It was late and dark when she arrived in London, and when she got to Wandsworth she tried in vain to make out her surroundings. She could see nothing but the lamp-posts; and the scanty light the lamps gave, and which spread such a little distance, served to make the gloom between them darker.
She arrived at length at the Limes, so called because a couple of lopped lime-trees stood sentinel on either side of the gate.
No one was there at the door to meet her. At length an untidy-looking woman arrived--seemed surprised to see her--waited with visible impatience whilst she paid the cabman, dragged in the slender luggage and banged the gate, showing young Mrs. Drayton the way up a flagged footway between some straggling laurels, and into a cheerless unfurnished little stone hall.
"Is Mr. Drayton here? Did he not expect me?" asked the poor young wife, her heart sinking within her.
"Oh! Mr. Drayton's here. He said nothing of your being expected."
She opened a door, and sitting in front of a table littered with papers sat her husband, his face buried in his hands.
He looked at her with a vacant smile--he did not know her.
He was terrible to look at, so unkempt and so neglected looking. He must be ill, very ill!
The fire was out and the room undusted and unswept, a close smell she did not recognise filled the room.
She persuaded him to lie down on the sofa; she got the fire lit; threw open the window, put on the kettle for hot water, and wrote a note, which she sent by the woman to the nearest doctor.
He came and looked down upon the prostrate figure.
"Is he very ill?" asked Margaret, anxiously.
"No, madam," he answered, with a strange expression on his face, "he is only very drunk."
Margaret stared at the doctor, who so calmly announced this appalling fact to her, with widely opened eyes and a blanched face.
Ignorant of her history, he was startled to find so young a creature in such a position, and he said, impelled to respect by her whole air and manner, "This is news, and very unwelcome news, to you?"
"I have this moment arrived from nursing my sister in Scotland," she said, hurriedly. "My husband has been alone.... All is very wretched; can you tell me where I could hear of a nurse, I suppose, and--servants?"