Adeline Mowbray Part 43

'My poor daughter, madam;' replied the man, bursting into tears.

At the sight of his distress, his _parental_ distress, Mrs Mowbray sighed deeply, and asked if Lucy was worse.

'I doubt she is dying,' said the afflicted father.

'Heaven forbid!' exclaimed Mrs Mowbray, throwing her shawl over her shoulders; 'I will go and see her myself.'

'What, really?--But the way is so long, and the road is so miry?'

'No matter--I must do my duty.'

'G.o.d bless you, and reward you!' cried the grateful father--'that is so like you! Lucy said you would come!'

Mrs Mowbray then filled a basket with medicine and refreshments, and set out on her charitable visit.

She found the poor girl in a very weak and alarming state; but the sight of her benefactress, and the tender manner in which she supported her languid head, and administered wine and other cordials to her, insensibly revived her; and while writhing under the feelings of an unhappy parent herself, Mrs Mowbray was soothed by the blessings of the parent whom she comforted.

At this moment they were alarmed by a shriek from a neighbouring cottage, and a woman who was attending on the sick girl ran out to inquire into the cause of it.

She returned, saying that a poor sick young gentlewoman, who lodged at the next house, was fallen back in a fit, and they thought she was dead.

'A young gentlewoman,' exclaimed Mrs Mowbray, 'at the next cottage!'

rising up.

'Aye sure,' cried the woman, 'she looks like a lady for certain, and she has the finest child I ever saw.'

'Perhaps she is not dead,' said Mrs Mowbray:--'let us go see.'

CHAPTER XXIX

Little did Mrs Mowbray think that it was her own child whom she was hastening to relieve; and that, while meditating a kind action, recompense was so near.

Adeline, while trying to finish her letter to her mother, had scarcely traced a few illegible lines, when she fell back insensible on her pillow; and at the moment of Mrs Mowbray's entering the cottage, Savanna, who had uttered the shriek which had excited her curiosity, had convinced herself that she was gone for ever.

The woman who accompanied Mrs Mowbray entered the house first; and opening a back chamber, low-roofed, narrow, and lighted only by one solitary and slender candle, Mrs Mowbray, beheld through the door the lifeless form of the object of her solicitude, which Savanna was contemplating with loud and frantic sorrow.

'Here is a lady come to see what she can do for your mistress,' cried the woman, while Savanna turned hastily round:--'Here she is--here is good Madam Mowbray.'

'Madam Mowbray!' shrieked Savanna, fixing her dark eyes on Mrs Mowbray, and raising her arm in a threatening manner as she approached her: then s.n.a.t.c.hing up the letter which lay on the bed,--'Woman!' she exclaimed, grasping Mrs Mowbray's arm with frightful earnestness, 'read that--'tis for you!'

Mrs Mowbray, speechless with alarm and awe, involuntarily seized the letter--but scarcely had she read the first words, when uttering a deep groan she sprung forward, to clasp the unconscious form before her, and fell beside it equally insensible.

But she recovered almost immediately to a sense of her misery; and while, in speechless agony, she knelt by the bed-side, Savanna, beholding her distress, with a sort of dreadful pleasure exclaimed, 'Ah! have you at last learn to feel?'

'But is she, is she _indeed_ gone?' cried Mrs Mowbray, 'is there _no_ hope?' and instantly seizing the cordial which she had brought with her, a.s.sisted by the woman, she endeavoured to force it down the throat of Adeline.

Their endeavours were for some time vain: at length however, she exhibited signs of life, and in a few minutes more she opened her sunk eye, and gazed unconsciously around her.

'My G.o.d! I thank you!' exclaimed Mrs Mowbray, falling on her knees; while Savanna, laying her mistress's head on her bosom, sobbed with fearful joy.

'Adeline! my child, my dear, dear child!' cried Mrs Mowbray, seizing her clammy hand.

