No. 53.] SATURDAY,
APRIL 28, 1860 [PRICE 2d.
THE WOMAN IN WHITE.
———•———
MR. FAIRLIE’S NARRATIVE CONCLUDED.
Is
it necessary to say what my first impression was, when I looked at my
visitor’s card? Surely not? My sister having married a foreigner, there was
but one impression that any man in his senses could possibly feel. Of course
the Count had come to borrow money of me.
“Louis,” I said, “do you think he would go away, if you
gave him five shillings?”
Louis looked quite shocked. He surprised me
inexpressibly, by declaring that my sister’s foreign husband was dressed
superbly, and looked the picture of prosperity. Under these circumstances,
my first impression altered to a certain extent. I now took it for granted,
that the Count had matrimonial difficulties of his own to contend with, and
that he had come, like the rest of the family, to cast them all on my
shoulders.
“Did he mention his business?” I asked.
“Count Fosco said he had come here, sir, because Miss
Halcombe was unable to leave Blackwater Park.”
Fresh troubles, apparently. Not exactly his own, as I
had supposed, but dear Marian’s. It made very little difference. Troubles,
any way. Oh dear!
“Show him in,” I said, resignedly.
The Count’s first appearance really startled me. He was
such an alarmingly large person, that I quite trembled. I felt certain that
he would shake the floor, and knock down my art-treasures. He did neither
the one nor the other. He was refreshingly dressed in summer costume; his
manner was delightfully self-possessed and quiet—he had a charming smile. My
first impression of him was highly favourable. It is not creditable to my
penetration—as the sequel will show—to acknowledge this; but I am a
naturally candid man, and I do
acknowledge it, notwithstanding.
“Allow me to present myself, Mr. Fairlie,” he said. “I
come from Blackwater Park, and I have the honour and the happiness of being
Madame Fosco’s husband. Let me take my first, and last, advantage of that
circumstance, by entreating you not to make a stranger of me. I beg you will
not disturb yourself—I beg you will not move.”
“You are very good,” I replied. “I wish I was strong
enough to get up. Charmed to see you at Limmeridge. Please take a chair.”
“I am afraid you are suffering to-day,” said the Count.
“As usual,” I said. “I am nothing but a bundle of
nerves dressed up to look like a man.”
“I have studied many subjects in my time,” remarked
this sympathetic person. “Among others, the inexhaustible subject of nerves.
May I make a suggestion, at once the simplest and the most profound? Will
you let me alter the light in your room?”
“Certainly—if you will be so very kind as not to let
any of it in on me.”
He walked to the window. Such a contrast to dear
Marian! so extremely considerate in all his movements!
“Light,” he said, in that delightfully confidential
tone which is so soothing to an invalid, “is the first essential. Light
stimulates, nourishes, preserves. You can no more do without it, Mr. Fairlie,
than if you were a flower. Observe. Here, where you sit, I close the
shutters, to compose you. There, where you do
not sit, I draw up the blind and
let in the invigorating sun. Admit the light into your room, if you cannot
bear it on yourself. Light, sir, is the grand decree of Providence. You
accept Providence with your own restrictions. Accept Light—on the same
terms.”
I thought this very convincing and attentive. He had
taken me in—up to that point about the light, he had certainly taken me in.
“You see me confused,” he said, returning to his
place—”on my word of honour, Mr. Fairlie, you see me confused in your
presence.”
“Shocked to hear it, I am sure. May I inquire why?”
“Sir, can I enter this room (where you sit a sufferer),
and see you surrounded by these admirable objects of Art, without
discovering that you are a man whose feelings are acutely impressionable,
whose sympathies are perpetually alive? Tell me, can I do this?”
If I had been strong enough to sit up in my chair, I
should of course have bowed. Not being strong enough, I smiled my
acknowledgments instead. It did just as well; we both understood one
another.
“Pray follow my train of thought,” continued the Count.
“I sit here, a man of refined sympathies myself, in the presence of another
man of refined sympathies also. I am conscious of a terrible necessity for
lacerating those sympathies, by referring to domestic events of a very
melancholy kind. What is the inevitable consequence? I have done myself the
honour of pointing it out to you, already. I sit confused.”
Was it at this point that I began to suspect he was
going to bore me? I rather think it was.
“Is it absolutely necessary to refer to these
unpleasant matters?” I inquired. “In our homely English phrase, Count Fosco,
won’t they keep?”
The Count, with the most alarming solemnity, sighed and
shook his head.
“Must I really hear them?”
