Sophy found herself in the grey, rainy dawn, still walking to and fro in
her bedroom. She had always thought that it was only in books and plays
that people wrung their hands, but now she was twisting her fingers so
hard together that the rings bit cruelly. She stripped them off--then
stood gazing curiously at the finger where her wedding ring had been.
She felt that there should be a little, blistered band where the
poisoned ring had rested.
Yes--it was all over. There could be no compromise--no atonement this
time. It was over--over. She would take her son and go back to her own
country, to her own people. Nothing, no one could move her. And she
heard again in imagination that brutal voice, shouting: "You lie!"
She went to a little cupboard and poured out a dose of _sal volatile_.
This she drank, then leaned back for a few moments on the couch at the
foot of her bed.
A knock at the door roused her. She sat up, gazing about her, at a loss
for a few seconds. Then she realised. She must have slept.
"Who is it?" she asked.
"It's me, m'm. Tilda," came the voice of her little maid.
"Wait a moment, Tilda."
She sprang to the glass, smoothed her hair--flung a dressing-gown about
her shoulders.
Tilda stared when she saw that white face, with the great dusky circles
round the eyes.
"O dear, m'm, how you do look!" she faltered. "Are you ill?"
"No. I felt rather nervous. It's nothing," Sophy said hurriedly. "What
o'clock is it?"
"Just seven, m'm. Mr. Gaynor sent me to you. I was against it, knowing
that you'd been out last night--but now I'm sure I'm thankful I did
come. It's about the Master, m'm. He's very bad, Mr. Gaynor says. He'd
like to speak with you, m'm, Mr. Gaynor would. But let me bring you a
cup of tea first, m'm--please."
"Yes, bring me some tea. Tell Gaynor I will see him after I have had
some tea."
Sophy lay back on the couch. Could it be that Cecil was going to die?
She thought: "I am quite honest with myself. I don't try to deceive
myself. I hope that he will die. Yes--quickly. But what is curious is
that this wish doesn't shock me--that other part of me, that doesn't
exactly wish it. I can see that it would be right not to wish it, but I
_do_ wish it."
Tilda came back with the tea in a few moments. The strong stimulant
brought some colour to Sophy's lips--steadied her. When she had drunk
it, she said:
"Now send Gaynor to me."
Gaynor was at the door within two moments. Tilda held it open for him
rather grudgingly. She thought that her lady's indisposition was of far
graver import than that of Gaynor's master.
"Shut the door, Tilda--and don't come back until I ring," said Sophy. "I
wish to speak to Gaynor alone."
The man stood near the door, waiting.
"Is Mr. Chesney ill again?" asked Sophy.
"Very ill, indeed, madam--in my opinion."
"Dangerously?"
"I can't say, madam. I think it will be dangerous if it's allowed to go
on."
"How do you mean 'allowed to go on'?"
"If a doctor isn't consulted, madam."
"But you know Mr. Chesney's dislike of doctors."
"Yes, madam; but in this instance it seemed to me that it would be
better not to regard it."
"Does Mr. Chesney himself wish it?"
"Mr. Chesney is unconscious, madam."
Sophy sat up, supporting herself by one arm along the back of the couch.
Her great, dark, passionately tired eyes, and the small, composed,
neutral-tinted eyes of the valet met in a look of questioning on her
part, of quiet but noncommittal decision on his.
"Unconscious? How? A heavy sleep?"
"No, madam; more a state of syncope, I should say."
"Since when?"
"He sank into it about six o'clock this morning. He was very bad last
night, madam--delirious. I had some difficulty in quieting him."
Sophy looked at him steadily, in silence. Then she said:
"Did you give him some of that strong medicine you use--that Indian
medicine?"
"Yes, madam."
"Don't you think that might have thrown him into this state?"
"I think not, madam."
Sophy was silent for another moment, looking down at her ringless hands
which she had clasped tightly together again. Then she looked up at
Gaynor. His face was as noncommittal as that of a diplomatist
negotiating a difficult matter. Yet she saw knowledge in that face, a
possession of facts that was hidden from her.
"What sort of doctor do you think should be called in? A specialist?"
"That would seem best, madam."
"What kind of specialist?"
"A nerve-specialist, I should think, madam."
Sophy continued to look at him curiously. At last she said:
"You know, Gaynor, if Mr. Chesney were to find out that you had proposed
this it would probably cost you your place!"
"That must be as it may be, madam."
"You are greatly attached to Mr. Chesney, are you not?"
"I have served Mr. Chesney for ten years, madam."
Gaynor's face was as impassive as ever. He was evidently not an
emotional character. Sophy looked down again at her knitted fingers;
then she said:
"Have you thought of any especial doctor?"
