Wanderings of a beauty : $b A tale of the real and the idealJames, Edwin, Mrs.
General
Wanderings of a beauty : $b A tale of the real and the ideal
James, Edwin, Mrs.
English fiction -- 19th century
It was time the sick man should have a tender and loving nurse; he was
suffering from a low, nervous fever, with typhoid symptoms
superadded.—Three physicians were in constant attendance. All light in
the chamber was strictly forbidden, and the least noise caused the
patient to start as at the firing of a park of artillery. Evelyn’s first
act was to dismiss the coarse, fat nurse, who sat dozing and
occasionally snoring in a comfortable easy-chair.—Taking the authority
of a sister upon her, she paid the woman, and stated her firm intention
of remaining the sole attendant at the bedside of her brother. Then
gently and softly she moved about, robed in a _peignoir_ of delicate
white muslin, putting all in order. The sick man—half delirious—seemed
to feel there was some change, for he murmured tenderly, “what angel is
here?” Evelyn gently laid her cool hand on the fevered brow, but spoke
not, for to do so was forbidden. The touch soothed and quieted the
sufferer, and the physicians, when they came, found a slight change for
the better. For six days and nights did Evelyn and myself watch
alternately by the bedside of poor D’Arcy, who in his moments of
wandering, seemed earnestly engaged in conversation with a spirit he
named as Lilian, his affianced bride. As if in reply, he would say:
“I will obey you implicitly. Lilian, my sweet sister, bride no longer,
since you so will it. I have now another guardian angel near. Say you
so? and you warn me not to pass by my destiny. You caution me against
such blindness, and you leave me.”
Much more was said, but so incoherent we could not gather the sense—and
then, fatigued, the patient would doze off into the restless,
unrefreshing sleep of fever. At length we could no longer deceive
ourselves; the poor sufferer grew weaker and weaker, till at last the
doctors unanimously shook their learned heads, and augured the worst.
The principal physician, taking me apart, said,
“My dear lady, break it gently to the poor sister—for in twelve hours
her brother will he no more.”
Evelyn, pale as marble, and almost as cold and motionless, waved me off.
She had heard too well the ominous whisper. For twelve long hours, her
arm tenderly sustained the head of the dying man, the other hand
ceaselessly engaged in the last painful offices of affection. Utterly
forgetful of self—even of her overwhelming sorrow—her one thought was
how she could best soften the parting agony. Every moment she listened
for the almost imperceptible breathing, each instant feeling for the
beating of the heart. But the pulse waxed fainter and fainter, the
death-rattle came to the throat—a long, long sigh—another, and
another—then the heart ceased to beat, and all was over.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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