He shrugged his shoulders (it was the first foreign
thing he had done, since he had been in the room); and looked at me in an
unpleasantly penetrating manner. My instincts told me that I had better
close my eyes. I obeyed my instincts.
“Please, break it gently,” I pleaded. “Anybody dead?”
“Dead!” cried the Count, with unnecessary foreign
fierceness. “Mr. Fairlie! your national composure terrifies me. In the name
of Heaven, what have I said, or done, to make you think me the messenger of
death?”
“Pray accept my apologies,” I answered. “You have said
and done nothing. I make it a rule, in these distressing cases, always to
anticipate the worst. It breaks the blow, by meeting it half way, and so on.
Inexpressibly relieved, I am sure, to hear that nobody is dead. Anybody
ill?”
I opened my eyes, and looked at him. Was he very
yellow, when he came in? or had he turned very yellow, in the last minute or
two? I really can’t say; and I can’t ask Louis, because he was not in the
room at the time.
“Anybody ill?” I repeated; observing that my national
composure still appeared to affect him.
“That is part of my bad news, Mr. Fairlie. Yes.
Somebody is ill.”
“Grieved, I am sure. Which of them is it?”
“To my profound sorrow, Miss Halcombe. Perhaps you were
in some degree prepared to hear this? Perhaps, when you found that Miss
Halcombe did not come here by herself, as you proposed, and did not write a
second time, your affectionate anxiety may have made you fear that she was
ill?”
I have no doubt my affectionate anxiety had led to that
melancholy apprehension, at some time or other; but, at the moment, my
wretched memory entirely failed to remind me of the circumstance. However, I
said, Yes, in justice to myself. I was much shocked. It was so very
uncharacteristic of such a robust person as dear Marian to be ill, that I
could only suppose she had met with an accident. A horse, or a false step on
the stairs, or something of that sort.
“Is it serious?” I asked.
“Serious—beyond a doubt,” he replied. “Dangerous—I hope
and trust not. Miss Halcombe unhappily exposed herself to be wetted through
by a heavy rain. The cold that followed was of an aggravated kind; and it
has now brought with it the worst consequence—Fever.”
When I heard the word, Fever, and when I remembered, at
the same moment, that the unscrupulous person who was now addressing me had
just come from Blackwater Park, I thought I should have fainted on the spot.
“Good God!” I said. “Is it infectious?”
“Not at present,” he answered, with detestable
composure. “It may turn to infection—but no such deplorable complication had
taken place when I left Blackwater Park. I have felt the deepest interest in
the case, Mr. Fairlie—I have endeavoured to assist the regular medical
attendant in watching it—accept my personal assurances of the uninfectious
nature of the fever, when I last saw it.”
Accept his assurances! I never was farther from
accepting anything in my life. I would not have believed him on his oath. He
was too yellow to be believed. He looked like a
walking-West-Indian-epidemic. He was big enough to carry typhus by the ton,
and to dye the very carpet he walked on with scarlet fever. In certain
emergencies, my mind is remarkably soon made up. I instantly determined to
get rid of him.
“You will kindly excuse an invalid,” I said—”but long
conferences of any kind invariably upset me. May I beg to know exactly what
the object is to which I am indebted for the honour of your visit?”
I fervently hoped that this remarkably broad hint would
throw him off his balance—confuse him—reduce him to polite apologies—in
short, get him out of the room. On the contrary, it only settled him in his
chair. He became additionally solemn and dignified and confidential. He held
up two of his horrid fingers, and gave me another of his unpleasantly
penetrating looks. What was I to do? I was not strong enough to quarrel with
him. Conceive my situation, if you please. Is language adequate to describe
it? I think not.
“The objects of my visit,” he went on, quite
irrepressibly, “are numbered on my fingers. They are two. First, I come to
bear my testimony, with profound sorrow, to the lamentable disagreements
between Sir Percival and Lady Glyde. I am Sir Percival’s oldest friend; I am
related to Lady Glyde by marriage; I am an eye-witness of all that has
happened at Blackwater Park. In those three capacities I speak with
authority, with confidence, with honourable regret. Sir! I inform you, as
the head of Lady Glyde’s family, that Miss Halcombe has exaggerated nothing
in the letter that she wrote to your address. I affirm that the remedy which
that admirable lady has proposed, is the only remedy that will spare you the
horrors of public scandal. A temporary separation between husband and wife
is the one peaceable solution of this difficulty. Part them for the present;
and when all causes of irritation are removed, I, who have now the honour of
addressing you—I will undertake to bring Sir Percival to reason. Lady Glyde
is innocent, Lady Glyde is injured; but—follow my thought here!—she is, on
that very account (I say it with shame), the cause of irritation while she
remains under her husband’s roof. No other house can receive her with
propriety, but yours. I invite you to open it!”
