"Mary, dear, don't deceive me for the sake of trying to give me
comfort," said Claude, as she knelt in the study, beside the mattress
upon which her father lay breathing stertorously.
"Claude, darling, I tease you and say spiteful things sometimes, but you
know you can trust me."
"Yes, yes, dear, I know; but you don't answer me."
"I have told you again and again that your father is just like he was
last time, and the best proof of there being no danger is Doctor Asher
staying away so long."
"It's that which worries me so. He promised to come back soon."
"Don't be unreasonable, dear. You know he went to the quarry where that
man is dangerously hurt."
"Yes. Poor Sarah! How she must suffer! It is very terrible. But look
now, Mary--that dark mark beneath papa's eyes."
"Yes, I can see it," said Mary, rising quickly, and going to the table,
where she changed the position of the lamp, with the result that the
dark shadow lay now across the sleeper's lips. "There, that is not a
dangerous symptom, Claudie."
"Don't laugh at me, Mary. You can't think how I alarmed I am. These
fits seem to come more frequently than they used. Ought not papa to
have more advice?"
"It would be of no use, dear. I could cure him."
"You?"
"Yes; or he could cure himself."
"Mary!"
"Yes," said the little, keen-looking body, kneeling down by her cousin's
side; "uncle has only to leave off worrying about making more money and
piling up riches that he will never enjoy, and he would soon be well
again."
Claude sighed.
"See what a life he leads, always in such a hurry that he cannot finish
a meal properly; and as to taking a bit of pleasure in any form, he
would think it wicked. I haven't patience with him. Yes, I have, poor
old fellow--plenty. He has been very good to miserable little me."
"Of course he has, dear," said Claude, throwing her arms about her
cousin's neck and kissing her, with the result that the sharp-looking,
self-contained little body uttered an hysterical cry, clung to her, and
burst out sobbing wildly, as if all control was gone.
"Mary, darling, don't, pray don't. You distress me. What is the
matter?"
"I'm miserable, wretched," sobbed the poor girl, with her face hidden in
her cousin's breast. "I always seem to be doing something wrong. It's
just as if, when I tried to make people happy, I was a kind of imp of
mischief, and caused trouble."
"No, no, no! What folly."
"It isn't folly; it's quite true. See what I did this morning."
Claude felt her cheeks begin to burn, and she tried to speak, but the
words would not come.
"I knew that Chris Lisle had gone up the east river fishing, and I was
sure he longed to see you, and I was quite certain you wanted to see
him."
"Mary, be silent," cried Claude, in an excited whisper; "it is not
true."
"Yes, it is, dear. You know it is, and I could see that he was
miserable, and had been since you went on board Mr Glyddyr's yacht, so
I felt that it would be quite right to take you round there, so that you
might meet and make it up. And see what mischief I seem to have made."
"Yes," said Claude gravely, as she metaphorically put on her maiden mask
of prudery; "and you know now that it was very, very thoughtless of
you."
"Thoughtless!" said Mary, looking up with a quick look, half-troubled,
half-amused; "didn't I think too much?"
"Don't talk, Mary," said Claude primly. "You may disturb poor papa. It
was very wicked and meddlesome and weak, and you don't know what harm
you have done."
Mary Dillon's face was flushed and tear-stained, and her eyes looked red
and troubled; but she darted a glance at her cousin so full of
mischievous drollery, that Claude's colour deepened, and she turned away
troubled, and totally unable to continue the strain of reproof.
She was spared further trouble by a cough heard in the hall.
"Wipe your eyes quickly, Mary," she whispered; "here is Doctor Asher at
last."
Mary jumped up, and stepped to the window, where she was half hidden by
the curtains, as there was a gentle tap at the door, the handle was
turned, and the doctor, looking darker and more stern than ever, entered
the room.
He whisperingly asked how his patient had been, as he went down on one
knee by the mattress, made a short examination, and turned to Claude,
who, with parted lips, was watching him anxiously.
"You think him worse?" she whispered.
"Indeed I do not," he said quickly. "Nothing could be better. He will
sleep heavily for a long time."
"But did you notice his heavy breathing?"
"Of course I did," said the doctor rising, "and you have no cause for
alarm. Ah, Miss Mary, I did not see you at first."
"Don't deceive me, Doctor Asher," said Claude, in agonised tones; "tell
me the worst."
"There is no worse to tell you, my dear child. I dare say your father
will be well enough to sit up to-morrow."
"Thank heaven!" said Claude to herself. Then, turning to the doctor:
"How is poor Isaac Woodham?"
