Part 63 (2/2)
But the nature of my errand here obliges me to touch--as lightly as possible--on something which has happened in your house without your knowledge.”
Lady Lundie suddenly opened her eyes, and became the picture of attention. A casual observer might have supposed her ladys.h.i.+p to be not wholly inaccessible to the vulgar emotion of curiosity.
”A visitor came to Windygates yesterday, while we were all at lunch,”
proceeded Sir Patrick. ”She--”
Lady Lundie seized the scarlet memorandum-book, and stopped her brother-in-law, before he could get any further. Her ladys.h.i.+p's next words escaped her lips spasmodically, like words let at intervals out of a trap.
”I undertake--as a woman accustomed to self-restraint, Sir Patrick--I undertake to control myself, on one condition. I won't have the name mentioned. I won't have the s.e.x mentioned. Say, 'The Person,' if you please. 'The Person,'” continued Lady Lundie, opening her memorandum-book and taking up her pen, ”committed an audacious invasion of my premises yesterday?”
Sir Patrick bowed. Her ladys.h.i.+p made a note--a fiercely-penned note that scratched the paper viciously--and then proceeded to examine her brother-in-law, in the capacity of witness.
”What part of my house did 'The Person' invade? Be very careful, Sir Patrick! I propose to place myself under the protection of a justice of the peace; and this is a memorandum of my statement. The library--did I understand you to say? Just so--the library.”
”Add,” said Sir Patrick, with another pressure on the blister, ”that The Person had an interview with Blanche in the library.”
Lady Lundie's pen suddenly stuck in the paper, and scattered a little shower of ink-drops all round it. ”The library,” repeated her ladys.h.i.+p, in a voice suggestive of approaching suffocation. ”I undertake to control myself, Sir Patrick! Any thing missing from the library?”
”Nothing missing, Lady Lundie, but The Person herself. She--”
”No, Sir Patrick! I won't have it! In the name of my own s.e.x, I won't have it!”
”Pray pardon me--I forgot that 'she' was a prohibited p.r.o.noun on the present occasion. The Person has written a farewell letter to Blanche, and has gone n.o.body knows where. The distress produced by these events is alone answerable for what has happened to Blanche this morning. If you bear that in mind--and if you remember what your own opinion is of Miss Silvester--you will understand why Blanche hesitated to admit you into her confidence.”
There he waited for a reply. Lady Lundie was too deeply absorbed in completing her memorandum to be conscious of his presence in the room.
”'Carriage to be at the door at two-thirty,'” said Lady Lundie, repeating the final words of the memorandum while she wrote them.
”'Inquire for the nearest justice of the peace, and place the privacy of Windygates under the protection of the law.'--I beg your pardon!”
exclaimed her ladys.h.i.+p, becoming conscious again of Sir Patrick's presence. ”Have I missed any thing particularly painful? Pray mention it if I have!”
”You have missed nothing of the slightest importance,” returned Sir Patrick. ”I have placed you in possession of facts which you had a right to know; and we have now only to return to our medical friend's report on Blanche's health. You were about to favor me, I think, with the Prognosis?”
”Diagnosis!” said her ladys.h.i.+p, spitefully. ”I had forgotten at the time--I remember now. Prognosis is entirely wrong.”
”I sit corrected, Lady Lundie. Diagnosis.”
”You have informed me, Sir Patrick, that you were already acquainted with the Diagnosis. It is quite needless for me to repeat it now.”
”I was anxious to correct my own impression, my dear lady, by comparing it with yours.”
”You are very good. You are a learned man. I am only a poor ignorant woman. Your impression can not possibly require correcting by mine.”
”My impression, Lady Lundie, was that our so friend recommended moral, rather than medical, treatment for Blanche. If we can turn her thoughts from the painful subject on which they are now dwelling, we shall do all that is needful. Those were his own words, as I remember them. Do you confirm me?”
”Can _I_ presume to dispute with you, Sir Patrick? You are a master of refined irony, I know. I am afraid it's all thrown away on poor me.”
(The law kept its wonderful temper! The law met the most exasperating of living women with a counter-power of defensive aggravation all its own!)
”I take that as confirming me, Lady Lundie. Thank you. Now, as to the method of carrying out our friend's advice. The method seems plain. All we can do to divert Blanche's mind is to turn Blanche's attention to some other subject of reflection less painful than the subject which occupies her now. Do you agree, so far?”
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