'Very good; I'll be there nearly as soon as you are. And if you'll
allow me to suggest, my lord, you'll have one of the gentlemen who
signed that certificate to meet my doctor when he comes.'
'It will be quite unnecessary.'
'You must excuse my remarking that I rather fancy you'll find you're
wrong. I don't want to be accused of saying anything monstrous; but
the more I think things over, the more I become convinced that there's
something in this business which will--well, we'll say, create
astonishment. Anyhow, this lady is entitled to be made acquainted with
all the details of her husband's unexpected and mysterious death; and
also to see, and talk to, the medical gentleman who attended him in
his last hours.'
'If that is the way in which you put it, it will be easy to call at
Sir Gregory Hancock's as we go, and to request him to favour us with
his presence at Twickenham House. He will soon satisfy any doubts
which this lady may entertain.'
In this way it was arranged, though not altogether to my liking. The
children and I went with the young gentleman in a four wheeler, though
it was with a heavy heart I shut the door of No. 32 behind me. He
wouldn't let me take hardly any clothing, except a few things I put
together in a bag. He wouldn't even let me put the children into their
best things; I had to take them just as they were. He said we should
get everything we wanted at Twickenham House. Just as though I wanted
other people's things when I'd got everything as nice as possible of
my own!
As we rattled through the streets--and the cab did rattle!--my head
was all in a whirl. What I had gone through during the last few hours
was almost more than I could bear. I had got used to watching and
waiting, day after day and week after week, for what seemed as if it
would never come, but this was beyond that altogether. It doesn't take
much to muddle me, and amidst it all the only thing I could take right
hold of was that they said that my James was dead. I sat with my heart
as cold as ice, and my eyes burning, as if something had stung them.
If I could have cried, it would have been something; but I couldn't.
Whether I was doing a wise thing in leaving my own house, and coming
to this strange place, I couldn't think.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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