"Drive to St. L----"s Hospital," he said.
The hackman touched his hat and drove off. In less than fifteen minutes he drew up before the front of St. L----"s.
The hackman jumped down, went up and rang the bell. Then he came back to the carriage and opened the door.
Mr. Rockharrt got out, followed by his granddaughter.
"Wait here!" he said to the hackman, as he went to the door, which was promptly opened by an attendant.
"I wish to see the physician in charge here, or the head of the hospital, or whatever may be his official t.i.tle," said the Iron King.
"You mean the Rev. Dr. ----"
"Yes, yes; take him my card."
"Walk in the parlor, sir."
The attendant conducted the party into a s.p.a.cious, plainly furnished reception or waiting room, saw them seated, and then took away Mr.
Rockharrt"s card.
A few minutes pa.s.sed, and a tall, white haired, venerable form, clothed in a long black coat and a round skull cap, entered the room, looking from side to side for his visitor.
Mr. Rockharrt got up and went to meet him.
"Mr. Rockharrt, of North End?" courteously inquired the venerable man.
"The same. Dr. ----, I presume."
"Yes, sir. Pray be seated. And this lady?" inquired the venerable doctor, courteously turning toward Cora.
"Oh--my granddaughter, Mrs. Rothsay."
The aged man shook hands kindly with Cora, and then turned to Mr.
Rockharrt, as if silently questioning his will.
"I came to inquire about the lady who was found in an unconscious state at the Hudson River Railway depot. How is she?" The old man"s anxiety betrayed itself even through his deliberate words.
"She is better. You know the lady?"
"More than know her--have been intimate with her for many years. She is our guest and traveling companion. She got separated from us in the crowd which was pressing through the railway gate to take the train yesterday morning. I surely thought when I missed her that she had found her way to some car. But it appears that she was seized with vertigo, or something, and so missed the train."
"Yes; a lady, one of our regular visitors, found her there, by Providence, in a state of deep stupor, and being unable to discover her friends, or name, or address, put her in a carriage and brought her directly here."
"She is better, you say? I wish to see her and take her back to our apartments," said Mr. Rockharrt.
"I will send for one of the nurses to take you to her room. You will excuse me. I am momentarily expecting the Dean of Olivet, who is on a visit to our city, and comes to-day to go through the hospital," said the doctor, and he rang a bell.
"The dean here? Why, I thought we left him at West Point," said Mr.
Rockharrt.
"He came down by a late train last night, I understand. He makes but a flying tour through the country, and cannot stay at any one place," the venerable doctor explained. And then he touched the bell again.
The same man who had let our party in came to the door to answer the call.
"Say to Sister Susannah that I would like to see her here," said the doctor.
The man went out and was presently succeeded by a sweet faced, middle aged woman in a black dress and a neat white cap.
"Here are the friends of the young lady who was brought in yesterday morning. Will you please to take them to the bedside of your patient?"
The Protestant sister nodded pleasantly and led off the visitors.
As they went up the main staircase they heard the front door bell ring, the door opened, and the Dean of Olivet, with some gentlemen in his company, entered the hall.
Our party, after one glance, pa.s.sed up the stairs, through an upper hall and a corridor, and paused before a door which Sister Susannah opened.
They entered a small, clean, neat room, where, clothed in a white wrapper, reclining in a white easy chair, beside a white curtained window, and near a white bed, sat Rose Stillwater. She was looking, not only pale, but sallow--as she had never looked before.
Rose Stillwater held out one hand to Mr. Rockharrt and one to Cora Rothsay, in silence and with a faint smile.
The sister, seeing this recognition, set two cane bottomed chairs for the visitors and then went out, leaving them alone with the patient.
"Good Lord, my dear, how did all this come about?" inquired old Aaron Rockharrt, as he sank heavily upon one of the chairs, making it creak under him.
"It was while we stood in the crowd. I was pressed almost out of breath.
Then the terrible pang shot through my head, and I ceased to struggle and let everybody pa.s.s before me. I dropped down on one of the benches.
I had taken a morphia pellet before I left the hotel. I had the medicine in my pocket. I took another then--"
"Very wrong, my dear. Very wrong, my dear, to meddle with that drug, without the advice of a physician."
"Yes; I know it now, but I did not know it then. The second pellet stopped my headache, and I went to the ladies" dressing room to recover myself a little, so as to be able to write a telegram saying that I would follow you by the next train, but there a stupor came over me, and I knew no more until I awoke late last night and found myself here."
"How perilous, my child! In that stupor you might have been robbed or kidnapped by persons who might have pretended to be your relations and carried you off and murdered you for your clothing," said old Aaron Rockharrt, unconscious in his native rudeness that he was frightening and torturing a very nervous invalid.
"But," urged Rose--who had grown paler at the picture conjured up--"providentially I was found by the kind lady who sent or rather brought me here, and even caused me to be put in this room instead of in a ward. Sister Susannah explained this to me as soon as I was able to make inquiries."
"Now, my dear, do you feel able to go back with us to the Blank House, where we are now again staying and waiting for Sylva.n.u.s to join us?"
"Oh, yes; I shall be glad to go, though all here are most tender and affectionate to me. But I would like to see and thank the doctor for all his goodness. How like the ideal of the beloved apostle he seems to me--so mild, so tender, so reverend."
"I think you cannot wait for that to-day, my dear. The reverend doctor is engaged with the Dean of Olivet, who is going through the hospital."
Rose Stillwater"s face blanched.
"Will they--will they--will they--come into this room?"
"Of course not! And if they should, you are up and in your chair. And if you were not, they are a party of ministers of the gospel and medical doctors, and you would not mind if they should see you in bed. You are a nervous child to be so easily alarmed. It is the effect of the reaction from your stupor," said Mr. Rockharrt.