THE DREAM OF HIS LIFE.
Rachel did not hurry to see a doctor, but having promised to do so
she knew she must keep her word, so the second day after the Bishop's
visit, knowing that Luke would be away at a clerical meeting in the
country, she wrote a note to the doctor who had been attending her
mother-in-law asking him to come and see her. She did not suppose that
there was anything seriously the matter with her notwithstanding the
fact that she felt so ill; and after all, she thought to herself, she
need not follow out his injunctions if they were inconvenient.
She was quite unprepared for his verdict. He told her that both her
heart and her lungs were affected, and that it was absolutely necessary
that she should give up all parish work and if possible take a thorough
rest. To Mrs. Greville, he gave a still more serious account.
"She should leave this place at once," he said, "and live as far as
possible an open air life. A sanatorium would give her the best chance.
But if this is impossible she should go into the country or to the
sea. Of course she has been doing the work of two or three women. She
must drop all that and what is more she should be fed up. She is not
properly nourished."
"Do you mean to say you think that she has not had enough food?" asked
Mrs. Greville very much distressed.
"I am afraid not. She has not looked after herself at all. I made her
tell me what she had had in the way of food yesterday, and when I heard
I was not surprised at her state of health.
"I am afraid it will be an awful blow to my son," said Mrs. Greville.
"I'm afraid it will, but if he wants to keep her he must make some
other arrangement for her. I won't be responsible for her life unless
she is removed as soon as possible, and is given the opportunity of
changing entirely her way of living."
Mrs. Greville so dreaded telling Luke the news she had received from
the doctor that she did not ask him to come round to see her that
evening. So she sat and brooded over the news, and in her heart she
blamed Rachel for neglecting herself as she had evidently done. Of
course people would lay the blame on Luke; but how could you expect a
man whose every moment was filled in with his parish duties to notice
when his wife looked pale, or lost her appetite. And what a terrible
hindrance to his work to have an invalid wife! Moreover, it was easy
for the doctor to prescribe a different climate and complete rest; but
how his plans were to be carried out she did not know.
Meanwhile Rachel quite unconscious of the doctor's visit to Mrs.
Greville, after the first shock of the news, determined to behave as
if he had never been. She was resolved not to become an invalid and a
hindrance to her husband, an hour before it was positively necessary.
And after all doctors often made mistakes. She would drink more milk, a
matter on which he had laid great stress, and there she would leave it.
When Luke returned home from the clerical meeting he was in good
spirits. The paper he had read had been well received and the
discussion that had followed had been intensely interesting. Rachel
was as interested in all that had happened as she always was in his
concerns, and he did not notice that she was looking unusually tired
and worn.
The next day two letters lay on the hall table for Luke. But he had to
hurry off directly after lunch to an appointment, and so he put them in
his pocket to read in the tram on the way.
It was only after taking his seat that he remembered them. One he
saw at once was from the Bishop, the other had the London postmark.
He opened the second first as being more interesting to him; and he
could scarcely believe what he read. It was the offer of a living in
a crowded part of London, where he would have the charge of 16,000
souls. He could have shouted for joy. It was exactly what he had been
longing for. It was true that financially it was not much better than
his present living, but money had very little attraction or indeed
meaning for Luke, and he dismissed from his mind that part of the news
in the letter almost without a thought. It was the work that he craved,
and work in the very centre of the universe, as he liked to think of
London. At last the dream of his life was coming true. He felt he could
hardly get through his work, so anxious was he to tell the news to
Rachel and to his mother.
He felt that his mother would rejoice with him almost more than Rachel.
Now that he came to think of it his wife had never taken much to the
thought of London; though he knew that she would do nothing to prevent
him going. Had she not said when they had been talking about the
possibility of him one day being offered a church there, "Where thou
goest I will go?" But the remembrance of her words about London and her
dislike of it, for a moment or two rather damped his spirits; but he
knew she would not fail him now that the dream of his life was coming
true.
So full was he of the news the letter contained, that he forgot there
was another one in his pocket till he was in the tram again on his way
home.
To his amusement, he found that this one was also an offer of a living;
but one in the country. It was a good one, much better than the one
offered to him in London; but this did not weigh with him in the least,
and the fact of it being in the country at once made him dismiss it
from his mind. In fact, he scarcely took in the Bishop's letter in
which he said, that he felt sure a country life would be beneficial
both for his wife and his son, adding that when he called at his house
he had thought Rachel looking very tired and worn.
Rachel was always so bright in her husband's presence that he
supposed the Bishop must have called at an inconvenient time and that
unfortunately Rachel had not been able to conceal the fact. He had not
noticed anything wrong in her looks himself, and he did not recollect
her once complaining of even a headache ever since her marriage. The
Bishop evidently had got a wrong impression of her from his call. He
would write and thank him for his kind thought of them but decline the
country living and tell him why. Then he thrust the Bishop's letter
into his pocket and made his way joyfully toward his mother's rooms.
[Illustration]