Leonora

understand this singular caprice on the part of Carpenter, Carpenter and the head of the house lifted Un

on the sofa,' said John, b

had better take him upstairs at o

halt, and Carpenter, who was holding Meshach's feet, gla

ere, Nora,'

airs,' said Rose,

iscussion; he hesitated, and then Carpenter moved towards the stairs. The small dangling b

had steered Uncle Meshach round the twist of the staircase, and insinuated him through a doorway, an

r come home, Jack?

up with Dain, and they passed us at Shawp

,' she

und the bed; but Ethel and Milly stood at the foot. The inanimate form embarrass

Leonora, and Rose's fingers wer

ly Uncle Meshach?' John lifted the wrist and felt for the pulse, but he could distinguish no beat, and he shook his head accordingly. 'Try the heart, mother,' Rose suggested, and Leonora, after penetrating beneath garment after garment, placed her hand on Meshach's icy and tranquil breast.

octor would be q

ly, returning to gaze again at the immovab

. Anyhow, she'll be very anxious.' But she faltered before the complicated problem. 'Rose, go and wake Bessie, and ask her if uncle called h

o Church Street?'

s to help than Rose's almost sinister self-possession. 'Ethel and Milly,' she said promptly. 'At least they can run on first. And be very careful what

all three getting up, and then she disappeared into the kitchen. Ethel and Milly departed, a little scared,

er attack, depend on it,

spell of futile inactivity which the discovery of Uncle Meshach's body s

the doctor's been,' John continued. 'You're perhaps more

us and the underhand which governed his entire existence, struck her afresh and seemed to devastate her heart. She felt that she could have tolerated in her husband any vice with less effort than that one vice which was specially his, that vice so contemptible and odious, so destructive of every noble and generous sentiment. Her sil

thrown off his ulster, endeavoured to assist her in lighting the fire, but she at once proved to him that his incapacity was a hindrance to her; whereupon he wondered what in the name of goodness Carpenter and the

y, examining Uncle Meshach ane

ora demanded together

e that!' the girl ass

d long at the

d John, coldly discouragin

ceiling. Outside could be heard the creaking of stairs, and the affrighted whisper of the maids as they descend

is beatin

is tight dress coat, and, still bending over Uncle Meshach, but turning

Jove?' John

as dead?' said th

ra no

e doctor announced w

good,' s

,' the doctor concluded, with undimin

tely upon demand. In a few minutes Uncle Meshach was covered almost from head to foot with cloths drench

timulant at once. I can't stop now; not another minute. I was called to an

his thing?' J

t your nose there.' He indicated Uncle Meshach's mouth. 'Do you notice th

isease?' Jo

end's house, and just as he is lifting his hand to the knocker, he has a convulsion and falls down unconscious. That's Bright's disease. Never been ill in his life! Not so far as he knew! Not so far as he knew! Nearly all y

e was deeply versed in the social traditions of the district. Men consulted him because their grandfathers had consulted his father, and because there had always been a Dr. Hawley in Bursley, and because he was acquainted with the pathological details of their ancestral history on both sides of the hearth. His patients, indeed, were not individuals, but families. There

r the medicine?' he asked in the doorwa

momentary

can give me all your instructions. Mother must

And the doctor beamed again sudden

us appreciation of all the fuss: the maids with their hair down their backs bending and whispering over a stove; Ethel and Milly trudging scared through the nocturnal streets; Rose talking with demure excitement to old Hawley in his aromatic surgery; John officiously carrying kettles to and fro, and issuing orders to Bessie in the passage; Leonora cast violently out of one whirlpool into another; and some unknown expectant terrified pair wondering why the doctor, who had been warned months before, should thus culpably neglect their urgent summons. As he lay there so grim and derisive and solitary, so fatigued with days

mustard?' John

said

cances. She had been aware of it for many years, yet the fact touched her now more sharply than ever. It seemed to her that she must cry out in

urst out, frowning. 'They're here!' He became excited as he listened

diffusible stimulant. And there's a chance that sooner or later it may put him into a perspiration. But it will be worse than usel

temples and the corners of his lips showed a very slight perspiration. But though the doses were repeated, and the fomentations assiduously

absolutely sure that he would never revive. Had not the doctor said as much? And he wanted desperately to hear that Aunt Hannah still lived, a

ourneys to the kitchen. 'It's evidently not much use you stopping here,

h me to go down ther

to your common s

app

ught to go down to Chur

added nothing to this question

y,' John

be positively wicked. Had not John heard what Rose said to the doctor: 'Mother must stay here'? Had he not heard that? But of course he

father?' Rose demanded of

y illness, I shouldn't be any u

flicts of opinion in presence of the strange and awe-inspiring riddle in the blanket. An impulse seiz

e?' she asked

answered Rose, with an exasperati

in,' John suggested. 'I expect he

irt up and walk. I shall be half wa

ounded three through the dark passages of the apprehensive house, Rose left the room. He was alone with what remained of Uncle Meshach. He moved the blanket, and touched the cloth which lay on Meshach's heart. 'Not too hot, that,' he said aloud. Taking the cloth he walked to the fire, where was a large saucepan full of nearly boiling water. He picked up the lid of the saucepan, dropped it, crossed over to the washstand with a brusque movement, and plunged the cloth into the cold water of the

ed, with his surpassing genius for esca

said; 'put it on.' And she took the cloth from his hand. 'Why,' she

it off,' he replied

the road,' she said.