Cool. Here was a matrimonial hailstorm pouring in the
South of England; and I was invited, by a man with fever in every fold of
his coat, to come out from the North of England, and take my share of the
pelting. I tried to put the point forcibly, just as I have put it here. The
Count deliberately lowered one of his horrid fingers; kept the other up; and
went on—rode over me, as it were, without even the common coachmanlike
attention of crying “Hi!” before he knocked me down.
“Follow my thought once more, if you please,” he
resumed. “My first object you have heard. My second object in coming to this
house is to do what Miss Halcombe’s illness has prevented her from doing for
herself. My large experience is consulted on all difficult matters at
Blackwater Park; and my friendly advice was requested on the interesting
subject of your letter to Miss Halcombe. I understood at once—for my
sympathies are your sympathies—why you wished to see her here, before you
pledged yourself to inviting Lady Glyde. You are most right, sir, in
hesitating to receive the wife, until you are quite certain that the husband
will not exert his authority to reclaim her. I agree to that. I also agree
that such delicate explanations as this difficulty involves, are not
explanations which can be properly disposed of by writing only. My presence
here (to my own great inconvenience) is the proof that I speak sincerely. As
for the explanations themselves, I—Fosco—I who know Sir Percival much better
than Miss Halcombe knows him, affirm to you, on my honour and my word, that
he will not come near this house, or attempt to communicate with this house,
while his wife is living in it. His affairs are embarrassed. Offer him his
freedom, by means of the absence of Lady Glyde. I promise you he will take
his freedom, and go back to the Continent, at the earliest moment when he
can get away. Is this clear to you as crystal? Yes, it is. Have you
questions to address to me? Be it so; I am here to answer. Ask, Mr. Fairlie—oblige
me by asking, to your heart’s content.”
He had said so much already in spite of me; and he
looked so dreadfully capable of saying a great deal more, also in spite of
me, that I declined his amiable invitation, in pure self-defence.
“Many thanks,” I replied. “I am sinking fast. In my
state of health, I must take things for granted. Allow me to do so, on this
occasion. We quite understand each other. Yes. Much obliged, I am sure, for
your kind interference. If I ever get better, and ever have a second
opportunity of improving our acquaintance——”
He got up. I thought he was going. No. More talk; more
time for the development of infectious influences—in
my room, too; remember that, in
my room!
“One moment, yet,” he said; “one moment, before I take
my leave. I ask permission, at parting, to impress on you an urgent
necessity. It is this, sir! You must not think of waiting till Miss Halcombe
recovers, before you receive Lady Glyde. Miss Halcombe has the attendance of
the doctor, of the housekeeper at Blackwater Park, and of an experienced
nurse as well—three persons for whose capacity and devotion I answer with my
life. I tell you that. I tell you, also, that the anxiety and alarm of her
sister’s illness has already affected the health and spirits of Lady Glyde,
and has made her totally unfit to be of use in the sick-room. Her position
with her husband grows more and more deplorable and dangerous, every day. If
you leave her any longer at Blackwater Park, you do nothing whatever to
hasten her sister’s recovery, and, at the same time, you risk the public
scandal, which you, and I, and all of us, are bound, in the sacred interests
of the Family, to avoid. With all my soul, I advise you to remove the
serious responsibility of delay from your own shoulders, by writing to Lady
Glyde to come here at once. Do your affectionate, your honourable, your
inevitable duty; and, whatever happens in the future, no one can lay the
blame on you. I speak from my
large experience; I offer my friendly advice. Is it accepted—Yes, or No?”
I looked at him—merely looked at him—with my sense of
his amazing assurance, and my dawning resolution to ring for Louis, and have
him shown out of the room, expressed in every line of my face. It is
perfectly incredible, but quite true, that my face did not appear to produce
the slightest impression on him. Born without nerves—evidently, born without
nerves!
“You hesitate?” he said. “Mr. Fairlie! I understand
that hesitation. You object—see, sir, how my sympathies look straight down
into your thoughts!—you object that Lady Glyde is not in health and not in
spirits to take the long journey, from Hampshire to this place, by herself.
