Consideration for poor Lady Verinder forbade me even to hint that I had

guessed the melancholy truth, before she opened her lips. I waited

her pleasure in silence; and, having privately arranged to say a few

sustaining words at the first convenient opportunity, felt prepared for

any duty that could claim me, no matter how painful it might be.

"I have been seriously ill, Drusilla, for some time past," my aunt

began. "And, strange to say, without knowing it myself."

I thought of the thousands and thousands of perishing human creatures

who were all at that moment spiritually ill, without knowing it

themselves. And I greatly feared that my poor aunt might be one of the

number. "Yes, dear," I said, sadly. "Yes."

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"I brought Rachel to London, as you know, for medical advice," she went

on. "I thought it right to consult two doctors."

Two doctors! And, oh me (in Rachel's state), not one clergyman! "Yes,

dear?" I said once more. "Yes?"

"One of the two medical men," proceeded my aunt, "was a stranger to me.

The other had been an old friend of my husband's, and had always felt

a sincere interest in me for my husband's sake. After prescribing for

Rachel, he said he wished to speak to me privately in another room.

I expected, of course, to receive some special directions for the

management of my daughter's health. To my surprise, he took me gravely

by the hand, and said, 'I have been looking at you, Lady Verinder, with

a professional as well as a personal interest. You are, I am afraid, far

more urgently in need of medical advice than your daughter.' He put some

questions to me, which I was at first inclined to treat lightly enough,

until I observed that my answers distressed him. It ended in his making

an appointment to come and see me, accompanied by a medical friend, on

the next day, at an hour when Rachel would not be at home. The result

of that visit--most kindly and gently conveyed to me--satisfied both the

physicians that there had been precious time lost, which could never be

regained, and that my case had now passed beyond the reach of their art.

For more than two years I have been suffering under an insidious form of

heart disease, which, without any symptoms to alarm me, has, by little

and little, fatally broken me down. I may live for some months, or I may

die before another day has passed over my head--the doctors cannot, and

dare not, speak more positively than this. It would be vain to say, my

dear, that I have not had some miserable moments since my real situation

has been made known to me. But I am more resigned than I was, and I am

doing my best to set my worldly affairs in order. My one great anxiety

is that Rachel should be kept in ignorance of the truth. If she knew

it, she would at once attribute my broken health to anxiety about the

Diamond, and would reproach herself bitterly, poor child, for what is in

no sense her fault. Both the doctors agree that the mischief began

two, if not three years since. I am sure you will keep my secret,

Drusilla--for I am sure I see sincere sorrow and sympathy for me in your

face."




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