"Miss Vaughan had been seized with a violent inflammation in the chest,
attended with dreadful spasms. She had called for poor dear Mary, as if
Mary could help her; and I was told that she was in a dying state. I
sobbed and cried the whole way, for where were the delights then to me
of a coach-and-four? I was taken immediately up to her bedroom, for she
had called again for poor dear Mary. But, oh, how shocked was I when I
approached the bed! Fanny was sitting at the pillow, holding her up in
her arms: she was as pale as death itself; her eyes were closed, her
fair hands lay extended on the counterpane, her auburn ringlets hanging
in disorder. She was enjoying a short slumber after the fatigue of
acute pain, for she then breathed easily. Near the bed stood Harris,
with the look of a person at once distressed and offended. Miss Vaughan
had preferred, in her anguish, to be held by Fanny rather than by her.
She had often suspected Evelyn of not liking her, and the truth had
come out that morning during her sufferings.
"In the next room I could see the figures of the four Mistresses
Vaughan, all in their morning dresses. The physician was with them; and
when he saw me he arose, and came and stood by the bed.
"I know not how long it was before Evelyn opened her eyes.
"'Thank God,' she said, in a low, weak voice, 'it is gone for this
time;' then added, as she saw me, 'Mary, Mary dear, don't go again.
Fanny, is it you? but you will be tired. Might not nurse come, poor
dear nurse?'
The physician asked Harris what the young lady said. Harris pretended
not to have heard. Fanny looked to me to speak, and I said:
"'She wants her nurse, sir, her own nurse.'
"'And where does this nurse live?' he inquired.
"I told him, on the London road; I told him also her name. I spoke out
boldly, though I felt the eyes of Harris upon me.
"'I know the woman,' the doctor answered: 'she is a worthy person; she
_must_ be sent for.'
"When Harris heard this she left the bedside and went to the ladies, to
prevent, if possible, this sending for nurse. The reason she gave for
its not being right to have the poor woman brought there was, that she
was the first to put melancholy thoughts in the head of Miss Evelyn,
and would be quite sure to bring the same things forward again. Mrs.
Harris would have got her own way, if the physician had not insisted
that Evelyn ought to see her nurse if she desired it; and he himself
undertook to send for her. He had not far to send. Nurse had heard of
her child's violent attack, and was no further off than the lodge.
"From the time that Evelyn had mentioned her nurse, she had lain quite
still, with her eyes closed, till the worthy woman came in. At the
sound of the soft step with which the nurse came forward, she opened
them and saw the person she loved best on earth. A sweet bright glow
arose in her cheeks, and she extended both her arms as if she would
have risen to meet her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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