Her own maid is removed from her, as you know; and, of other servants fit to
travel with her, from one end of England to another, there are none at
Blackwater Park. You object, again, that she cannot comfortably stop and
rest in London, on her way here, because she cannot comfortably go alone to
a public hotel where she is a total stranger. In one breath, I grant both
objections—in another breath, I remove them. Follow me, if you please, for
the last time. It was my intention, when I returned to England with Sir
Percival, to settle myself in the neighbourhood of London. That purpose has
just been happily accomplished. I have taken, for six months, a little
furnished house, in the quarter called St. John’s Wood. Be so obliging as to
keep this fact in your mind; and observe the programme I now propose. Lady
Glyde travels to London (a short journey)—I myself meet her at the station—I
take her to rest and sleep at my house, which is also the house of her
aunt—when she is restored, I escort her to the station again—she travels to
this place, and her own maid (who is now under your roof) receives her at
the carriage-door. Here is comfort consulted; here are the interests of
propriety consulted; here is your own duty—duty of hospitality, sympathy,
protection, to an unhappy lady in need of all three—smoothed and made easy,
from the beginning to the end. I cordially invite you, sir, to second my
efforts in the sacred interests of the Family. I seriously advise you to
write, by my hands, offering the hospitality of your house (and heart), and
the hospitality of my house (and heart), to that injured and unfortunate
lady whose cause I plead to-day.”
He waved his horrid hand at me; he struck his
infectious breast; he addressed me oratorically—as if I was laid up in the
House of Commons. It was high time to take a desperate course of some sort.
It was also high time to send for Louis, and adopt the precaution of
fumigating the room.
In this trying emergency, an idea occurred to me—an
inestimable idea which, so to speak, killed two intrusive birds with one
stone. I determined to get rid of the Count’s tiresome eloquence, and of
Lady Glyde’s tiresome troubles, by complying with this odious foreigner’s
request, and writing the letter at once. There was not the least danger of
the invitation being accepted, for there was not the least chance that Laura
would consent to leave Blackwater Park, while Marian was lying there ill.
How this charmingly convenient obstacle could have escaped the officious
penetration of the Count, it was impossible to conceive—but it
had escaped him. My dread that he
might yet discover it, if I allowed him any more time to think, stimulated
me to such an amazing degree, that I struggled into a sitting position;
seized, really seized, the writing materials by my side; and produced the
letter as rapidly as if I had been a common clerk in an office. “Dearest
Laura, Please come, whenever you like. Break the journey by sleeping in
London at your aunt’s house. Grieved to hear of dear Marian’s illness. Ever
affectionately yours.” I handed these lines, at arm’s length, to the Count—I
sank back in my chair—I said, “Excuse me; I am entirely prostrated; I can do
no more. Will you rest and lunch down stairs? Love to all, and sympathy, and
so on. Good morning.”
He made another speech—the man was absolutely
inexhaustible. I closed my eyes; I endeavoured to hear as little as
possible. In spite of my endeavours, I was obliged to hear a great deal. My
sister’s endless husband congratulated himself and congratulated me, on the
result of our interview; he mentioned a great deal more about his sympathies
and mine; he deplored my miserable health; he offered to write me a
prescription; he impressed on me the necessity of not forgetting what he had
said about the importance of light; he accepted my obliging invitation to
rest and lunch; he recommended me to expect Lady Glyde in two or three days’
time; he begged my permission to look forward to our next meeting, instead
of paining himself and paining me, by saying farewell; he added a great deal
more, which, I rejoice to think, I did not attend to at the time, and do not
remember now. I heard his sympathetic voice travelling away from me by
degrees—but, large as he was, I never heard
him. He had the negative merit of
being absolutely noiseless. I don’t know when he opened the door, or when he
shut it. I ventured to make use of my eyes again, after an interval of
silence—and he was gone.
I rang for Louis, and retired to my bathroom. Tepid
water, strengthened with aromatic vinegar, for myself, and copious
fumigation, for my study, were the obvious precautions to take; and of
course I adopted them. I rejoice to say, they proved successful. I enjoyed
my customary siesta. I awoke moist and cool. My first inquiries were for the
Count. Had we really got rid of him? Yes—he had gone away by the afternoon
train. Had he lunched; and, if so, upon what? Entirely upon fruit-tart and
cream. What a man! What a digestion!
