California -- Fiction; Science fiction; Sicily (Italy) -- Fiction
"Good! Send me a trustworthy man-servant who can help to move and
support the patient, and we can get to work. I left a few necessary
appliances in your hall--I should like them brought into this room--and
then--" here he took her hand and pressed it kindly--"you can leave us
to our task, and take some rest. You must be very tired."
"I am never tired"--she answered, gently--"I thank you in advance for
all you are going to do!"
She left the room then, with one backward glance at the inert stiff
figure on the bed,--and went to arrange matters with her household that
the Professor's instructions should be strictly carried out. Lady
Kingswood, deeply interested, heard her giving certain orders and
asked--
"There is hope then? These two poor creatures will live?"
"I think so"--answered Morgana, with a thrill of sadness in her sweet
voice--"They will live--pray God their lives may be worth living!"
She watched the man-servant whom she had chosen to wait on Ardini
depart on his errand--she saw him open the door of the room where
Seaton lay, and shut it--then there was a silence. Oppressed by a
sudden heaviness of heart she thought of Manella, and entered her
apartment softly to see how she fared. The girl's beautiful dark eyes
were wide open and full of the light of life and consciousness. She
smiled and stretched out her arms.
"It is my angel!" she murmured faintly--"My little white angel who came
to me in the darkness! And this is Heaven!"
Swiftly and silently Morgana went to her side, and taking her
outstretched arms put them round her own neck.
"Manella!" she said, tenderly--"Dear, beautiful Manella! Do you know
me?"
The great loving eyes rested on her with glowing warmth and pleasure.
"Indeed I know you!" and Manella's voice, weak as that of a sick child,
sounded ever so far away--"The little white lady of my dreams! Oh, I
have wanted you!--wanted you so much! Why did you not come back sooner?"
Afraid to trouble her brain by the sudden shock of too rapidly
recurring memories, Morgana made no reply, but merely soothed her with
tender caresses, when all at once she made a violent struggle to rise
from the bed.
"I must go!" she cried--"He is calling me! I must follow him--yes, even
if he kills me for it--he is in danger!"
Morgana held her close and firmly.
"Hush, hush, dear!" she murmured--"Be quite still! He is safe--believe
me! He is near you--in the next room!--out of all danger."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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