Morley Ernstein; or, the Tenants of the HeartJames, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
General
Morley Ernstein; or, the Tenants of the Heart
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
Fiction
Arrived at the house, Morley Ernstein was carried up stairs and laid
in the room which had been inhabited by Lieberg, Juliet accompanying
the people who bore him thither, and casting aside the consideration
of everything else but the one great object of doing all in her power
to restore him to life. A man was instantly despatched on horseback
for a surgeon, and Juliet hastened to tell her father what had
happened, and to seek his approval of her conduct.
She found, however, that the news had been already communicated, but
what surprised her more was to find a stranger seated by her father's
bedside. He was a sickly-looking young man--but to spare further
description, I may add, that though a stranger to Juliet, he is not so
to the reader, being no other than the brother of Helen Barham. The
young man started up somewhat awkwardly, for he had been little used
to the society of ladies, and had not those qualities in his own
character which enable men of fine minds to assimilate themselves
rapidly to what is higher, nobler, and more graceful in the mind and
demeanour of others.
Juliet's pale face and haggard look, while she told her father of the
accident which had occurred, did not escape the old man's eyes, and he
fixed a keen and searching look upon his daughter's countenance which
pained Juliet, and added other apprehensions to those which she
already entertained.
"I think, Juliet," he said, as she concluded, "that you might have
taken him to some cottage nearer than this house, and not have put me
to all the expense and trouble of having him here."
"Oh, my dear father!" exclaimed Juliet, turning away with a sad and
reproachful look; but Mr. Carr, who displayed in general a deference
for her opinion, which he did not evince for that of any one else,
cried out quickly, "Well, well, Juliet, the thing is done now and
cannot be helped; we must make the best of it."
At that moment one of the maids entered the room with a quick step,
saying, "Miss Carr--Miss Carr! there's Mr. Langley, the surgeon, up at
the rectory, with Mrs. Lee the rector's wife."
"Send for him directly," cried Juliet, following the maid out of the
room--"lose not a minute, Jane."
The girl hastened away herself, and in about ten minutes more the
surgeon was in the house. Juliet accompanied him to the room where
Morley Ernstein lay, and watched with anxiety--which may have been
deeply felt by those who love, but can never be described even by
those who have felt it--the long, the terribly long examination on
which hung the hopes of life and death. She uttered not a word; she
breathed not a sigh; she was so still in that intense anxiety, that
she not only felt but could hear her heart beating.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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