The Star-Gazers Part 71

"Hus.h.!.+ This is no time for loud anger, Jem. We must act--like men--for her sake, old fellow! My G.o.d, Jem! what sin have I committed that the punishment should be struck at me through her? My poor, poor girl!"

He sank into a chair, sobbing like a child; but as his brother's hand was laid upon his shoulder, he sprang up again.

"Yes," he said huskily. "I'm ready. We need not search. We know enough. But, Jem, we must be silent. I can't have all the horrible scandal spread abroad. We must, for her sake, hush it up."

"Hush it up!" said the major bitterly. "Jack, the news is being spread already. You sent one messenger out a quarter-of-an-hour ago."

Just then the door leading into the bedroom opened, and Marjorie appeared, quite calm and self-possessed.

"Brandy or sal-volatile!" she said in a quick, decisive whisper. "She is coming to, but deadly faint and weak."

Half-an-hour later, Oldroyd was there, and busy in attendance till daybreak; while Sir John and his brother sat waiting till he joined them in the library--the calm, business-like doctor, apparently with no thought outside the condition of his patient.

He came into the room, bowed, looked from one brother to the other, and waited to be questioned.

Sir John's lips parted, but no words came, and he turned his eyes imploringly to his brother, who drew himself up and began in his prompt military way; but his brief question was almost inaudible towards the end.

"How is she?"

"Suffering terribly from shock, sir, and exhaustion. Her left arm is fractured above the elbow; but it is the mental strain we have to fear."

"You will stay of course?" said the major.

"I only came to you for a few moments, gentlemen, and am going back to my patient now."

No further question was asked, and the brothers were left alone, to sit in silence till the major said,--

"You must send some kind of message over to The Warren, Jack."

"Eh? Yes, yes, I suppose so," said Sir John bitterly; "and get rid of these people in the house. Do that for me, Jem. I'm broken, lad-- twenty years older since we shook hands last night. Who's there?" he cried with a start, as there was a tap at the door.

Whoever knocked took this for a command to enter; and, looking very pale and wild-eyed, but perfectly self-possessed, Marjorie entered and fixed her eyes on Sir John.

"Will you kindly order the carriage?"

"Yes--yes, my dear," he said. "Thank you for what you have done; but you wish to leave us?"

She looked at the old man half-wonderingly before answering.

"A message must be sent to my cousin," she said in her sweet, musical voice; "the wedding cannot take place to-day."

"No, no; of course not," cried the major.

"And I thought it would be kinder to him, poor fellow, for me to be the bearer of these terrible tidings. A letter would be so cold and dreadful. Oh, Sir John," she cried with a hysterical sob, as she flung herself at his knees, "it is too horrible to speak of. Poor darling Glynne! My poor cousin! It will drive him mad!"

"Hush, my dear; be calm; try and be calm," whispered Sir John, laying his hand gently upon her head.

"Yes," she said amidst her sobs, "I am trying so hard, dear Sir John, for everybody's sake. My poor aunt! It will nearly kill her. I thought it would be so much better if I went myself to break the dreadful news."

"Yes," said Sir John, raising her. "Heaven bless you for your forethought. It is a time when we want a gentle woman's help."

He looked at his brother, who read his wish.

"I will order the carriage round," he said. "In an hour?"

"No, no, as soon as possible," said Marjorie wildly. "They must not hear the news from the village. Poor, poor, darling Glynne!" she cried, bursting into a fresh burst of sobs, which made her words almost inaudible. "All her jewels gone, too. She must have been trying to protect them when the wretches struck her down."

Within half-an-hour Marjorie was on her way back to The Warren; and soon after breakfast, of the wedding guests not one was left, while the news rapidly spread that "Doctor" Oldroyd had been fetched suddenly in the night to Brackley, where he found Sir John's daughter in a violent fever, and that she was now delirious, and in danger of being taken to the church as a bride, indeed, but as the bride of death.

Volume 3, Chapter X.

THE LITTLE ORB TURNS ROUND.

There was but one thought in the minds of father and uncle at Brackley, and that was to silence busy tongues, get Glynne sufficiently well to move, and go right away abroad; and in Oldroyd they had a willing coadjutor, and one who seemed not to have a thought beyond his profession.

The major had been half mad, and ready to follow the bent of his suspicions again and again; but robbery as well as outrage appeared to have influenced the man who had escaped unseen, since the greater part of the valuable jewels, including a diamond bracelet given by Marjorie to the bride, were missing, and he felt that he was wrong.

Sir John prevailed.

"Jem," he said, "if I knew who it was I'd shoot him ike a dog--curse him! No: I couldn't wait to fire, I'd strangle him; but I can't have this published abroad if we can hush it up. I won't have my child dragged into a witness box to give evidence against the devil who has wrought us this ill. We must bear it, Jem, and wait."

"But, my dear Jack--"

"But, my dear Jem--I am her father. What would our darling wish if she could speak to us--if we could speak to her upon what it would be best to do?"

The major bowed his head, and as far as possible a veil was drawn over the events of that night.

Rumour was pretty busy during the next month, during which period several stories were afloat, but only one bore the stamp of truth--that, out of despair some said, Captain Rolph obtained leave of absence, and went off to Norway, shooting, while Mrs Rolph and her niece accompanied him as far as Hull, and then continued their journey to Scarboro'.

That was perfectly true, Mrs Rolph having her hands pretty full with Marjorie, who also turned ill having bad, nervous, hysterical fits, and refusing absolutely to go outside The Warren door without having tight hold of Mrs Rolph's arm; and even then she was constantly turning her eyes wildly round as if in expectation of seeing someone start out from behind bush or hedge.

"The shock to her system," Mrs Rolph used to say to herself, and she became increasingly gentle toward the girl whose nerves had been shattered by the affair at The Hall.

By this time the shutters were all closed at Brackley, for, after Sir John had been severely blamed for not getting down some big physician when Glynne's brain fever was at its worst, people came to the conclusion that he knew what he was about, for if ever a clever pract.i.tioner did settle down in a place, it was "Doctor" Oldroyd, who had cured the young lady in a wonderfully short s.p.a.ce of time. For the month at its end found the Days in Italy, where Glynne had been recommended to go on account of her health.

Oldroyd consequently was on the road to fame--that is the fame which extended for a radius of six miles; but his pockets were very little the heavier, and he still looked upon men who kept banking accounts with a feeling akin to awe.

Change in the neighbourhood of Brackley extended no further. The blunt-eyed, resident policeman, somehow never managed to come across the poachers who made raids upon The Warren and upon Brackley during the absence of their owners; while over at Lindham, the doctor learned from old Mother Wattley, who grew more chatty and apparently younger, under her skilful medical man's care, that Ben Hayle--'my son-in-law'--had taken an acre of land, and was 'goin' to make a fortun' there as a florist; but when Oldroyd met the ex-keeper one day, and went over the garden with him, it seemed improbable that it would even pay the rent.

"Better turn to your old business, Hayle," said Oldroyd.

"Easier said than done, sir," replied the man. "Old master gave me my chance when I was a young fool, and liked to do a bit o' poaching, believing honestly then that all birds were wild, and that I had as good a right to them as anybody. But I soon found out the difference when I had to rear them, and I served him honest, and Mrs Rolph too, all those years, till she discharged me because of the captain's liking for my Judith."

"But surely there were other places to be found by a man with a good character."

"Didn't seem like it, sir. I tried till I was beat out, and then, in a kind of despairing fit, I went out with some of the lads, and you know what I got for my pains."

"Yes," said the doctor, "and it ought to be a lesson for you, Hayle."