But Stephen"s senses having returned to him by this time, he overhears and understands the last sentence.
"No, don"t leave me," he entreats, earnestly, though speaking with great difficulty. "Roger, are you there? Stay with me."
"There is Dulce," falters Roger.
"No, no; don"t leave me here alone," says the wounded man, with foolish persistency, and Roger, at his wits" end, hardly knows what to do.
"Are you anything easier now?" he asks, raising Stephen"s head ever so gently. Dulce, feeling her presence has been thoroughly ignored, and fearing lest the very sight of her may irritate her late lover, draws back a little, and stands where he can no longer see her.
"Try to drink this," says Roger, holding the flask again to Gower"s lips and forcing a few drops between them. They are of some use, as presently a slight, a very slight tinge of red comes into his cheek, and his eyes show more animation.
"It is very good of you, old man," he whispers, faintly, looking up at Roger. "I believe you are sorry for me, _after all_."
The "after all" is full of meaning.
"Why shouldn"t I be sorry for you?" says Roger, huskily, his eyes full of tears. "Don"t talk like that."
"I know you think I behaved badly to you," goes on Stephen, with painful slowness. "And perhaps I did."
"As to that," interrupted Roger, quickly, "we"re quits there, you know; nothing need be said about that. Why can"t we forget it? Come, Stephen, forget it all, and be friends again."
"With all my heart," says Gower, and his eyes grow glad, and a smile of real happiness illumines his features for a moment.
"Now, don"t talk any more; don"t, there"s a good fellow," says Roger, with deep entreaty.
"There is--one thing--I must say," whispers Gower, "while I have time.
Tell _her_--that I have behaved like a coward to her, and that I give her back her promise. Tell her she may marry whom she pleases." He gasps for breath, and then, pressing Roger"s hand with his own uninjured one, says, with a last effort, "And that will be _you_, I hope."
The struggle to say this proves too much for his exhausted strength; his head drops back again upon Roger"s arm, and, for the third time, he falls into a dead faint.
The tears are running down Roger"s cheeks by this time, and he is gazing with ever-increasing terror at the deathly face below him, when looking up to address some remark to Dulce, he finds she is nowhere to be seen.
Even as he looks round for her in consternation, he sees two or three men hurrying toward him, and two others following more slowly with something that looks like a shutter or door between them. Dulce, while he was listening to Stephen"s last heavily-uttered words, had hurried away, and, climbing over all that came in her way, had descended into a little valley not far from the scene of the accident, where at a farmhouse she had told her tale, and pressed into her service the men now coming quickly toward Roger.
With their help the wounded man (still happily unconscious) is carried to the farm-house, where he remains until, the carriage from the Court having arrived, they take him home in it as carefully as can be managed.
In a few hours the worst is known; and, after all, the worst is not so very bad. His arm is broken and two of his ribs, and there is rather a severe contusion on his left shoulder. Little Dr. Bland has pledged them his word in the most solemn manner, however, that there is no internal injury, and that his patient only requires time and care to be quite himself again in _no time_. This peculiar date is a favorite one with the little medico.
The household being rea.s.sured by this comfortable news, every one grows more tranquil, and dinner having proved a distinct failure, supper is proposed; and Roger having hunted the whole house unsuccessfully for Dulce, to compel her to come in and eat something, unearths her at last in the nursery, where she is sitting all alone, staring at the sleeping children.
"Where"s nurse?" asks Roger, gazing around. "Has she been dismissed, and have you applied for the situation?"
"She has gone down for a message. I came here," says Dulce, "because I didn"t want to speak to anybody. I feel so strange still, and so frightened."
"Come down and eat something," says Roger. "You _must_. I shall carry you if you won"t walk, and think how the servants will speak about your light behavior afterwards! _Do_ come, darling; you know you have eaten nothing since breakfast."
"I wonder if he is really in no danger?" says Dulce wistfully.
"He certainly is not. I have it from Bland himself; and, Dulce," and here he hesitates, as if uncertain whether he ought to proceed or not, "now it is all right, you know, and--and that--and when we have heard he is on the safe road to recovery, it can"t be any harm to say what is on my mind, can it?"
"No; I suppose not," says Dulce, blushing vividly.
