"Come, Donica, you write to say I leave this to-morrow, and that you come with me. You said you'd wish it--you must not draw back. You would not desert me?"
I fancy her measures were not quite so precipitate, for some arrangements were indispensable before starting for a long sojourn on the Continent. Lady Jane remained at Wardlock, I believe, for more than a week; and Donica, who took matters more peaceably in her dry way, obtained, without a row, the permission of Lady Alice to accompany the forlorn young wife on her journey.
"See, Doctor Pratt--how do you do?--you've been up-stairs. I--I was anxious to see you--most anxious--this shocking, dreadful occurrence," said the Reverend Dives Marlowe, who waylaid the Doctor as he came down, and was now very pale, hurrying him into the library as he spoke, and shutting the door. "The nurse is gone, you know, and all quiet; and--and the quieter the better, because, you know, that poor girl Beatrix my niece, she has not a notion there was any hurt--a wound, you see, and knows nothing in fact. I'll go over and see that Slowton doctor--a--a gentleman. I forget his name. There's no need--I've considered it--none in the world--of a--a--that miserable ceremony, you know."
"I don't quite follow you, sir," observed Doctor Pratt, looking puzzled.
"I mean--I mean a--a coroner--that a----"
"And I went up, poor fellow; there's no blood--nothing. It may have been apoplexy, or any natural cause, for anything I know."
"Internal hæmorrhage--an abrasion, probably, of one of the great vessels; and gave way, you see, in consequence of his over-exerting himself."
"Exactly; a blood-vessel has given way--I see," said the Reverend Dives; "internal hæmorrhage. I see, exactly; and I--I know that Slowton doctor won't speak any more than you, my dear Pratt, but I may as well see him, don't you think? And--and there's really no need for all that terrible misery of an inquest."
"Well, you know, it's not for me; the--the family would act naturally."
"The family! why, look at that poor girl, my niece, in hysterics! I would not stake that--that _hat_ there, I protest, on her preserving her wits, if all that misery were to be gone through."
"Lady Alice Redcliffe? Quite right, sir--very natural inquiry;--not a syllable. She's, you know, not a--a person to conceal things; but she knows and suspects nothing; and no one--that nurse, you told me, thought the hurt was an operation--not a soul suspects."