"The doctor again!" Edith groaned. "It has been nothing but the doctor and
'tonics' ever since I have been married."
"What does he say is the matter exactly?" Mrs. Beale asked.
"All his endeavour seems to be not to say what is the matter exactly,"
Edith replied.
Mrs. Beale reflected, caressing her daughter the while, and under the
soothing influence of her loving touch, Edith's countenance began to
relax.
"When is Mosley coming?" her mother said at last.
Edith's face contracted again, and she rose to her feet. "I don't know,
mother," she answered coldly.
The chime rang out at this moment, and she frowned as she listened to it.
"I wish those bells could be stopped!" she exclaimed, "They deafen me."
Mrs. Beale had also risen from her chair, smiling mechanically, but with
pain and perplexity at her heart. "I am sure it is the journey," she said.
"It has quite upset you. Your nerves are all jarred. You must really lie
down for a little--see, dearest, here on the couch; and keep quite
quiet." She arranged the cushions.
"Come, dear," she urged, "like a good child, and I will cover you up."
Edith had been accustomed to this kind of gentle compulsion all her life,
and as she yielded to it now she began to feel more like herself. "I knew
I should be better with you, mother," she said sighing; and then she
reached up her arm, and drew her mother's face down to hers. "Kiss me,
mother, and tell me you forgive me for being impatient."
"Dear child, you are not impatient," her mother answered, adding to
herself, as she returned to her seat; "I hope it is only impatience!"
Edith had turned her face to the wall, and soon appeared to be asleep.
Then her mother went down to the library. The bishop rose from his writing
table when she entered. It was a habit of his to be polite to his wife.
"I think you were right last night about Edith," she said. "She is not as
she should be. Write to Dr. Galbraith. Ask him to come here to-morrow. Ask
him to dine and stay the night, as if it were only an ordinary visit--not
to alarm her, you know. But tell him why we want him to come. I am nervous
about her."
Mrs. Beale's face quivered, and she burst into tears as she spoke.
"Oh, my dear! I am sure there is no need to agitate yourself," the bishop
exclaimed. "Now do--now don't, really! See! I will write at once."
He sat down, and began, "My dear George," and then looked up at his wife
to see if she were not already relieved.
Mrs. Beale could not speak, but she stroked his head once or twice in
acknowledgment of his great kindness. Then more tears came because he
_was_ so very kind; and finally she was obliged to go to her own room
to recover herself.
As the day wore on, however, she became reassured. Edith seemed much
refreshed by her sleep, and, in the afternoon when the three ladies came
from the castle to call upon her, bringing Angelica with them, she quite
roused up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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