From thoughts of this nature, indulged in the not very appropriate locality of the centre of the quadrangle, I was roused by the good-humoured voice of Mrs Meredith--“our governess,” as we used to call her--who, with the doctor himself, was just then entering the College, and found me right in the line of her movements towards the door of “the lodgings.” I was not until that moment aware of her return, and altogether was considerably startled as she addressed me with--“Oh! how do you do, Mr Hawthorne? you young gentlemen don’t take care of yourselves, you see, when I am away--I am so sorry to hear this about poor Mr Russell! Is he so very ill? Dr Meredith is just going to see him.”
I coloured up, I dare say, for it was a trick I was given to in those days, and, in the confusion, replied rather to my own thoughts than to Mrs Meredith’s question.
“Mrs Meredith! I really beg your pardon,” I first stammered out as a very necessary apology, for I had nearly stumbled over her--“May I say how very glad I am you are returned, on Miss Russell’s account--I am sure ”----
“Really, Mr Hawthorne, it is very natural I suppose, but you gentlemen seem to expend your whole sympathy upon the young lady, and forget the brother altogether! Mr Ormiston actually took the trouble to write to me about her”----
“Nay, Dr Meredith, see how guilty Mr Hawthorne looks! and as to Mr Ormiston”--“Well, never mind,” (the doctor was visibly checking his lady’s volubility,) “I love the poor dear girl so much myself, that I am really grieved to the heart for her. I shall go down and see her directly, and make her keep up her spirits. Dr Wilson is apt to make out all the bad symptoms he can--I shall try if I can’t cure Mr Russell myself, after all; a little proper nursing in those cases is worth a whole staff of doctors--and, as to this poor girl, what can she know about it? I dare say she sits crying her eyes out, poor thing, and doing nothing--_I’ll_ see about it. Why, I wouldn’t lose Mr Russell from the college for half the young men in it--would I, Dr Meredith?”
I bowed, and they passed on. Mrs Principal, if somewhat pompous occasionally, was a kind-hearted woman; I believe an hour scarcely elapsed after her return to Oxford, before she was in Russell’s lodgings, ordering every thing about as coolly as if it were in her own house, and all but insisting on seeing the patient and prescribing herself for him in spite of all professional injunctions to the contrary. The delirium passed off again, and though it left Russell sensibly weaker, so weak, that when I next was admitted to see him with Smith, he could do little more than feebly grasp our hands, yet the fever was evidently abated; and in the course of the next day, whether it was to be attributed to the remedies originally used, or to his own youth and good constitution, or to Mrs Meredith’s experienced directions in the way of nursing, and the cheerful spirit which that good lady, in spite of a little fussness, succeeded generally in producing around her, there was a decided promise of amendment, which happily each succeeding hour tended gradually to fulfil. Ormiston had been unremitting in his inquiries; but I believe had never since sought an interview either with the brother or sister. I took advantage of the first conversation Russell was able to hold with me, to mention how very sincerely I believed him to have felt the interest he expressed. A moment afterwards, I felt almost sorry I had mentioned the name--it was the first time I had done so during Russell’s illness. He almost started up in bed, and his face glowed again with more than the flush of fever, as he caught up my words.