not so well! I had thought of her as being much better."
"I don't think her so," continued Charlotte. "Madame St. Vincent told
Mina this morning that she was all right; but when I went in just now
she was in bed and could hardly answer me."
"Is her cold worse?"
"No; I think that is gone, or nearly so. She seemed dazed--stupid, more
so than usual."
"I certainly never saw any one alter so greatly as Lady Jenkins has
altered in the last few months," spoke Mrs. Knox. "She is not like the
same woman."
"I'm sure I wish we had never gone that French journey!" said Mina. "She
has never been well since. Oh, here's Arnold!"
Dr. Knox had come straight into the garden from Jenkins House. Dicky
rushed up to besiege his arms and legs; but, as Dicky was in a state of
flour--which he had just put upon himself in the kitchen, or had had put
upon him by the maids--the doctor ordered him to keep at arm's-length;
and the doctor was the only person who could make himself obeyed by
Dicky.
"You have been to see Lady Jenkins, Arnold," said his step-mother. "How
is she?"
"Nothing much to boast of," lightly answered Dr. Knox. "Johnny, are you
ready?"
"I am going to be a soldier, Arnold," put in Dicky, dancing a kind of
war-dance round him. "Captain Collinson is going to make me a captain
like himself."
"All right," said Arnold. "You must grow a little bigger first."
"And, Arnold, the captain says---- Oh, my!" broke off Dicky, "what's
this? What have I found?"
The boy stooped to pick up something glittering that had caught his eye.
It proved to be a curiously-shaped gold watch-key, with a small compass
in it. Mina and Lotty both called out that it was Captain Collinson's,
and must have dropped from his chain during a recent romp with Dicky.
"I'll take it in to him at Lady Jenkins's," said Dicky.
"You will do nothing of the sort, sir," corrected his mother, taking the
key from him: she had been thoroughly put out by the suggestion of the
"commission."
"Should you chance to see the captain when you go out," she added to me,
"tell him his watch-key is here."
The phaeton waited outside. It was the oldest thing I ever saw in regard
to fashion, and might have been in the firm hundreds of years. Its hood
could be screwed up and down at will; just as the perch behind, where
Thomas, the groom, generally sat, could be closed or opened. I asked Dr.
Knox whether it had been built later than the year One.
"Just a little, I suppose," he answered, smiling. "This vehicle was
Dockett's special aversion. He christened it the 'conveyance,' and we
have mostly called it so since."
We were about to step into it, when Madame St. Vincent came tripping out
of the gate up above. Dr. Knox met her.
"I was sorry not to have been in the way when you left, doctor," she
said to him in a tone of apology: "I had gone to get the jelly for Lady
Jenkins. Do tell me what you think of her?"
"She does not appear very lively," he answered; "but I can't find out
that she is in any pain."
"I wish she would get better!--she does give me so much concern," warmly
spoke madame. "Not that I think her seriously ill, myself. I'm sure I do
everything for her that I possibly can."
"Yes, yes, my dear lady, you cannot do more than you do," replied
Arnold. "I will be up in better time to-morrow."
"Is Captain Collinson here?" I stayed behind Dr. Knox to ask.
"Captain Collinson here!" returned Madame St. Vincent, tartly, as if
the question offended her. "No, he is not. What should bring Captain
Collinson here?"
"I thought he might have called in upon leaving Mrs. Knox's. I only
wished to tell him that he dropped his watch-key next door. It was found
on the grass."
"I don't know anything of his movements," coldly remarked madame. And as
I ran back to Dr. Knox, I remembered what Dan Jenkins had said--that she
did not like the captain. And I felt Dan was right.
Dr. Knox drove home in silence, I sitting beside him, and Thomas in the
perch. He looked very grave, like a man preoccupied. In passing the
railway-station, I made some remark about Miss Cattledon, who was coming
by the train then on its way; but he did not appear to hear me.
Sam Jenkins ran out as we drew up at Mr. Tamlyn's gate. An urgent
message had come for Dr. Knox: some one taken ill at Cooper's--at the
other end of the town.
"Mr. Tamlyn thinks you had better go straight on there at once, sir,"
said Sam.
"I suppose I must," replied the doctor. "It is awkward, though"--pulling
out his watch. "Miss Cattledon will be due presently and Janet wanted me
to meet her," he added to me. "Would you do it, Johnny?"
"What--meet Miss Cattledon? Oh yes, certainly."
The conveyance drove on, with the doctor and Thomas. I went indoors
with Sam. Janet said I could meet her aunt just as well as Arnold, as I
knew her. The brougham was brought round to the gate by the coachman,
Wall, and I went away in it.
Smoothly and quietly glided in the train, and out of a first-class
carriage stepped Miss Cattledon, thin and prim and upright as ever.
"Dear me! is that you, Johnny Ludlow?" was her greeting to me when I
stepped up and spoke to her; and her tone was all vinegar. "What do
_you_ do here?"
"I came to meet you. Did you not know I was staying at Lefford?"
"I knew _that_. But why should they send you to meet me?"
"Dr. Knox was coming himself, but he has just been called out to a
patient. How much luggage have you, Miss Cattledon?"
"Never you mind how much, Johnny Ludlow: my luggage does not concern
you."