le calm; but a sick, shrivelled little man, so pitiably prostrate that his condition drew the sympathy out of Leonora with a sharp violent pain, as very cold metal burns the fingers. He could not even whisper; he could only look. Soon afterwards Dr. Hawley returned, explaining that the anxiety of a husband a

he led her out of the room, leaving Ros

she asked him plaint

gas,' he said, doing so. 'And now,' he proceeded, 'you'll kindly retire to bed, instantly. Mr. Myatt is out

r,' Leonora

g her gently on to the sofa

own to Church Street to loo

it. There's no hurry

told yet ... I'm not at

he doctor orders.' It was Ethel who had come int

girls to sleep? The

troking her mother's hand, as though she and the doctor we

ly. 'But I'm not. I'm quite well, and my brain is perfectly clear. And anyhow, I'm

to that!' the doctor laughed. 'Ethel,

a reflected. 'It's ridiculous. Howev

Rose entered with a powder in a w

er, and then drink this. Here,

d side by side in front of her. Great waves seemed to surge through her brain.

she had forgotten what Ethel was not to forget. Her head reeled as it lay firmly on the pillow. The waves were waves of sound now, and they developed int

oom. Everything was in perfect order; she guessed that Ethel must have trod softly to make it tidy before leaving her, hours ago. John's bed was turned down, and his pyjamas laid out, with all Bessie's accustomed precision. Presently she noticed on her night-table a sheet of note-paper, on which had b

humour them,' she murmur

was irreproachably neat and

it, Bessie?' L

aight-up th

for eleven hours! How

hearse is to have two horses, but not the coaches, ma'am. He's asleep just now, ma'am, and I'm watching him, but Miss Rose is resting on Miss Milly's bed in case, so I can come in here for a minute or two. He told the doctor and master that Miss Myatt was took with one of them attacks at half-past eleven o'clock, and he went for Dr. Adams as lives at the top of Oldcastle Street. Dr. Adams wasn't in, and then he saw a cab-it must have been co

re are Miss Ethel and

ne. And master said he should be back himself about six. He never slept a wink, ma'am;

ou been to

's bedroom, for a bit, and Miss Ethel on the sofy in the drawing-room-not as you might call that sleep

fer to have it downstairs, B

a'am. But Mis

downstairs. In three-qu

is there anything I c

requite the girl in coin on the next pay-day; and she was filled with a sense of the goodness of humanity. And then there crossed her mind the recollection that she had caught John in a wicked act on the previous night. Yes; he had not imposed on her for a moment; and she perceived clearly now that murder had been in his heart. She was not appalled nor desolated. She thought: 'So that is murder, that little thing, that thing over in a minute!' It appeared to her that murder in the concrete was l

finger to her lips. Uncle Meshach was asleep on Ethel's bed, and on the other bed lay Rose, also asleep, stretched in a

,' Bessie whispered, 'and Mr. Twemlow ha

what has ha

one o'clock, a man told me at Knype Station that Mr. Myatt had cut his throat on your doorstep

people say!'

ed, gazing at her, as with quick, sure movemen

ing, 'they sent me to bed

when you went to

perience of the dance as accidental, a thing to be forgotten, an episode of which the repetition was merely to be avoided; Death and the fear of Death had come suddenly and written over its record in the page of existence. Her present sanity and calmness and mild bliss and self-control-these were to last, these were the real symptoms of her condition, and of Arthur's condition. No! The memory of the ball did not trouble her; it had not troubled her since she awoke after the sedative. She had entered the drawing-room without a qualm, and the instant of their meeting, anticipated on the previous night as much in terror as in joy, had passed equably and serenely. Relying on his strength, and exulting in her own, she had given him her hand, and he had taken it, and that was all. She knew her native force. She knew that she had the precious and rare gift of common sense, and she was perfectly convinced that this common sense, which had never long deserted her in the past, could never permanently desert her in the future. She imagined that nothing was stronger than common sense; she had small suspicion that in their noblest hours men and women have invariably despised common s

it was just opposite the Clay

s spread over the r

was so anxious to know what had happened, I couldn't go on to meet them-I was obliged to wait until they came up. And they didn't notice me at first, and then Ethel shrieked out: "Oh, it's mother!" And Milly s

he said re

y are.' And she proceeded to give him all the details of Aunt Hannah's death, as she had learnt them from Ethel and Milly during the walk home through sleeping Hillport: how the servant had grown alarmed, and had called a neighbour by breaking a bedroom window with a broomstick, leaning from Aunt Hannah's window, and how t

