Part 30 (1/2)
They went up to the drawing-room. Nelly was sitting in a chair by the open window as Robin had left her, tearless, her unemployed hands lying in her lap. The circle of dogs about her watching her with anxious eyes would have been humorous in other circ.u.mstances. The lamps were lit behind her, but there was no light on her face, except the dying light in the pale western sky.
”I have brought you a visitor, Nelly,” Robin said.
She looked up indifferently. Then something of interest stirred in her face.
”You have heard what has happened?” she said in a half-whisper.
Mary knelt down beside her and put her arms round the little frozen figure.
”Why, you are cold!” she said. ”Come away from the window. I am going to ask for a fire, and then you will talk to me about it.”
Robin Drummond left them together, and went down to tell Pat to light the fire in the drawing-room, because Miss Nelly was cold.
CHAPTER XXV
THE ONE WOMAN
Mary Gray's loving, capable care and sympathy carried Nelly through the worst days of her trouble. There were times when Mary had to hold the girl's hands, to fight with all her might against the acute suffering which menaced for a time her sanity and her health. The horrors into which Nelly fell when she thought upon the things which happened in such wars as this with cruel and cunning savages, were the worst things to fight. There were hours in which all the fears of the world seemed to be let loose on the unhappy child, when it seemed impossible to vanquish those powers of darkness with one poor woman's love and prayers. During these days Mary Gray hardly left Nelly's side. Fortunately she had ceased to direct the Bureau, and another capable, much more common-place, young woman had taken up her task. The official appointment was on its way, but had not yet arrived. So she was free to devote herself to her friend.
The doctor whom Sir Denis called in could do little for the patient except prescribe sleeping draughts to be taken at need. He understood that the girl had had a shock. He suggested a change, but Nelly would not hear of that. She must stay on in London where the first news would come. So stay on they did, through the torrid heats of July, when the dust was in arid drifts on the Square green gardens and blew in through the open windows, powdering everything with its faint grey.
”This young lady is better than my prescriptions,” the doctor said handsomely of Mary Gray. And added, ”Indeed, what can we do for sorrow except give the body a sedative?”
”If she could face her trouble clear-eyed,” Mary said, ”I should feel glad in spite of everything. It is these mists and shadows in her mind that it is so hard to fight against.”
After a little while they were left pretty well to themselves in Sherwood Square. The Dowager was angry with Nelly as her son had antic.i.p.ated; and, after a scene with Robin which prevented a scene with Sir Denis, she had gone off over the sea to the Court. Everybody went out of town: even Sherwood Square emptied itself away to the sea and the foreign spas. Only Robin Drummond stayed in town and came constantly.
During the early days when Nelly kept the house and refused obstinately to go out of doors, he would leave Sir Denis in charge and carry Mary off for a walk in the Square.
The first sign of interest that Nelly showed in other things than her sorrow was when she indicated to her father the distant figures of Mary and Robin moving briskly along at the farther side of the Square.
”Do you notice anything there, papa?” she asked.
”What do you mean, my pet?”
Sir Denis was quite flurried at Nelly's suddenly coming out of her brooding silence.
”I mean Mary and Robin,” she answered. ”It has been borne in on me that that is why Robin was not in love with me. Poor Robin! He would have gone through it heroically. Never say again, papa, that he is not a true Drummond. And I should never have known if he could have helped it that I wasn't the only woman for him.”
”You don't mean to say, Nell, that Robin is in love with Miss Gray?”
”That is it, papa.”
The General turned very red. For a second his impulse was towards wrath; then he checked himself.
”To be sure, as you didn't want him, Nell, it would be the height of unreasonableness to expect poor Robin to be miserable for your sake. And Miss Gray is a fine creature--a fine, handsome, clever creature. Still, there is a great difference in their positions. It will be a blow to the Dowager.”
”Mrs. Ilbert would not have minded.”