England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Love stories; Oxford (England) -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
Falloden stood a little apart, in a dead silence, his eyes wandering
occasionally from the figure on the bed to the open window, through
which could be seen the summer sky, and a mounting sun, just touching
the college roofs. The college clock struck half past four. Not two
hours since Radowitz and Constance Bledlow had held the eyes of Oxford
in the Magdalen ballroom.
CHAPTER X
Radowitz woke up the following morning, after the effects of the dose
of morphia administered by the surgeon who had dressed his hand had
worn off, in a state of complete bewilderment. What had happened to
him? Why was he lying in this strange, stiff position, propped up with
pillows?
He moved a little. A sharp pain wrung a groan from him. Then he
perceived his bandaged hand and arm; and the occurrences of the
preceding night began to rush back upon him. He had soon reconstructed
them all; up to the moment of his jumping into the fountain. After that
he remembered nothing.
He had hurt himself somehow in the row, that was clear. A sudden terror
ran through him. “It’s my right hand!—Good God! if I lost my hand!—if I
couldn’t play again!” He opened his eyes, trembling, and saw his little
college room; his clothes hanging on the door, the photographs of his
father and mother, of Chopin and Wagner on the chest of drawers. The
familiar sight reassured him at once, and his natural buoyancy of
spirit began to assert itself.
“I suppose they got a doctor. I seem to remember somebody coming. Bah,
it’ll be all right directly. I heal like a baby. I wonder who else was
hurt. Who’s that? Come in!”
The door opened, and his scout looked in cautiously. “Thought I heard
you moving, sir. May the doctor come in?”
The young surgeon appeared who had been violently rung up by Meyrick
some five hours earlier. He had a trim, confident air, and pleasant
eyes. His name was Fanning.
“Well, how are you? Had some sleep? You gave yourself an uncommonly
nasty wound. I had to set a small bone, and put in two or three
stitches. But I don’t think you knew much about it.”
“I don’t now,” said Radowitz vaguely. “How did I do it?”
“There seems to have been a ‘rag’ and you struck your hand against some
broken tubing. But nobody was able to give a clear account.” The doctor
eyed him discreetly, having no mind to be more mixed up in the affair
than was necessary.
“Who sent for you?”
“Lord Meyrick rang me up, and when I got here I found Mr. Falloden and
Mr. Robertson. They had done what they could.”
The colour rushed back into the boy’s pale cheeks.
“I remember now,” he said fiercely. “Damn them!”
The surgeon made no reply. He looked carefully at the bandage, asked if
he could ease it at all—took pulse and temperature, and sat some time
in silence, apparently thinking, by the bed. Then rising, he said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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