Part 43 (1/2)
CHAPTER XXIII.
MR. ROLFE surveyed the two women with a mild, inoffensive, ox-like gaze, and invited them to be seated with homely civility.
He sat down at his desk, and turning to Lady Ba.s.sett, said, rather dreamily, ”One moment, please: let me look at the case and my notes.”
First his homely appearance, and now a certain languor about his manner, discouraged Lady Ba.s.sett more than it need; for all artists must pay for their excitements with occasional languor. Her hands trembled, and she began to gulp and try not to cry.
Mr. Rolfe observed directly, and said, rather kindly, ”You are agitated; and no wonder.”
He then opened a sort of china closet, poured a few drops of a colorless liquid from a tiny bottle into a wine-gla.s.s, and filled the gla.s.s with water from a filter. ”Drink that, if you please.”
She looked at him with her eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g. _”Must_ I?”
”Yes; it will do you good for once in a way. It is only Ignatia.”
She drank it by degrees, and a tear along with it that fell into the gla.s.s.
Meantime Mr. Rolfe had returned to his notes and examined them. He then addressed her, half stiffly, half kindly:
”Lady Ba.s.sett, whatever may be your husband's condition--whether his illness is mental or bodily, or a mixture of the two--his clandestine examination by bought physicians, and his violent capture, the natural effect of which must have been to excite him and r.e.t.a.r.d his cure, were wicked and barbarous acts, contrary to G.o.d's law and the common law of England, and, indeed, to all human law except our shallow, incautious Statutes de Lunatico: they were an insult to yourself, who ought at least to have been consulted, for your rights are higher and purer than Richard Ba.s.sett's; therefore, as a wife bereaved of your husband by fraud and violence and the bare letter of a paltry statute whose spirit has been violated, you are quite justified in coming to me or to any public man you think can help your husband and you.” Then, with a certain _bonhomie,_ ”So lay aside your nervousness; let us go into this matter sensibly, like a big man and a little man, or like an old woman and a young woman, whichever you prefer.”
Lady Ba.s.sett looked at him and smiled a.s.sent. She felt a great deal more at her ease after this opening.
”I dare not advise you yet. I must know more than Mr. Angelo has told me. Will you answer my questions frankly?”
”I will try, sir.”
”Whose idea was it confining Sir Charles Ba.s.sett to the house so much?”
”His own. He felt himself unfit for society.”
”Did he describe his ailment to you then?”
”Yes.”
”All the better; what did he say?”
”He said that, at times, a cloud seemed to come into his head, and then he lost all power of mind; and he could not bear to be seen in that condition.”
”This was after the epileptic seizure?”
”Yes, sir.”
”Humph! Now will you tell me how Mr. Ba.s.sett, by mere words, could so enrage Sir Charles as to give him a fit?”
Lady Ba.s.sett hesitated.
”What did he say to Sir Charles?”
”He did not speak to him. His child and nurse were there, and he called out loud, for Sir Charles to hear, and told the nurse to hold up his child to look at his inheritance.”