Am I expected to say anything more? I believe not. I
believe I have reached the limits assigned to me. The shocking circumstances
which happened at a later period, did not, I am thankful to say, happen in
my presence. I do beg and entreat that nobody will be so very unfeeling as
to lay any part of the blame of those circumstances on
me. I did everything for the best. I am not answerable for a
deplorable calamity, which it was quite impossible to foresee. I am
shattered by it; I have suffered under it, as nobody else has suffered. My
servant, Louis (who is really attached to me, in his unintelligent way),
thinks I shall never get over it. He sees me dictating at this moment, with
my handkerchief to my eyes. I wish to mention, in justice to myself, that it
was not my fault, and that I am quite exhausted and heartbroken. I can say
no more.
—————
THE NARRATIVE OF ELIZA MICHELSON,
I am asked to state plainly what I know of the progress of
Miss Halcombe’s illness, and of the circumstances under which Lady Glyde
left Blackwater Park for London.
The reason given for making this demand on me is, that
my testimony is wanted in the interests of truth. As the widow of a
clergyman of the Church of England (reduced by misfortune to the necessity
of accepting a situation), I have been taught to place the claims of truth
above all other considerations. I therefore comply with a request which I
might otherwise, through reluctance to connect myself with distressing
family affairs, have hesitated to grant.
I made no memorandum at the time, and I cannot
therefore be sure to a day, of the date; but I believe I am correct in
stating that Miss Halcombe’s serious illness began during the first week in
July. The breakfast hour was late at Blackwater Park—sometimes as late as
ten, never earlier than half-past nine. On the morning to which I am now
referring, Miss Halcombe (who was usually the first to come down) did not
make her appearance at the table. After the family had waited a quarter of
an hour, the upper housemaid was sent to see after her, and came running out
of the room, dreadfully frightened. I met the servant on the stairs, and
went at once to Miss Halcombe to see what was the matter. The poor lady was
incapable of telling me. She was walking about her room with a pen in her
hand, quite light-headed, in a state of burning fever.
Lady Glyde (being no longer in Sir Percival’s service,
I may, without impropriety, mention my former mistress by her name, instead
of calling her My Lady) was the first to come in, from her own bedroom. She
was so dreadfully alarmed and distressed, that she was quite useless. The
Count Fosco, and his lady, who came up-stairs immediately afterwards, were
both most serviceable and kind. Her ladyship assisted me to get Miss
Halcombe to her bed. His lordship the Count, remained in the sitting-room,
and, having sent for my medicine-chest, made a mixture for Miss Halcombe,
and a cooling lotion to be applied to her head, so as to lose no time before
the doctor came. We applied the lotion; but we could not get her to take the
mixture. Sir Percival undertook to send for the doctor. He despatched a
groom, on horseback, for the nearest medical man, Mr. Dawson, of Oak Lodge.
Mr. Dawson arrived in less than an hour’s time. He was
a respectable elderly man, well known, all round the country; and we were
much alarmed when we found that he considered the case to be a very serious
one. His lordship the Count, affably entered into conversation with Mr.
Dawson, and gave his opinions with a judicious freedom. Mr. Dawson, not
over-courteously, inquired if his lordship’s advice was the advice of a
doctor; and being informed that it was the advice of one who had studied
medicine, unprofessionally, replied that he was not accustomed to consult
with amateur-physicians. The Count, with truly Christian meekness of temper,
smiled, and left the room. Before he went out, he told me that he might be
found, in case he was wanted in the course of the day, at the boat-house on
the banks of the lake. Why he should have gone there, I cannot say. But he
did go; remaining away the whole day till seven o’clock, which was
dinner-time. Perhaps, he wished to set the example of keeping the house as
quiet as possible. It was entirely in his character to do so. He was a most
considerate nobleman.
Miss Halcombe passed a very bad night; the fever coming
and going, and getting worse towards the morning, instead of better. No
nurse fit to wait on her being to be found in the neighbourhood, her
ladyship the Countess, and myself, undertook the duty, relieving each other.
Lady Glyde, most unwisely, insisted on sitting up with us. She was much too
nervous and too delicate in health to bear the anxiety of Miss Halcombe’s
illness calmly. She only did herself harm, without being of the least real
assistance. A more gentle and affectionate lady never lived; but she cried,
and she was frightened—two weaknesses which made her entirely unfit to be
present in a sick-room.
Sir Percival and the Count came in the morning to make
their inquiries. Sir Percival (from distress, I presume, at his lady’s
affliction, and at Miss Halcombe’s illness) appeared much confused and
unsettled in his mind. His lordship testified, on the contrary, a becoming
composure and interest. He had his straw hat in one hand, and his book in
the other; and he mentioned to Sir Percival, in my hearing, that he would go
out again, and study at the lake. “Let us keep the house quiet,” he said.
