Part 5 (2/2)

”In one moment, Miss Blyth,” called Geoffrey, in his most composed and professional tones. Then, seizing Miss Vesta's hand, he almost dragged her into the room, and shut the door.

”Don't let her go!” he said, hurriedly, as he sought and poured out the valerian. ”Take it yourself, please, Miss Vesta, please! Miss Blyth will--that is, she is less gentle than you; if your niece is in such a condition as--as you say, you are the one to soothe her. Will you go?

Please do.”

”Dear Doctor Strong,” said Miss Vesta, panting a little, ”are you--I fear you are unwell yourself. You alarm me, my dear young friend.”

”I am a brute,” said Geoffrey; ”a clumsy, unfeeling brute!” He kissed her little white wrinkled hand; then, still holding it, paused to listen. The voice came up again from the place of torture.

”What shall I do? Oh, dear! oh, dear! what shall I do?”

He pressed the gla.s.s in Miss Vesta's hand. ”There! there! a teaspoonful at once, please; but you will be better than medicine. Tell Miss Blyth--tell her I want very much to speak to her, please! Ask if she could come up here now, this moment, just for two or three minutes. And you'll go down yourself, won't you, Miss Vesta--dear Miss Vesta?”

He was so absorbed in listening he did not hear the creaking of Miss Phoebe's morocco shoes on the stairs; and when she appeared before him, flushed and slightly out of breath, he stared at the good lady as if he had never seen her before.

”You wished to see me, Doctor Strong?” Miss Phoebe began. She was half pleased, half ruffled, at being summoned in this imperious way.

”Yes--oh, yes,” answered Geoffrey, vaguely. ”Come in, please, Miss Blyth. Won't you sit down--no, I wouldn't sit near the window, it's damp to-day (it was not in the least damp). Sit here, in my chair. Did you know there was a secret pocket in this chair? Very curious thing!”

”I was aware of it,” said Miss Phoebe, with dignity. ”Was that what you wished to say to me, Doctor Strong?”

”No--oh, no (thank Heaven, she has stopped! that angel is with her).

I--I am ashamed to trouble you, Miss Blyth, but you said you would be so very good as to look over my s.h.i.+rts some day, and see if they are worth putting on new collars and cuffs. It's really an imposition; any time will do, if you are busy now. I only thought, hearing your voice--”

”There is no time like the present,” said Miss Phoebe, in her most gracious tone. ”It will be a pleasure, I a.s.sure you, Doctor Strong, to look over any portions of your wardrobe, and give you such advice as I can. I always made my honoured father's s.h.i.+rts after my dear mother's death, so I am, perhaps, not wholly unfitted for this congenial task.

Ah, machine-made!”

”Beg pardon!” said Geoffrey, who had been listening to something else.

”These s.h.i.+rts were made with the aid of the sewing-machine, I perceive,” said Miss Phoebe. ”No--oh, no, it is nothing unusual. Very few persons, I believe, make s.h.i.+rts entirely by hand in these days. I always set the same number of st.i.tches in my father's s.h.i.+rts, five thousand and sixty. He always said that no machine larger than a cambric needle should touch his linen.”

”Then--you don't think they are worth new collars?” said Geoffrey, abstractedly.

”Did I convey that impression?” said Miss Phoebe, with mild surprise.

”I had no such intention, Doctor Strong. I think that a skilful person, with some knowledge of needlework, could make these garments (though machine-made) last some months yet. You see, Doctor Strong, if she takes this--”

It was a neat and well-sustained little oration that Miss Phoebe delivered, emphasising her remarks with the cuff of a s.h.i.+rt; but it was lost on Geoffrey Strong. He was listening to another voice that came quavering up from the garden below, a sweet high voice, like a wavering thread of silver. No more sobs; and Miss Vesta was singing; the sweetest song, Geoffrey thought, that he had ever heard.

CHAPTER VI.

INFORMATION

The next day and the next Geoffrey avoided the garden as if it were a haunt of cobras. The dining-room, too, was a place of terror to him, and at each meal he paused before entering the room, nerving himself for what he might have to face. This was wholly unreasonable, he told himself repeatedly; it was ridiculous; it was--the young man was not one to spare himself--it was unprofessional.

”Oh, yes, I know all that,” he replied; ”but they shouldn't cry. There ought to be a law against their crying.”

Here it occurred to him that he had seen his cousins cry many times, and had never minded it; but that was entirely different, he said.

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