"Tray! Tray! Where"s my dog, Mrs. Boxer?"
"Lord, sir, what do you want with your dog now? He is in the back-yard."
"And what business has my dog in the back-yard?" almost screamed the sufferer, in accents that denoted no diminution of vigour. "I thought as soon as my back was turned my dog would be ill-used! Why did I go without my dog? Let in my dog directly, Mrs. Boxer!"
"All right, you see, sir," said the apothecary, turning to Beaufort--"no cause for alarm--very comforting that little pa.s.sion--does him good--sets one"s mind easy. How did it happen? Ah, I understand! knocked down--might have been worse. Your groom (sharp fellow!) explained in a trice, sir. Thought it was my old friend here by the description. Worthy man--settled here a many year--very odd-eccentric (this in a whisper).
Came off instantly: just at dinner--cold lamb and salad. "Mrs. Perkins,"
says I, "if any one calls for me, I shall be at No. 4, Prospect Place."
Your servant observed the address, sir. Oh, very sharp fellow! See how the old gentleman takes to his dog--fine little dog--what a stump of a tail! Deal of practice--expect two accouchements every hour. Hot weather for childbirth. So says I to Mrs. Perkins, "If Mrs. Plummer is taken, or Mrs. Everat, or if old Mr. Grub has another fit, send off at once to No.
4. Medical men should be always in the way-that"s my maxim. Now, sir, where do you feel the pain?"
"In my ears, sir."
"Bless me, that looks bad. How long have you felt it?"
"Ever since you have been in the room."
"Oh! I take. Ha! ha!--very eccentric--very!" muttered the apothecary, a little disconcerted. "Well, let him lie down, ma"am. I"ll send him a little quieting draught to be taken directly--pill at night, aperient in the morning. If wanted, send for me--always to be found. Bless me, that"s my boy Bob"s ring. Please to open the door, ma" am. Know his ring--very peculiar knack of his own. Lay ten to one it is Mrs. Plummer, or perhaps. Mrs. Everat--her ninth child in eight years--in the grocery line. A woman in a thousand, sir!"
Here a thin boy, with very short coat-sleeves, and very large hands, burst into the room with his mouth open. "Sir--Mr. Perkins--sir!"
"I know--I know-coming. Mrs. Plummer or Mrs. Everat?"
"No, sir; it be the poor lady at Mrs. Lacy"s; she be taken desperate.
Mrs. Lacy"s girl has just been over to the shop, and made me run here to you, sir."
"Mrs. Lacy"s! oh, I know. Poor Mrs. Morton! Bad case--very bad--must be off. Keep him quiet, ma"am. Good day! Look in to-morrow-nine o"clock.
Put a little lint with the lotion on the head, ma"am. Mrs. Morton! Ah!
bad job that."
Here the apothecary had shuffled himself off to the street door, when Arthur laid his hand on his arm.
"Mrs. Morton! Did you say Morton, sir? What kind of a person--is she very ill?"
"Hopeless case, sir--general break-up. Nice woman--quite the lady--known better days, I"m sure."
"Has she any children--sons?"
"Two--both away now--fine lads--quite wrapped up in them--youngest especially."
"Good heavens! it must be she--ill, and dying, and dest.i.tute, perhaps,"--exclaimed Arthur, with real and deep feeling; "I will go with you, sir. I fancy that I know this lady--that," he added generously, "I am related to her."
"Do you?--glad to hear it. Come along, then; she ought to have some one near her besides servants: not but what Jenny, the maid, is uncommonly kind. Dr. -----, who attends her sometimes, said to me, says he, "It is the mind, Mr. Perkins; I wish we could get back her boys."
"And where are they?"
""Prenticed out, I fancy. Master Sidney--"
"Sidney!"
"Ah! that was his name--pretty name. D"ye know Sir Sidney Smith?--extraordinary man, sir! Master Sidney was a beautiful child--quite spoiled. She always fancied him ailing--always sending for me. "Mr. Perkins," said she, "there"s something the matter with my child; I"m sure there is, though he won"t own it. He has lost his appet.i.te--had a headache last night." "Nothing the matter, ma"am," says I; "wish you"d think more of yourself."
"These mothers are silly, anxious, poor creatures. Nater, sir, Nater--wonderful thing--Nater!--Here we are."
And the apothecary knocked at the private door of a milliner and hosier"s shop.
CHAPTER X.
"Thy child shall live, and I will see it nourished."--t.i.tus Andronicus.
As might be expected, the excitement and fatigue of Catherine"s journey to N---- had considerably accelerated the progress of disease. And when she reached home, and looked round the cheerless rooms all solitary, all hushed--Sidney gone, gone from her for ever, she felt, indeed, as if the last reed on which she had leaned was broken, and her business upon earth was done. Catherine was not condemned to absolute poverty--the poverty which grinds and gnaws, the poverty of rags and famine. She had still left nearly half of such portion of the little capital, realised by the sale of her trinkets, as had escaped the clutch of the law; and her brother had forced into her hands a note for L20. with an a.s.surance that the same sum should be paid to her half-yearly. Alas! there was little chance of her needing it again! She was not, then, in want of means to procure the common comforts of life. But now a new pa.s.sion had entered into her breast--the pa.s.sion of the miser; she wished to h.o.a.rd every sixpence as some little provision for her children. What was the use of her feeding a lamp nearly extinguished, and which was fated to be soon broken up and cast amidst the vast lumber-house of Death? She would willingly have removed into a more homely lodging, but the servant of the house had been so fond of Sidney--so kind to him. She clung to one familiar face on which there seemed to live the reflection of her child"s. But she relinquished the first floor for the second; and there, day by day, she felt her eyes grow heavier and heavier beneath the clouds of the last sleep. Besides the aid of Mr. Perkins, a kind enough man in his way, the good physician whom she had before consulted, still attended her, and refused his fee. Shocked at perceiving that she rejected every little alleviation of her condition, and wishing at least to procure for her last hours the society of one of her sons, he had inquired the address of the elder; and on the day preceding the one in which Arthur discovered her abode, he despatched to Philip the following letter:
"SIR:--Being called in to attend your mother in a lingering illness, which I fear may prove fatal, I think it my duty to request you to come to her as soon as you receive this. Your presence cannot but be a great comfort to her. The nature of her illness is such that it is impossible to calculate exactly how long she may be spared to you; but I am sure her fate might be prolonged, and her remaining days more happy, if she could be induced to remove into a better air and a more quiet neighbourhood, to take more generous sustenance, and, above all, if her mind could be set more at ease as to your and your brother"s prospects.