"Don't ask me."
"How dreadful!"
"Yes; it was a terrible accident."
"But is there no hope?"
"You asked me not to deceive you," said the doctor gravely. "None at
all."
Just then the sick man moaned slightly in his sleep, and made an uneasy
movement which took his daughter back to his side.
"Don't be alarmed, my child," said the doctor encouragingly; "there is
nothing to fear."
"But I am alarmed," said Claude; "and I look forward with horror to the
long night when I am alone with him."
"You are going to sit up with him?"
"Of course."
"Divide the night with your cousin."
"Yes--but--"
"Well--what is it?"
"Oh, Doctor Asher, don't leave him. Pray, pray, stay here."
"But I have to go and see that poor fellow twice during the night."
"I had forgotten him," sighed Claude. "Couldn't you stop here, and go
and see him in the night?"
"Well, I might do that," said the doctor thoughtfully; "but really, my
child, there is no necessity."
"If you could stop, Doctor Asher," interposed Mary, "it would be a great
relief to poor Claude, who is nervous and hysterical about my uncle's
state."
"Very well," was the cheerful reply. "I'll tell you what; I'll sit with
you till about nine, and then go and see poor Woodham. Then I'll come
back and stay up with Mr Gartram till about three, when you shall be
called to relieve me."
"But I shall not go to bed," said Claude decidedly.
"I am your medical man, and I prescribe rest," said the doctor, smiling.
"I don't want any more patients at present. You and your cousin will
go and lie down early, and then come and relieve me, so that I can go
and see poor Woodham again. After that I shall return here, and you can
let me have a sofa ready, to be called if wanted. There, I am the
doctor, and a doctor rules in a sick house."
"Must I do as you say?" asked Claude pleadingly.
"Yes; you must," he replied; and so matters were settled.
Doctor Asher walked down to the quarry cottage to see his patient there,
and did what he could to alleviate the poor fellow's pain, always
avoiding the inquiring look in the wife's eyes, and then he returned to
the Fort.
"How is he now?" asked Claude anxiously.
"Very bad," was the reply.
"You will find coffee all ready on the side-table, doctor," said Claude;
"and there is a spirit lamp and the stand and glasses. There are cigars
on the shelf; but you will let me sit up too?"
"To show that you have no confidence in your medical man."
"Oh, no, no; but Mary and I might be of some use."
"And of none at all to-morrow, my dears. You must both go to bed, and
be ready to relieve me."
"But is there anything else I can do to help you?"
"Yes; what I say--go to bed at once."
Claude hesitated a few moments, and then walked quickly to the side of
the mattress, knelt down, kissed her father lovingly, and then rose.
"Come, Mary," she said. "And you will ring the upstairs bell if there's
the slightest need?"
"Of course, of course. There, good-night; I shall ring punctually at
two."
He shook hands, and the two girls left the room unwillingly, and
proceeded slowly upstairs.
"Well lie down in your room, Mary," said Claude; "it is so much nearer
the bell. Do you know, I feel so dreadfully low-spirited? It is as if
a terrible shadow had come over the place, and--don't laugh at me--it
seemed to grow darker when Doctor Asher came into the room."
"What nonsense! Because he is all in black."
"Do you think he is to be trusted, Mary?"
"I don't know. I don't like him, and I never did. He is so sleek and
smooth, and I hate him to call us `my dear' in that nasty, patronising,
paternal sort of way."
"Then let's sit up."
"No, no. It would be absurd. I daresay we should feel the same about
any other doctor."
"I do hope he will take great care of poor papa," sighed Claude; and the
door closed after them as they entered their room.
If Doctor Asher was not going to take great care of Norman Gartram, it
was very evident that he was going to take very great care of himself,
for as soon as he was alone he struck a match, lit the spirit lamp,
lifted the lid of the coffee pot, and found that it was still very hot,
and then, removing a stopper in the spirit stand, he poured out into a
cup a goodly portion of pale brandy.
He had just restored the stopper to the spirit decanter, saying to
himself, "Nice, thoughtful little girl!" when Gartram moaned and moved
uneasily.
The doctor crossed to him directly, went down on one knee, and felt to
see that his patient's neck was well opened.
"Almost a pity not to have had him undressed," he said to himself.
"What's the matter with you--uncomfortable? Why, poor old boy," he
continued, with a half laugh, as his hands busily felt round the sick
man, "how absurd!"