"But cannot I save you the trouble of looking after it? If you will get
into the brougham, I will see to the luggage and bring it on in a fly,
if it's too much to go on the box with Wall."
"You mean well, Johnny Ludlow, I dare say; but I always see to my
luggage myself. I should have lost it times and again, if I did not."
She went pushing about amongst the porters and the trucks, and secured
the luggage. One not very large black box went up by Wall; a smaller
inside with us. So we drove out of the station in state, luggage and
all, Cattledon holding her head bolt upright.
"How is Janet, Johnny Ludlow?"
"Quite well, thank you."
"And those two children of hers--are they very troublesome?"
"Indeed, no; they are the best little things you ever saw. I wanted to
bring the boy with me to meet you, but Janet would not let me."
"Um!" grunted Cattledon: "showed a little sense for once. What is that
building?"
"That's the Town Hall. I thought you knew Lefford, Miss Cattledon?"
"One cannot be expected to retain the buildings of a town in one's head
as if they were photographed there," returned she in a sharp tone of
reproof. Which shut me up.
"And, pray, how does that young woman continue to conduct herself?" she
asked presently.
"What young woman?" I said, believing she must be irreverently alluding
to Janet.
"Lettice Lane."
Had she mentioned the name of some great Indian Begum I could not have
been more surprised. _That_ name brought back to memory all the old
trouble connected with Miss Deveen's emeralds, their loss and their
finding: which, take it for all in all, was nothing short of a romance.
But why did she question _me_ about Lettice Lane. I asked her why.
"I asked it to be answered, young man," was Cattledon's grim retort.
"Yes, of course," I said, with deprecation. "But how should I know
anything about Lettice Lane?"
"If there's one thing I hate more than another, Johnny Ludlow, it is
shuffling. I ask you how that young woman is going on; and I request you
to answer me."
"Indeed, I would if I could. I don't understand why you should ask me.
Is Lettice Lane not living still with you--with Miss Deveen?"
Cattledon evidently thought I _was_ shuffling, for she looked daggers at
me. "Lettice Lane," she said, "is with Janet Knox."
"With Janet Knox! Oh dear, no, she is not."
"Don't you get into a habit of contradicting your elders, Johnny Ludlow.
It is very unbecoming in a young man."
"But--see here, Miss Cattledon. If Lettice were living with Janet, I
must have seen her. I see the servants every day. I assure you Lettice
is not one of them."
She began to see that I was in earnest, and condescended to explain in
her stiff way. "Janet came to town last May to spend a week with us,"
she said. "Before that, Lettice Lane had been complaining of not feeling
strong: I thought it was nothing but her restlessness; Miss Deveen and
the doctor thought she wanted country air--that London did not agree
with her. Janet was parting with her nurse at the time; she engaged
Lettice to replace her, and brought her down to Lefford. Is the matter
clear to you now, young man?"
"Quite so. But indeed, Miss Cattledon, Lettice is not with Janet now.
The nurse is named Harriet, and she is not in the least like Lettice
Lane."
"Then Lettice Lane must have gone roving again--unless you are
mistaken," said Cattledon, severely. "Wanting country air, forsooth!
Change was what _she_ wanted."
Handing over Miss Cattledon, when we arrived, to the care of Janet, who
took her upstairs, and told me tea would be ready soon, I went into Mr.
Tamlyn's sitting-room. He was in the easy-chair before the fire, dozing,
but opened his eyes at my entrance.
"Visitor come all right, Johnny?"
"Yes, sir; she is gone to take her cloaks off. Janet says tea is nearly
ready."
"I am quite ready for it," he remarked, and shut his eyes again.
I took up a book I was reading, "Martin Chuzzlewit," and sat down on the
broad window-seat, legs up, to catch the now fading light. The folds of
the crimson curtain lay between me and Mr. Tamlyn--and I only hoped Mrs.
Gamp would not send me into convulsions and disturb him.
Presently Dr. Knox came in. He went up to the fire, and stood at the
corner of the mantelpiece, his elbow on it, his back to me; and old
Tamlyn woke up.
"Well," began he, "what was the matter at Cooper's, Arnold?"
"Eldest boy fell off a ladder and broke his arm. It is only a simple
fracture."
"Been very busy to-day, Arnold?"
"Pretty well."
"Hope I shall be out again in a day or two. How did you find Lady
Jenkins?"
"Not at all to my satisfaction. She was in bed, and--and in fact seemed
hardly to know me."
Tamlyn said nothing to this, and a silence ensued. Dr. Knox broke it. He
turned his eyes from the fire on which they had been fixed, and looked
full at his partner.
"Has it ever struck you that there's not quite fair play going on up
there?" he asked in a low tone.
"Up where?"
"With Lady Jenkins."
"How do you mean, Arnold?"
"That something is being given to her?"
Tamlyn sat upright in his chair, pushed back his scanty hair, and stared
at Dr. Knox.
"_What_ do you mean, Knox? What do you suspect?"
"That she is being habitually drugged; gradually, slowly----"
"Merciful goodness!" interrupted Tamlyn, rising to his feet in
excitement. "Do you mean slowly poisoned?"
"Hush!--I hear Janet," cried Dr. Knox.