You must pardon me if I have seemed inquisitive; but I have sought to draw from your mother some particulars as to her family and connections, with a wish to represent to them her state of mind. She is, however, very reserved on these points. If, however, you have relations well to do in the world, I think some application to them should be made. I fear the state of her affairs weighs much upon your poor mother"s mind; and I must leave you to judge how far it can be relieved by the good feeling of any persons upon whom she may have legitimate claims. At all events, I repeat my wish that you should come to her forthwith.
"I am, &c."
After the physician had despatched this letter, a sudden and marked alteration for the worse took place in his patient"s disorder; and in the visit he had paid that morning, he saw cause to fear that her hours on earth would be much fewer than he had before antic.i.p.ated. He had left her, however, comparatively better; but two hours after his departure, the symptoms of her disease had become very alarming, and the good-natured servant girl, her sole nurse, and who had, moreover, the whole business of the other lodgers to attend to, had, as we have seen, thought it necessary to summon the apothecary in the interval that must elapse before she could reach the distant part of the metropolis in which Dr. ---- resided.
On entering the chamber, Arthur felt all the remorse, which of right belonged to his father, press heavily on his soul. What a contrast, that mean and solitary chamber, and its comfortless appurtenances, to the graceful and luxurious abode where, full of health and hope, he had last beheld her, the mother of Philip Beaufort"s children! He remained silent till Mr. Perkins, after a few questions, retired to send his drugs. He then approached the bed; Catherine, though very weak and suffering much pain, was still sensible. She turned her dim eyes on the young man; but she did not recognise his features.
"You do not remember me?" said he, in a voice struggling with tears: "I am Arthur--Arthur Beaufort." Catherine made no answer.
"Good Heavens! Why do I see you here? I believed you with your friends--your children provided for--as became my father to do. He a.s.sured me that you were so." Still no answer.
And then the young man, overpowered with the feelings of a sympathising and generous nature, forgetting for a while Catherine"s weakness, poured forth a torrent of inquiries, regrets, and self-upbraidings, which Catherine at first little heeded. But the name of her children, repeated again and again, struck upon that chord which, in a woman"s heart, is the last to break; and she raised herself in her bed, and looked at her visitor wistfully.
"Your father," she said, then--"your father was unlike my Philip; but I see things differently now. For me, all bounty is too late; but my children--to-morrow they may have no mother. The law is with you, but not justice! You will be rich and powerful;--will you befriend my children?"
"Through life, so help me Heaven!" exclaimed Arthur, falling on his knees beside the bed.
What then pa.s.sed between them it is needless to detail; for it was little, save broken repet.i.tions of the same prayer and the same response. But there was so much truth and earnestness in Arthur"s voice and countenance, that Catherine felt as if an angel had come there to administer comfort. And when late in the day the physician entered, he found his patient leaning on the breast of her young visitor, and looking on his face with a happy smile.
The physician gathered enough from the appearance of Arthur and the gossip of Mr. Perkins, to conjecture that one of the rich relations he had attributed to Catherine was arrived. Alas! for her it was now indeed too late!
CHAPTER XI.
"D"ye stand amazed?--Look o"er thy head, Maximinian!
Look to the terror which overhangs thee."
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER: The Prophetess.
Phillip had been five weeks in his new home: in another week, he was to enter on his articles of apprenticeship. With a stern, unbending gloom of manner, he had commenced the duties of his novitiate. He submitted to all that was enjoined him. He seemed to have lost for ever the wild and unruly waywardness that had stamped his boyhood; but he was never seen to smile--he scarcely ever opened his lips. His very soul seemed to have quitted him with its faults; and he performed all the functions of his situation with the quiet listless regularity of a machine. Only when the work was done and the shop closed, instead of joining the family circle in the back parlour, he would stroll out in the dusk of the evening, away from the town, and not return till the hour at which the family retired to rest. Punctual in all he did, he never exceeded that hour. He had heard once a week from his mother; and only on the mornings in which he expected a letter, did he seem restless and agitated. Till the postman entered the shop, he was as pale as death--his hands trembling--his lips compressed. When he read the letter he became composed for Catherine sedulously concealed from her son the state of her health: she wrote cheerfully, besought him to content himself with the state into which he had fallen, and expressed her joy that in his letters he intimated that content; for the poor boy"s letters were not less considerate than her own. On her return from her brother, she had so far silenced or concealed her misgivings as to express satisfaction at the home she had provided for Sidney; and she even held out hopes of some future when, their probation finished and their independence secured, she might reside with her sons alternately. These hopes redoubled Philip"s a.s.siduity, and he saved every shilling of his weekly stipend; and sighed as he thought that in another week his term of apprenticeship would commence, and the stipend cease.