Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
«9» Ipart Iii. Chapter V. I>Tjbing These...
"before I return so as to Have tilings ready ; at any rate , "Wyndham , let me say half-past eight . Good-bye , Augusta , " lie nodded to Ms
wife , who took no notice of his salute , looked for a moment at his eldest boy , and then , as if moved by a sudden impulse , said to
Wyndham , " That boy ' s eyes and brow are like Dora ' s , _" and left the room .
Wyndham took leave of his hostess . As he bade her farewell , she said in a voice of great feeling , very different from her measured
hard tone to her husband , " How is Dora—Mrs . Elliott ?" " "Very well . "
" Will you tell her I have not forgotten her , and that I hope she remembers me . I scarcely deserve to be rememberedbut tell her
, that hardly a day passes that I do not think of her advice , and that I do not regret not having followed it—all that remains for me to
do I try to do—I try to teach my children to be sincere , to be truetrue to themselves , honest and just to others . "
Wyndham lefb her , touched by the sadness and bitterness of her tone , and with a strange presentiment of evil .
He returned at eight . Arthur had not come in , but was expected every moment . The children were in bed ; their mother was out .
There was a feeling of desertion and desolation in the house . Nine o ' clock struck , and Wyndham was about taking up his hat to go ,
when a cab drove up , there was a loud and violent ring , which startled the stillness of the house , the door was opened , and after a
minute ' s pause , Wyndham was called out . " There has been an accident , sir , my master has broken a blood
vessel . " Arthur was supported through the hall , and laid on a sofa in the
library . A doctor was sent for . In a little while Arthur rallied . " Thanks , Wyndham , I am better , it will be nothing . I was four
hours on my legs , and am rather worn out , but we have it all our own way I seein a week at farthest I shall realise the great
ambi-, tion of my life . " Ete tried to sit up . " I told you , Wyndham , that in twenty years I hoped to be a minister of the crown—it wants
some years to the time—and—" " Do not speak , for Heaven ' s sake , " said Wyndham , alarmed at
the increasing paleness of his face , and at the continual gasp caused by the rising of the blood .
The doctor arrived . He looked very serious , but said the imminent danger was past . He enjoined the strictest quiet . The patient
was to have a bed made up for him in the room in which he now was , the least motion or exertion might be fatal . He was to see no
one and speak to no one . He then took his leave . Mrs . Powys had been sent for , and about an hour and a half after
the doctor had left , a thundering knock announced her arrival . Wyndham hastened to meet her . Pie thought of the feeling of the
wife who had hoped for so much love and found so little , and who
might , alas ! too soon know that she was never to hope for more .
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1859, page 257, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061859/page/41/