Don't you think it's st

nge, but it isn't really. Suc

ely, with a girlish inflec

thing you are!' And she liked to think of his superiority over her in experience, knowledge, impert

talk further

w's your foot?

fo

ast night, didn't y

ly reappeared on his lips. She might easily have let it die naturally, had she ch

aid, 'I did

husband was

ter the Blue Danube. And I didn't want to; I couldn't. And so I said I ha

ad embarrassed him. And just as, a minute earlier, she had liked him for his lordly, masculine, philosophic superiority, so now she liked him for that youthful embarrassment. She felt that all men were equally child-like to women, and that the most ado

lting in the adequacy of her common sense. Innocent an

n after the Blue Danube, eithe

tle intimidated; but she looked at him wi

aging and piquant antagonism which springs up between lovers and dies away; he had

g, and said evenly that the

or them, but on perceiving that their elders were talking quite naturally, they at once abandoned constraint and became natural too. Fro

alked all the way to Oldcastle, and we never thought,

ther's faul

e shops were all shut. We shall

es don't shut on Thursda

ow morning,' said Ethel, and approaching Leo

rls, and the graver suavity of Arthur and herself, seemed to Leonora

nticipate their next meeting. The eagerness of that anticipation surprised her. And, moreover, the environment of her life closed quickly round her; she could not ignore it. She demanded of herself what was Arthur's excuse for calling, and how it was that she should

fire shone brighter. Bessie had disappeared, and

kissing Rose fondly. 'You had better go downstairs

assented, yawning. '

Twe

angry disappointment. 'Why didn'

e he had accomplished his own recovery in the amazing period of fifty hours; and in addition to accomplishing his recovery he had given an uninterrupted series of the most minute commands concerning the arrangements for the obsequies. Protests had been utterly useless. 'It will kill him,' said Leonora to

small glass, its three-cornered wardrobe, its narrow washstand, its odd bonnet-boxes, its trunk, its skirts hung inside-out behind the door, its Bible with the spectacle-case on it, its texts, its miniature portraits, its samplers, framed in maple, and its en

id Dain, Fred Ryley, Dr. Hawley, Leonora, the servant, and lastly Arthur Twemlow-unwillingly desecrating the almost s?cular modesty of the chamber, Meshach received them one by one with calmness, with detachment, with the air of the curator of the museum. 'Here she is,' hi

ulture was as important, and as strictly controlled by etiquette, as the lying-i

ad a fancy for you to see her again as soon as they

that's the best,' he murmured awkw

perficially resembled that of an examiner awarding pass-marks to a pupil. 'By the way, Twemlow,' he added as Arthur was leaving t

stared

putting his thin tremulous hand on the edge

know. I haven't settled it

thou'dst had time enou

he pavement between two rows of sluttish sightseers, to the hearse. Uncle Meshach, with the aid only of his stick, entered the first coach; John Stanway and Fred Ryley-the rules of precedence

, the cake, the preserves, the tea, the wines and the spirits, etiquette demanded that they should be cheerful, should show a resignation to the will of heaven, and should eat heartily. And although the rapid-ticking clock on the mantelpiece in the parlour pointed only to a little better than three o'clock they were

be read. It's right and proper as all the guests shou

d more the dialect which his father

Besides, my patients!' And by dint of blithe obstinacy he ma

wo,' said Arthur to Uncle M

hach replied, and dropping back into

ng white envelope fr

Lord Jesus Christ. I bequeath ten pounds each to my dear nephew John Stanway, and to his wife Leonora, to purchase mourning at my decease, and five pounds each for the same purpose to my dear great-nephew Frederick Wellington Ryley, and to my great-nieces Ethel, Rosalys, and Millicent Stanway, and to any

Ryley!' exclaimed Stanway in a frigid tone, b

spoken during the meal, and h

dispose of absolutely according to his own discretion,' in case he should survive her; and that in case she should survive

y of two hundred and fifty pounds to Mr. Ryley in case Mr. Myatt

it,' said S

the lawyer agreed

looking defiantly at his uncle, 'Ryley ge

, nephew,' the o

f your intentions in regard to aunt's savings which she

st mean,

hile intending to be calm, pompous, and supe

n, 'are you going

l enough where they lie.

ordered table, he pushed back his chair and stood up. 'You'll excuse me now, uncle,' he said, bitterly polite,

p. He declined firmly every offer of help or companionship, and since the middle-aged servant made

k, the servant came into the parlour and found him doz

the gas. 'Hadn't ye better go to

deliberately, taking hold of the

ss yeself?' s

I can do that, w

t carefull