He had passed a hand through the opening in Gartram's shirt front, and
after a little effort succeeded in unbuckling a cash belt which was
round his patient's waist, drawing the whole out, and noting that on one
side there was a pocket stuffed full and hard as he threw the belt
carelessly on the table.
"Nice wadge that for a man to lie on. There, old fellow, you'll be more
comfortable now."
As if to endorse his words, Gartram uttered a deep sigh, and seemed to
settle off to sleep.
"Breeches pockets full too, I daresay," muttered the doctor; "and
shouldn't be surprised if there's a good, hard bunch of keys somewhere
in his coat. Doesn't trouble him, though."
He rose, and went back to the tray at the side, filled the already
primed coffee cup and carried it to the table, wheeled forward an easy
chair, selected a cigar, which he lit, and then threw himself back and
sipped his coffee and smoked.
"Yes, sweet little girl Claude," he thought; "make a man a good wife--
good rich wife, and if--no, no, not the slightest chance for me, and
I'll go on as I am, and make the best of it."
He had another sip.
"Delicious coffee, fine cigar. Worse things than being a doctor. We
get as much insight of family matters as the parsons, and are trusted
with more secrets."
He laughed to himself as he lay back.
"Yes, nice little heiress, Claude," he said again. "Wonder who'll get
her--Christopher the salmon fisher, or our new yachting friend? I think
I should back Glyddyr."
He smoked on, and thought seriously for some time about his other
patient, and after a time he emitted a cloud of smoke which he had
retained in his mouth, as he turned himself with a jerk from one side of
his great easy chair to the other.
"No," he said, "impossible to have done more. The Royal College of
Surgeons couldn't save him."
He smoked on in silence, sipping his coffee from time to time, gazing
the while at Gartram, upon whom the light shone faintly, just sufficient
to show his stern-looking, deeply-marked face.
"Yours is a good head, my dear patient," he mused. "Well-cut features,
and a look of firm determination in your aspect, even when your eyes are
closed. You miss something there, for you have keen, piercing eyes, but
for all that you look like what you are, a stubborn, determined
Englishman, who will have his own way over everything so long as his
works will make him go. When they run down, he comes to me for help,
and I am helping him. Yes, you were sure to get on and heap up money,
and build grand houses, and slap your pocket-book and say: `I am a rich
man,' and `I laugh at and deride the whole world,' and so you do, my
dear sir, all but the doctor, who, once he has you, has you all his
life, and can do what he likes with you. I have you hard, Norman
Gartram, and I am licenced; I have you completely under me, and so
greatly am I in possession of you, that I could this night say to you
die, and you would die; or I could bid you live, and you would live. A
simple giving or a simple taking. A movement with the _tactus eruditus_
of a physician, and then the flag would be down, the King of the Castle
would be gone, and a new king would reign in the stead--or queen," he
added, with a laugh.
"Ah, you people trust us a great deal, and we in return trust you--a
very long time often before we can get paid. Not you, my dear Gartram,
you always were a hard cash man. But you people trust us a great deal,
and our power is great.
"And ought not to be abused," he said hastily. "No, of course not. No
one ought to abuse those who trust. Capital coffee this," he added, as
he partook of more. "Grand thing to keep a man awake.
"Humph! Tired. Ours is weary work," and he yawned.
"I believe I should have been a clever fellow," mused the doctor, "if I
had not been so confoundedly lazy. There's something very interesting
in these cases. In yours, for instance, my fine old fellow, it sets one
thinking whether I could have treated you differently, and whether I
could do anything to prevent the recurrence of these fits."
He smoked on in silence, and then shook his head.
"No," he said, half aloud; "if there is a fire burning, and that is kept
burning, all that we can do is to keep on smothering it for a time. It
is sure to keep on eating its way out. He has a fire in his brain which
he insists upon keeping burning, so until he quenches it himself, all I
can do is to stop the flames by smothering it over by my medical sods.
You must cure yourself, Norman Gartram; I cannot cure you. No, and you
cannot cure yourself, for you will go on struggling to make more money
that you have no use for, till you die. Poor devil!"
He said the last two words aloud, in a voice full of pitying contempt.
Then, after another sip of his coffee, he looked round for a book, drew
the lamp close to his right shoulder, and picked up one or two volumes,
but only to throw them down again; and he was reaching over for another
when his eye fell upon the cash belt with its bulging contents.
"Humph," he ejaculated, as he turned it over and over, and noted that it
had been in service a long time. "Stuffed very full. Notes, I suppose.
Old boy hates banking. Wonder how much there is in? Very
dishonourable," he muttered; "extremely so, but he has placed himself in
my hands."