That voice, those words which she had so long wished to hear, though hopeless of ever hearing them again, seemed to recall the fast fading recollection of Adeline: she raised her head from Savanna's bosom, and, looking earnestly at Mrs Mowbray, faintly smiled, and endeavoured to throw herself into her arms,--but fell back again exhausted on the pillow.

But in a few minutes she recovered so far as to be able to speak; and while she hung round her mother's neck, and gazed upon her with eager and delighted earnestness, she desired Savanna to bring Editha to her immediately.

'Will you, will you--,' said Adeline, vainly trying to speak her wishes, as Savanna put the sleeping girl in Mrs Mowbray's arms: but she easily divined them; and, clasping her to her heart, wept over her convulsively--'She shall be dear to me as my own soul!' said Mrs Mowbray.

'Then I die contented,' replied Adeline.

'Die!' exclaimed Mrs Mowbray hastily: 'no, you must not, shall not die; you must live to see me atone for--'

'It is in vain,' said Adeline faintly. 'I bless G.o.d that he allows me to enjoy this consolation--say that you forgive me.'

'Forgive you! Oh, Adeline! for years have I forgiven and pined after you; but a wicked woman intercepted all your letters; and I thought you were dead, or had renounced me for ever.'

'Indeed!' cried Adeline. 'Oh! had I suspected that!'

'Nay more, Mrs Pemberton is now in London, in search of you, in order to bring you back to happiness!' As Mrs Mowbray said this, Savanna, drawing near, took her hand and gently pressed it.

Adeline observed the action, and seeing by it that Savanna's heart relented towards her mother, said, 'I owe that faithful creature more than I can express; but to your care I bequeath her.'

'I will love her as my child,' said Mrs Mowbray, 'and behave to her better than I did to--'

'Hus.h.!.+' cried Adeline, putting her hand to Mrs Mowbray's lips.

'But you _shall_ live! I will send for Dr Norberry; you shall be moved to my house, and all will be well--all our past grief be forgotten,'

returned Mrs Mowbray with almost convulsive eagerness.

Adeline faintly smiled, but repeated that every hope of that kind was over, but that her utmost wish has gratified in seeing her mother, and receiving her full forgiveness.

'But you must live for my sake!' cried Mrs Mowbray: 'and for mine,'

sobbed out Savanna.

'Could you not be moved to my house?' said Mrs Mowbray. 'There every indulgence and attention that money can procure shall be yours. Is this a place,--is this poverty--this--' Here her voice failed her, and she burst into tears.

'Mother, dearest mother,' replied Adeline, 'I see you, I am a.s.sured of your love again, and I have not a want beside. Still, I could like, I could wish, to be once more under a _parent's roof_.'

In a moment, the cottager who was present, and returning with usury to Mrs Mowbray's daughter the anxious interest which she had taken in his, proposed various means of transporting Adeline to the Lawn; a difficult and a hazardous undertaking: but the poor invalid was willing to risk the danger and the fatigue; and her mother could not but indulge her. At length the cottager, as it was for the _general benefactress_, having with care procured even more a.s.sistance than was necessary, Adeline was conveyed on a sort of a litter, along the valley, and found herself once more in the house of her mother; while Savanna, sharing in the joy which Adeline's countenance expressed, threw herself on Mrs Mowbray's neck, and exclaimed, 'Now I forgive you!'

'Mother, dear mother,' cried Adeline, after having for some minutes vainly endeavoured to speak--'I am so happy! no more an outcast, but under my mother's roof!--Nay, I even think I _can_ live now,' added she with a faint smile.

Had Adeline risen from her bed in complete health and vigour, she would scarcely have excited more joy in her mother, and in Savanna, than she did by this expression.

'Can live!' cried Mrs Mowbray, 'O! you shall, you must live.' And an express was sent off immediately to Dr Norberry too, who was removed to Kendal, to be near his elder daughter, lately married in the neighbourhood.