"Perhaps ten minutes ago. Before you rang for Parker."
"How did he die? Where did they find him? He looked so well. He always seemed so strong. Oh! are you sure he is dead?"
She went towards the door. Nurse laid her hand on her arm.
"Miss Sophy, I have not told you all. Can you bear to hear it?
Remember, master is in the next room, and he knows nothing yet.
Come, you must help me to tell him. Now, be quiet, dear! It was no common death he died!" She looked in her face as if trying to convey her meaning by her eyes.
Sophy"s lips moved, but nurse could hear no sound.
"He has been shot as he was coming home along Turner Street, to-night."
Sophy went on with the motion of her lips, twitching them almost convulsively.
"My dear, you must rouse yourself, and remember your father and mother have yet to be told. Speak! Miss Sophy!"
But she could not; her whole face worked involuntarily. The nurse left the room, and almost immediately brought back some sal-volatile and water. Sophy drank it eagerly, and gave one or two deep gasps.
Then she spoke in a calm, unnatural voice.
"What do you want me to do, nurse? Go to Helen and poor Amy. See, they want help."
"Poor creatures! we must let them alone for a bit. You must go to master; that"s what I want you to do, Miss Sophy. You must break it to him, poor old gentleman! Come, he"s asleep in the dining-room, and the men are waiting to speak to him."
Sophy went mechanically to the dining-room door.
"Oh! I cannot go in. I cannot tell him. What must I say?"
"I"ll come with you, Miss Sophy. Break it to him by degrees."
"I can"t, nurse. My head throbs so, I shall be sure to say the wrong thing."
However, she opened the door. There sat her father, the shaded light of the candle-lamp falling upon, and softening his marked features, while his snowy hair contrasted well with the deep crimson morocco of the chair. The newspaper he had been reading had dropped on the carpet by his side. He breathed regularly and deeply.
At that instant the words of Mrs. Hemans"s song came full in Sophy"s mind--
"Ye know not what ye do, That call the slumberer back From the realms unseen by you, To life"s dim weary track."
But this life"s track would be to the bereaved father something more than dim and weary, hereafter.
"Papa," said she softly. He did not stir.
"Papa!" she exclaimed, somewhat louder.
He started up, half awake.
"Tea is ready, is it?" and he yawned.
"No! papa, but something very dreadful--very sad, has happened!"
He was gaping so loud that he did not catch the words she uttered, and did not see the expression of her face.
"Master Henry has not come back," said nurse. Her voice, heard in unusual speech to him, arrested his attention, and rubbing his eyes, he looked at the servant.
"Harry! oh, no! he had to attend a meeting of the masters about these cursed turn-outs. I don"t expect him yet. What are you looking at me so strangely for, Sophy?"
"O papa, Harry is come back," said she, bursting into tears.
"What do you mean?" said he, startled into an impatient consciousness that something was wrong. "One of you says he is not come home, and the other says he is. Now, that"s nonsense! Tell me at once what"s the matter. Did he go on horseback to town? Is he thrown? Speak, child, can"t you?"
"No! he"s not been thrown, papa," said Sophy sadly.
"But he"s badly hurt," put in the nurse, desirous to be drawing his anxiety to a point.
"Hurt? Where? How? Have you sent for a doctor?" said he, hastily rising, as if to leave the room.
"Yes, papa, we"ve sent for a doctor--but I"m afraid---I believe it"s of no use."
He looked at her for a moment, and in her face he read the truth.
His son, his only son, was dead.
He sank back in his chair, and hid his face in his hands, and bowed his head upon the table. The strong mahogany dining-table shook and rattled under his agony.
Sophy went and put her arms round his bowed neck.
"Go! you are not Harry," said he; but the action roused him.
"Where is he? where is the"--said he, with his strong face set into the lines of anguish, by two minutes of such intense woe.
"In the servants" hall," said nurse. "Two policemen and another man brought him home. They would be glad to speak to you when you are able, sir."
"I am now able," replied he. At first when he stood up he tottered.
But steadying himself, he walked, as firmly as a soldier on drill, to the door. Then he turned back and poured out a gla.s.s of wine from the decanter which yet remained on the table. His eye caught the wine-gla.s.s which Harry had used but two or three hours before.
He sighed a long quivering sigh, and then mastering himself again, he left the room.
"You had better go back to your sisters, Miss Sophy," said nurse.
Miss Carson went. She could not face death yet.
The nurse followed Mr. Carson to the servants" hall. There on their dinner-table lay the poor dead body. The men who had brought it were sitting near the fire, while several of the servants stood round the table, gazing at the remains.
THE REMAINS!
One or two were crying; one or two were whispering; awed into a strange stillness of voice and action by the presence of the dead.
When Mr. Carson came in they all drew back and looked at him with the reverence due to sorrow.
He went forward and gazed long and fondly on the calm, dead face; then he bent down and kissed the lips yet crimson with life. The policemen had advanced, and stood ready to be questioned. But at first the old man"s mind could only take in the idea of death; slowly, slowly came the conception of violence, of murder. "How did he die?" he groaned forth.