I shall sit up just a little while,to hear how Mr.March is.""I should like to hear,too.It is curious the interest that one learns to take in people that are absolute strangers,when shut up together in a lonely place like this,especially when they are in trouble.""Ay,that's it,"said he,quickly."It's the solitude,and their being in trouble.Did you hear anything more while I was away?""Only that Mr.March was rather better,and everybody had gone to bed except his daughter and Mrs.Tod.""Hark!I think that's the doctor going away.I wonder if one might ask--No!they would think it intrusive.He must be better.But Dr.
Brown told me that in one of these paroxysms he might--Oh,that poor young thing!""Has she no relatives,no brothers or sisters?Doctor Brown surely knows.""I did not like to ask,but I fancy not.However,that's not my business:my business is to get you off to bed,Phineas Fletcher,as quickly as possible.""Wait one minute,John.Let us go and see if we can do anything more.""Ay--if we can do anything more,"repeated he,as we again recrossed the boundary-line,and entered the Tod country.
All was quiet there.The kitchen fire burnt brightly,and a cricket sang in merry solitude on the hearth;the groans overhead were stilled,but we heard low talking,and presently stealthy footsteps crept down-stairs.It was Mrs.Tod and Miss March.
We ought to have left the kitchen:I think John muttered something to that effect,and even made a slight movement towards the door;but--I don't know how it was--we stayed.
She came and stood by the fire,scarcely noticing us.Her fresh cheeks were faded,and she had the weary look of one who has watched for many hours.Some sort of white dimity gown that she wore added to this paleness.
"I think he is better,Mrs.Tod--decidedly better,"said she,speaking quickly."You ought to go to bed now.Let all the house be quiet.I hope you told Mr.--Oh--"She saw us,stopped,and for the moment the faintest tinge of her roses returned.Presently she acknowledged us,with a slight bend.
John came forward.I had expected some awkwardness on his part;but no--he was thinking too little of himself for that.His demeanour--earnest,gentle,kind--was the sublimation of all manly courtesy.
"I hope,madam"--young men used the deferential word in those days always--"I do hope that Mr.March is better.We were unwilling to retire until we had heard.""Thank you!My father is much better.You are very kind,"said Miss March,with a maidenly dropping of the eyes.
"Indeed he is kind,"broke in the warm-hearted Mrs.Tod."He rode all the way to S--,his own self,to fetch the doctor.""Did you,sir?I thought you only lent your horse.""Oh!I like a night-ride.And you are sure,madam,that your father is better?Is there nothing else I can do for you?"His sweet,grave manner,so much graver and older than his years,softened too with that quiet deference which marked at once the man who reverenced all women,simply for their womanhood--seemed entirely to reassure the young lady.This,and her own frankness of character,made her forget,as she apparently did,the fact that she was a young lady and he a young gentleman,meeting on unacknowledged neutral ground,perfect strangers,or knowing no more of one another than the mere surname.
Nature,sincerity,and simplicity conquered all trammels of formal custom.She held out her hand to him.
"I thank you very much,Mr.Halifax.If I wanted help I would ask you;indeed I would.""Thank YOU.Good-night."
He pressed the hand with reverence--and was gone.I saw Miss March look after him:then she turned to speak and smiled with me.Alight word,an easy smile,as to a poor invalid whom she had often pitied out of the fulness of her womanly heart.
Soon I followed John into the parlour.He asked me no questions,made no remarks,only took his candle and went up-stairs.
But,years afterwards,he confessed to me that the touch of that hand--it was a rather peculiar hand in the "feel"of it,as the children say,with a very soft palm,and fingers that had a habit of perpetually fluttering,like a little bird's wing--the touch of that hand was to the young man like the revelation of a new world.