"Doctor Algernon Carfew is considered an excellent nerve-specialist,
madam. I believe he studied in the States with Doctor Weir Mitchell."
So Gaynor had thought very carefully and seriously on this subject, long
before the present moment!
Sophy gazed at him keenly again. What important knowledge lay locked in
that narrow chest, of which the key would not be given her, she felt
sure! And an unwilling conviction seized her: there must be something
fundamentally fine in Cecil to make a servant so loyal to him.
She leaned back wearily again on the cushions.
"I must think this over very carefully, Gaynor. It will be a very
serious matter to violate Mr. Chesney's wishes in this way."
"Yes, madam."
"How long do you think that we can safely wait before calling in a
physician?"
She coupled herself and Gaynor together unconsciously in this "we,"
because there was no one else in all England that she felt she could
consult with on this subject.
"There is no immediate danger, madam. I have given Mr. Chesney a
hypodermic of nitro-glycerine. Within the next two or three hours will
be time enough, I should say."
Somehow this word "hypodermic" frightened Sophy. She started erect
again, her hand grasping the back of the couch as before.
"Is that the strong medicine that you always give him? Why did you give
it to him that way? Can't he swallow?"
"He is quite unconscious, madam. Nitro-glycerine is a powerful
heart-tonic. The heart action was very bad. But it is better now,
madam."
These "madams" of the valet were beginning to fret Sophy cruelly. They
were like the _toc-toc_ of a sort of irregular metronome, beating out of
time to the jangled clamour of her thoughts. They seemed almost like a
respectful mockery of her hesitation. But she only hesitated because of
the violent hatred with which Chesney always mentioned physicians of any
kind. He had said not once, but on many different occasions, words of
this description:
"By God! The unpardonable sin against _me_ would be the foisting on me
one of those damned fakirs when I was helpless and couldn't throttle
him. The mother that bore me couldn't hand me over to a medical ghoul
with impunity. So remember--no doctors! I die or I live--but no
doctors!"
Then all at once her mind seemed to open like a book that has been
closed, and opens of itself at a certain page. On this page of her
suddenly opened mind Sophy read as in a neat, short sentence: "This man
thinks it very peculiar that you do not ask to see your husband."
She got to her feet, drawing the folds of her dressing-gown about her.
"I wish to see Mr. Chesney," she said, in measured, stilted tones.
"Very good, madam."
He held the door open for her to pass through, then closed it
noiselessly, and followed her with soundless footsteps along the
corridor.
The shutters of Chesney's room were closed, but the curtains were not
drawn. A night-light burnt behind a screen. Sophy went to the foot of
the bed and stood looking down on her husband. In the moderate light she
saw his face, bluish and dusky against the white pillow. He was
breathing harshly but regularly. His lips--those lips which she had last
seen framing a deadly insult--were parted, and seemed as though pasted
against his teeth.
She commanded herself, and moving round to the side of the bed, leaned
over and put her hand on his forehead. It was dry, like rough paper, and
very hot.
What she felt as she bent over him she could not tell. Perhaps more than
anything that though he was so huge and fierce a man, he had now only
herself and a valet to help him in his helplessness.
She stood thus a moment, then left the room, beckoning Gaynor to follow
her. When they were outside, she said:
"What is this Doctor Carfew's address?"
He gave it to her.
She pondered a moment.
"Very well," she then said. "I shall dress and go to see him. Would you
like me to get a nurse to assist you?"
"If I might venture, madam," said the man discreetly, "it would be
better perhaps to hear first what Doctor Carfew says. He may wish a
nurse of his own."
"Yes. That is true. Tell Parkson to call me a cab in half an hour."
She put on a dark-blue linen frock and a little toque of black straw.
"Give me my long grey veil, Tilda," she said. As the girl was winding it
about her hat, she asked:
"Haven't you a friend who's a Catholic, Tilda?"
"Yes, m'm--Maria Tonks. A very good girl, though a Papist, m'm."
"And what did you say was the name of the priest who converted her?"
"Father Raphael of the Poor, m'm. But he didn't convert her exactly,
m'm, if I may say so. She just took such a fancy to 'im, his bein' so
kind to her w'en in distress, m'm--as she went and became a Catholic."
"I see. He is very good to the poor, isn't he?"
"So they say, m'm. He gets his name from that. Anybody 'as only to be
unfortunate to find welcome with him--so Maria says."
"Yes.... Yes...." said Sophy absently. Then added: "Where does he live?"
Tilda mentioned the address.
Sophy thanked her mechanically and went out.