My companion gravely took my arm, and leading me away to the garden, thus answered my question:--`She is at Grassdale Manor, in --hire.'
`Where?' cried I, with a convulsive start.
`At Grassdale Manor.'
`How was it?' I gasped. `Who betrayed her?'
`She went of her own accord.'
`Impossible, Lawrence!! She could not be so frantic!' exclaimed I, vehemently grasping his arm, as if to force him to unsay those hateful words.
`She did,' persisted he in the same grave, collected manner as before `and not without reason,' he continued, gently disengaging himself from my grasp: `Mr. Huntingdon is ill.'
`And so she went to nurse him?'
`Yes.'
`Fool!' I could not help exclaiming--and Lawrence looked up with a rather reproachful glance. `Is he dying then?'
`I think not, Markham.'
`And how many more nurses has he?--How many ladies are there besides, to take care of him?'
`None: he was alone, or she would not have gone.'
`Oh, confound it! this is intolerable!'
`What is? That he should be alone?'
I attempted no reply, for I was not sure that this circumstance did not partly conduce to my distraction. I therefore continued to pace the walk in silent anguish, with my hand pressed to my forehead; then suddenly pausing and turning to my companion, I impatiently exclaimed, `Why did she take this infatuated step? What fiend persuaded her to it?'
`Nothing persuaded her but her own sense of duty.'
`Humbug!'
`I was half inclined to say so myself, Markham, at first. I assure you it was not by my advice that she went, for I detest that man as fervently as you can do--except, indeed, that his reformation would give me much greater pleasure than his death:--But all I did was to inform her of the circumstance of his illness (the consequence of a fall from his horse in hunting), and to tell her that that unhappy person, Miss Myers, had left him some time ago.
`It was ill done! Now, when he finds the convenience of her presence, he will make all manner of lying speeches and false, fair promises for the future, and she will believe him, and then her condition will be ten times worse and ten times more irremediable than before.'
`There does not appear to be much ground for such apprehensions at present,' said he, producing a letter from his pocket: `from the account I received this morning, I should say--'
It was her writing! By an irresistible impulse, I held out my hand, and the words-- `Let me see it,' involuntarily passed my lips.
He was evidently reluctant to grant the request, but while he hesitated, I snatched it from his hand. Recollecting myself, however, the minute after, I offered to restore it.
`Here, take it,' said I, `if you don't want me to read it.'
`No,' replied he, `you may read it if you like.'
I read it and so may you.
Grassdale, Nov. 4th.
Dear Frederick, I know you will be anxious to hear from me: and I will tell you all I can. Mr. Huntingdon is very ill, but not dying, or in any immediate danger; and he is rather better at present than he was when I came. I found the house in sad confusion: Mrs. Greaves, Benson, every decent servant had left, and those that were come to supply their places were a negligent, disorderly set, to say no worse--I must change them again if I stay. A professional nurse, a grim, hard old woman, had been hired to attend the wretched invalid. He suffers much, and has no fortitude to bear him through.
The immediate injuries he sustained from the accident, however, were not very severe, and would, as the doctor says, have been but trifling to a man of temperate habits; but with him it is very different. On the night of my arrival, when I first entered his room, he was lying in a kind of half delirium. He did not notice me till I spoke; and then, he mistook me for another.
`Is it you, Alice, come again?' he murmured. `What did you leave me for?'
`It is I, Arthur--it is Helen, your wife,' i replied.
`My wife!' said he, with a start.-- `For Heaven's sake, don't mention her--I have none.devil take her,' he cried, a moment after,-- `and you too! What did you do it for?'
I said no more; but observing that he kept gazing towards the foot of the bed, I went and sat there, placing the light so as to shine full upon me; for I thought he might be dying, and I wanted him to know me. For a long time, he lay silently looking upon me, first with a vacant stare, then with a fixed gaze of strange, growing intensity. At last he startled me by suddenly raising himself on his elbow and demanding in a horrified whisper, with his eyes still fixed upon me,-- `Who is it?'
`It is Helen Huntingdon,' said I, quietly, rising, at the same time, and removing to a less conspicuous position.
`I must be going mad,' cried he--`or something--delirious perhaps--But leave me, whoever you are--I can't bear that white face, and those eyes--for God's sake go, and send me somebody else, that doesn't look like that!'
I went, at once, and sent the hired nurse. But next morning, I ventured to enter his chamber again; and, taking the nurse's place by his bed-side, I watched him and waited on him for several hours, showing myself as little as possible, and only speaking when necessary, and then not above my breath. At first he addressed me us the nurse, but, on my crossing the room to draw up the window-blinds, in obedience to his directions, he said--`No, it isn't nurse; it's Alice. Stay with me do! that old hag will be the death of me.'