“Let us not smoke in-doors, my friend, now Miss Halcombe is ill. You go your
way, and I will go mine. When I study, I like to be alone. Good morning,
Mrs. Michelson.”
Sir Percival was not civil enough—perhaps, I ought, in
justice to say, not composed enough—to take leave of me with the same polite
attention. The only person in the house, indeed, who treated me, at that
time or at any other, on the footing of a lady in distressed circumstances,
was the Count. He had the manners of a true nobleman; he was considerate
towards every one. Even the young person (Fanny, by name) who attended on
Lady Glyde, was not beneath his notice. When she was sent away by Sir
Percival, his lordship (showing me his sweet little birds at the time) was
most kindly anxious to know what had become of her, where she was to go the
day she left Blackwater Park, and so on. It is in such little delicate
attentions that the advantages of aristocratic birth always show themselves.
I make no apology for introducing these particulars; they are brought
forward in justice to his lordship, whose character, I have reason to know,
is viewed rather harshly in certain quarters. A nobleman who can respect a
lady in distressed circumstances, and can take a fatherly interest in the
fortunes of an humble servant girl, shows principles and feelings of too
high an order to be lightly called in question. I advance no opinions—I
offer facts only. My endeavour through life is to judge not, that I be not
judged. One of my beloved husband’s finest sermons was on that text. I read
it constantly—in my own copy of the edition printed by subscription, in the
first days of my widowhood—and, at every fresh perusal, I derive an increase
of spiritual benefit and edification.
There was no improvement in Miss Halcombe; and the
second night was even worse than the first. Mr. Dawson was constant in his
attendance. The practical duties of nursing were still divided between the
Countess and myself; Lady Glyde persisting in sitting up with us, though we
both entreated her to take some rest. “My place is by Marian’s bedside,” was
her only answer. “Whether I am ill, or well, nothing will induce me to lose
sight of her.”
Towards mid-day, I went down stairs to attend to some
of my regular duties. An hour afterwards, on my way back to the sick-room, I
saw the Count (who had gone out again early, for the third time), entering
the hall, to all appearance in the highest good spirits. Sir Percival, at
the same moment, put his head out of the library-door, and addressed his
noble friend, with extreme eagerness, in these words:
“Have you found her?”
His lordship’s large face became dimpled all over with
placid smiles; but he made no reply in words. At the same time, Sir Percival
turned his head, observed that I was approaching the stairs, and looked at
me in the most rudely angry manner possible.
“Come in here and tell me about it,” he said, to the
Count. “Whenever there are women in a house, they’re always sure to be going
up or down stairs.”
“My dear Percival,” observed his lordship, kindly,
“Mrs. Michelson has duties. Pray recognise her admirable performance of them
as sincerely as I do! How is the sufferer, Mrs. Michelson?”
“No better, my lord, I regret to say.”
“Sad—most sad!” remarked the Count. “You look fatigued,
Mrs. Michelson. It is certainly time you and my wife had some help in
nursing. I think I may be the means of offering you that help. Circumstances
have happened which will oblige Madame Fosco to travel to London, either
to-morrow or the day after. She will go away in the morning, and return at
night; and she will bring back with her, to relieve you, a nurse of
excellent conduct and capacity, who is now disengaged. The woman is known to
my wife as a person to be trusted. Before she comes here, say nothing about
her, if you please, to the doctor, because he will look with an evil eye on
any nurse of my providing. When she appears in this house, she will speak
for herself; and Mr. Dawson will be obliged to acknowledge that there is no
excuse for not employing her. Lady Glyde will say the same. Pray present my
best respects and sympathies to Lady Glyde.”
I expressed my grateful acknowledgments for his
lordship’s kind considerations. Sir Percival cut them short by calling to
his noble friend (using, I regret to say, a profane expression) to come into
the library, and not to keep him waiting there any longer.
I proceeded upstairs. We are poor erring creatures; and
however well established a woman’s principles may be, she cannot always keep
on her guard against the temptation to exercise an idle curiosity. I am
ashamed to say that an idle curiosity, on this occasion, got the better of
my principles, and made me unduly
inquisitive about the question which Sir Percival had addressed to his noble
friend, at the library door. Who was the Count expected to find, in the
course of his studious morning rambles at Blackwater Park? A woman, it was
to be presumed, from the terms of Sir Percival’s inquiry. I did not suspect
the Count of any impropriety—I knew his moral character too well. The only
question I asked myself was—Had he found her?
All The Year Round, 28 April 1860, Vol.III, No.53, pp.49-54
Weekly Part 23.
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