He drew out a pocket-book.
"Wants a new elastic band, my dear Gartram. Out of order. I must
prescribe a new band. Let me see; what have we here? Notes--fivers--
tens--two fifties. Droll thing that these flimsy looking scraps of
paper should represent so much money. More here too--tens, all of
them."
He drew forth from the pockets of the book dirty doubled-up packets of
Bank of England notes, and carelessly examined them, refolding them, and
returning them to their places.
"What a capital fee I might pay myself," he said, with an unpleasant
little laugh; "and I don't suppose, old fellow, that you would miss it.
Certainly, my dear Gartram, you would be none the worse. Extremely
one-sided sometimes," he said, "to have had the education of a gentleman
and run short. Yes, very."
He returned the last notes to the pocket, and raised a little flap in
the inner part.
"Humph! what's this? An old love letter. No: man's
handwriting:--`instructions to my executors.'"
He gave vent to a low whistle, glanced at the sleeping man, then at the
door, and back at his patient before laying down the pocket-book, and
turning the soiled little envelope over and over.
"Not fastened down," he muttered. "I wonder what--Oh, no: one can't do
that."
He hastily picked up the pocket-book, and thrust the note back into its
receptacle, but snatched it out again, opened it quickly, and read half
aloud certain of the sentences which caught his attention--"`Granite
closet behind book cases--vault under centre of study--big granite
chest'."
"Good heavens!" he said, after a pause, during which he read through the
memorandum again; then refolding it and returning it to the envelope, he
hastily placed the writing in its receptacle, and in turn this was put
in the pocket-book. Lastly, the book was returned to the pouch in the
belt, which latter was thrust hastily into one of the drawers of the
writing-table, the key turned and taken out.
"Give it to Mademoiselle Claude," he said, with a half laugh. "What an
awkward thing if I had been tempted to behave as some would have done
under the circumstances."
He took out a delicate lawn handkerchief, unfolded it, and wiped the
perspiration from his forehead, and then proceeded to do the same to his
hands, which were cold and damp.
"That coffee is strong," he said, "or it is my fancy; perhaps the place
is too warm."
He walked up and down the room two or three times, gazing anxiously at
the bookshelves, and then at the table, where the floor was covered with
a thick Turkey carpet; but he turned away and refilled his cup with
coffee and brandy, found that his cigar was out, and threw the stump
away before helping himself to a fresh one, and smoking heavily for some
time, evidently thinking deeply.
Then, apparently unable to resist the temptation, he rose and walked to
the door, opened it and listened, found that all was silent, closed it
again, and after glancing at his patient, who was sleeping heavily, he
hastily drew out the key, opened the drawer, and, after a momentary
hesitation, took out the belt.
In another minute, the yellow looking memorandum was in his hands, being
studied carefully before it was restored to its resting-place, and again
locked up.
"I did not know I had so much curiosity in my nature," he said, with a
half laugh. "Well, the study of mankind is man, doesn't some one say,
and I'm none the worse for a little extra knowledge of a friend's
affairs. I might be called upon to give advice some day."
Oddly enough, the knowledge again affected the doctor so that he wiped
his brow and hands carefully, and then sat gazing thoughtfully before
him as he sipped and smoked and seemed to settle down into a calm,
restful state, which at times approached drowsiness.
Upon these occasions he rose and softly paced the room, stopping to
listen to his patient's breathing, and twice over feeling his pulse.
"Could not be going on better," he muttered.
Finally, during one of his turns up and down, he heard a step outside
the door, followed by a light tap, and Claude entered.
The doctor started, and looked at her wildly.
"Why have you come down?" he said.
"Come down? How is he? I overslept myself, and it is half-past two."
"Is it so late as that?"
"Doctor Asher!" cried Claude excitedly, as she caught him by the arm,
"you are keeping something back."
Her words seemed to smite him, and he tried vainly to speak. It was as
if he had suddenly been startled by some terrible shock, and he stared
at Claude with his jaw slightly fallen.
"Why don't you speak?"
"Keeping something back," he said hoarsely. "No!"
"No? Why do you say that? You seem so confused and changed. Tell me,
for heaven's sake; my father--"
"Better--better," he said, recovering himself, and speaking loudly, but
in a husky voice. "I--I have been a little drowsy, I suppose, with the
long watching. Not correct, but natural."
She looked at him wonderingly, he seemed so strange, and unable to
contain herself, she turned to where her father lay, with her heart
throbbing wildly, and something seemed to whisper to her the words, "He
is dead."
Volume One, Chapter VII.