'"Certainly not before five o'clock." He thought we should probably meet
her on our way back to Elverston; but could not be certain, as she might
have changed her plans.
'So then came--no more remaining to be said--a very affectionate parting. I
believe all about his legal dangers was strictly true. How he could, unless
that horrid woman had deceived him, with so serene a countenance tell me
all those gross untruths about Maud, I can only admire.'
In the meantime, as I lay in my bed, Madame, gliding hither and thither,
whispering sometimes, listening at others, I suddenly startled them both by
saying--
'Whose carriage?'
'What carriage, dear?' inquired Quince, whose ears were not so sharp as
mine.
Madame peeped from the window.
''Tis the physician, Doctor Jolks. He is come to see your uncle, my dear,'
said Madame.
'But I hear a female voice,' I said, sitting up.
'No, my dear; there is only the doctor,' said Madame. 'He is come to your
uncle. I tell you he is getting out of his carriage,' and she affected to
watch the doctor's descent.
'The carriage is driving away!' I cried.
'Yes, it is draiving away,' she echoed.
But I had sprung from my bed, and was looking over her shoulder, before she
perceived me.
'It is Lady Knollys!' I screamed, seizing the window-frame to force it up,
and, vainly struggling to open it, I cried--
'I'm here, Cousin Monica. For God's sake, Cousin Monica--Cousin Monica!'
'You are mad, Meess--go back,' screamed Madame, exerting her superior
strength to force me back.
But I saw deliverance and escape gliding away from my reach, and, strung
to unnatural force by desperation, I pushed past her, and beat the window
wildly with my hands, screaming--
'Save me--save me! Here, here, Monica, here! Cousin, cousin, oh! save me!'
Madame had seized my wrists, and a wild struggle was going on. A
window-pane was broken, and I was shrieking to stop the carriage. The
Frenchwoman looked black and haggard as a fury, as if she could have
murdered me.
Nothing daunted--frantic--I screamed in my despair, seeing the carriage
drive swiftly away--seeing Cousin Monica's bonnet, as she sat chatting with
her _vis-à-vis_.
'Oh, oh, oh!' I shrieked, in vain and prolonged agony, as Madame, exerting
her strength and matching her fury against my despair, forced me back in
spite of my wild struggles, and pushed me sitting on the bed, where she
held me fast, glaring in my face, and chuckling and panting over me.
I think I felt something of the despair of a lost spirit.
I remember the face of poor Mary Quince--its horror, its wonder--as she
stood gaping into my face, over Madame's shoulder, and crying--
'What is it, Miss Maud? What is it, dear?' And turning fiercely on Madame,
and striving to force her grasp from my wrists, 'Are you hurting the child?
Let her go--let her go.'
'I _weel_ let her go. Wat old fool are you, Mary Queence! She is mad, I
think. She 'as lost hair head.'
'Oh, Mary, cry from the window. Stop the carriage!' I cried.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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