"Well, then, just say you will marry me the very moment he is on his feet again," says Roger, getting this out with considerable rapidity.
"It will seem ungracious of us, I think, not to take advantage of his kindness as soon as possible."
"Supposing he was _to go back of it all_ when he got well," says Dulce, timidly.
"Oh, he _can"t_; a promise is a promise, you know--as he has made us feel. Poor old Stephen!" this last hastily, lest he shall seem hard on his newly-recovered friend.
"If you think that," says Dulce, going close up to him and looking at him with soft love-lit eyes, "I will marry you just whenever you like."
To make this sweet a.s.surance doubly sweet, she stands on tiptoe, and, slipping her arms round her lover"s neck, kisses him with all her heart.
CHAPTER XXVII.
"About some act That has no relish of salvation in"t."
--_Hamlet._
"Sweet mercy is n.o.bility"s true badge."
--_t.i.tus Andronicus._
"BEFORE you begin, Fabian, it is only fair to tell you that I will not listen favorably to one word in his defense. Under the farsical term of secretary, Slyme has been a disgrace and a torment to me for years; and last night has finished everything."
"It was very unfortunate, no doubt," says Fabian, regretfully. "What a curse the love of drink is!--a madness, a pa.s.sion."
"I have told him he must go," says Sir Christopher, who is in a white heat of rage, and is walking up and down the room with an indignant frown upon his face. Just now, stopping short before Fabian, he drops into a seat and says, testily, "_Unfortunate!_ _that_ is no word to use about it. Why, look you how it stands; you invite people to your house to dine, and on your way to your dining-room, with a lady on your arm, you are accosted and insolently addressed by one of your household--your secretary, forsooth--_so_ drunk that it was shameful! He reeled! I give you my word, sir--he _reeled_! I thought Lady Chetwoode would have fainted: she turned as pale as her gown, and but for her innate pluck would have cried aloud. It was insufferable, Fabian. Waste no more words over him, for go he shall."
"After all these years," says Fabian, thoughtfully, thrumming gently on the table near him with his forefinger.
All night long the storm has raged with unexampled fury, and even yet its anger is fierce and high as when first it hurled itself upon a sleeping world. The raindrops are pattering madly against the window-panes, through the barren branches of the elms the wind is shrieking, now rising far above the heads of the tallest trees, now descending to the very bosom of the earth, and, flying over it, drives before its mighty breath all such helpless things as are defenceless and at its mercy.
Perhaps the noise of this tempest outside drowns the keen sense of hearing in those within, because neither Fabian nor Sir Christopher stir, or appear at all conscious of the opening of a door at the upper end of the library, where they are sitting. It is a small door hidden by a portiere leading into another corridor that connects itself with the servants" part of the house.
As this door is gently pushed open, a head protrudes itself cautiously into the room, though, on account of the hanging curtains, it is quite invisible to the other occupants of the apartment. A figure follows the head, and stands irresolutely on the threshold, concealed from observation, not only by the curtain, but by a j.a.panese screen that is placed just behind Sir Christopher"s head.
It is a crouching, forlorn, debased figure, out of which all manliness and fearlessness have gone. A figure crowned by gray hair, yet gaining no reverence thereby, but rather an additional touch of degradation.
There is, too, an air of despondency and alarm about this figure to-day new to it. It looks already an outcast, a miserable waif, turned out to buffet with the angry winds of fortune at the very close of his life"s journey. There is a wildness in his bloodshot eyes, and a nervous tremor in his bony hand, as it clutches at the curtain for support, that betrays the haunting terror that is desolating him.
"I don"t care," says Sir Christopher, obdurately. "I have suffered too much at his hands; I owe him nothing but discomfort. I tell you my mind is made up, Fabian; he leaves me at once, and forever."
At this, the crouching figure in the doorway shivers, and shakes his wretched old head, as though all things for him are at an end. The storm seems to burst with redoubled fury, and flings itself against the panes, as though calling upon him to come out and be their pastime and their sport.
"My dear Sir Christopher," says Fabian, very quietly, yet with an air of decision that can be heard above the fury of the storm, "it is impossible you can turn the old man out _now_, at his age, to _again_ solicit Fortune"s favor. It would be terrible."