"And you--will you miss me?"
I tried to say "For mother"s sake I will," but I did not utter the words. Mr. Randolph gave me a quick glance.
"I have not told your mother yet that I am going," he said.
"I wondered if you had," I replied. "I thought of telling her myself to-day."
"Do not say anything until nearer the time," was his somewhat guarded response. "Ah! here comes the carriage."
"So you did order the carriage after all," I said, seeing that the same neat brougham which he had used on the last occasion stopped the way.
"You never forbade me to see you both home in the carriage," he said with a laugh. "Now then, Mrs. Wickham."
Mother had been standing a little back out of the crowd. He went to her, gave her his arm, and she stepped into the carriage, just as if it belonged to her. Mother had always that way with Mr. Randolph"s possessions, and sometimes her manner towards him almost annoyed me.
What could it mean. Did she know something about him which I had never heard of nor guessed?
The next day about noon Mr. Randolph entered Jane"s sitting-room, where I often spent the mornings.
"I have just come from Anderson"s," he said. "He will make an appointment with Dr. Reade to see your mother to-morrow."
"But on what plea?" I asked. "Mother is somewhat nervous. I am sure it would not be at all good for her to think that her indisposition was so great that two doctors must see her."
"Anderson will arrange that," replied Mr. Randolph. "He has told your mother once or twice lately that he thinks her very weak, and would like her to try a new system of diet. Now Reade is a great specialist for diseases of the digestion. Both doctors will guard against any possible shock to your mother."
"Well," I said somewhat petulantly, "I cannot imagine why you are nervous about her. She is quite as well as she ever was."
He looked at me as if he meant to say something more, and I felt certain that he strangled a sigh which never came to the surface. The next moment he left the room, I looked round me in a state of bewilderment.
In Jane"s room was a bookcase, and the bookcase contained a heterogeneous ma.s.s of books of all sorts. Amongst others was a medical directory. I took it up now, and scarcely knowing why I did so, turned to the name of Reade. Dr. Reade"s name was entered in the following way:--
"Reade, Henry, M.D., F.R.C.P., consulting physician to the Brompton Hospital for Consumption, London, and to the Royal Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, Ventnor."
I read these qualifications over slowly, and put the book back in its place. There was nothing whatever said of Dr. Reade"s qualifications for treating that vast field of indigestion to which so many sufferers were victims. I resolved to say something to Jane.
"What is it?" said Jane, as she came into the room. "What is fretting you now?"
"Oh, nothing," I answered. "Dr. Reade must be a very clever physician."
"First-cla.s.s, of course. I am so pleased your mother is going to see him."
"But I thought mother was suffering very much from weakness and want of appet.i.te."
"So she is, poor dear, and I am inventing quite a new sort of soup, which is partly digested beforehand, that I think she will fancy."
"But I have been looking up Dr. Reade"s name. He seems to be a great doctor for consumption and other diseases of the chest. There is no allusion to his extraordinary powers of treating people for indigestion."
"Well, my dear, consumptives suffer more than most folks from indigestion. Now, don"t you worry your head; never meet troubles half-way. I am extremely pleased that your mother is to see Dr.
Reade."
On the following morning mother herself told me that Dr. Reade was coming.
"It is most unnecessary," she said, "and I told Dr. Anderson so. I was only telling him yesterday that I thought his own visits need not be quite so frequent. He is such a dear, kind man, that I do not like to hurt his feelings; but really, Westenra, he charges me so little that it quite goes to my heart. And now we have not our old income, this very expensive consulting physician is not required. I told Dr.
Anderson so, but he has made up his mind. He says there is no use in working in the dark, and that he believes I should be much stronger if I ate more."
Dr. Reade called in the course of the morning, and Dr. Anderson came with him. They stayed in mother"s room for some little time, and then they both went out, and Jane Mullins had an interview with them first, and then she sent for me.
"Dr. Anderson wants to speak to you, Westenra," she said. She rushed past me as she spoke, and I could not catch sight of her face, so I went into her little sitting-room, where both the doctors were waiting for me, and closed the door behind me. I was not at all anxious. I quite believed that mother"s ailment was simply want of appet.i.te and weakness, and I had never heard of any one dying just from those causes.
"Let me introduce you to Dr. Reade," said Dr. Anderson.
I looked then towards the great consulting physician. He was standing with his back to the light--he was a little man, younger looking than Dr. Anderson. His hair was only beginning to turn grey, and was falling away a trifle from his temples, and he was very upright, and very thin, and had keen eyes, the keenest eyes I had ever looked at, small, grey and bright, and those eyes seemed to look through you, as though they were forcing a gimlet into the very secrets of your soul.
His face was so peculiar, so intellectual, so sharp and keen, and his glance so vivid, that I became absorbed in looking at it, and forgot for the moment Dr. Anderson. Then I glanced round and found that he had vanished, and I was alone with Dr. Reade.
"Won"t you sit down, Miss Wickham?" he said kindly.
I seated myself, and then seeing that his eyes were still on me, my heart began to beat a little more quickly, and I began to feel uncomfortable and anxious, and then I knew that I must brace myself up to listen to something which would be hard to bear.
"I was called in to-day," said Dr. Reade, "to see your mother. I have examined her carefully--Dr. Anderson thinks that it may be best for you Miss Wickham--you seem to be a very brave sort of girl--to know the truth."
"Yes, I should like to know the truth," I answered.
I found these words coming out of my lips slowly, and I found I had difficulty in saying them, and my eyes seemed not to see quite so clearly as usual; and Dr. Reade"s keen face seemed to vanish as if behind a mist, but then the mist cleared off, and I remembered that I was father"s daughter and that it behoved me to act gallantly if occasion should require, so I got up and went towards the little doctor, and said in a quiet voice--
"You need not mind breaking it to me; I see by your face that you have bad news, but I a.s.sure you I am not going to cry nor be hysterical.
Please tell me the truth quickly."
"I knew you were a brave girl," he said with admiration, "and I have bad news, your mother"s case is----"
"What?" I asked.
"A matter of time," he replied gravely; "she may live for a few months or a year--a year is the outside limit."
"A few months or a year," I said. I repeated the words vaguely; and then I turned my eyes towards the window and looked past it and out into the Square. I saw a carriage drawn by a spirited pair of bays, it pa.s.sed within sight of the window, and I noticed a girl seated by herself in the carriage. She had on a fashionable hat, and her hair was arranged in a very pretty way, and she had laughing eyes. I was attracted by her appearance, and I even said to myself in an uncertain sort of fashion, "I believe I could copy that hat," but then I turned away from the window and faced the doctor.
"You are very brave," he repeated; "I did not think any girl would be quite so brave."
"My father was a brave man," I said then; "he won his Victoria Cross."
"Ah," replied Dr. Reade, "women often do just as brave actions. Their battles are silent, but none the less magnificent for that."
"I always meant to get the Victoria Cross if I could," was my reply.
"Well," he answered cheerfully, "I know now how to deal with things; I am very glad that you are that sort. You know that Jim Randolph is a friend of mine."
It was on the tip of my tongue to say, Who is Jim Randolph? why should he be a friend of everybody worth knowing? but I did not ask the question. I put it aside and said gravely--
"The person I want to talk about is mother. In the first place, what is the matter with her?"
"A very acute form of heart disease. The aortic valve is affected. She may not, and probably will not, suffer much; but at any moment, Miss Wickham, at any moment, any shock may"--he raised his hand emphatically.