Miss Devereux found out about her nephew's escapade, although he was safely at home before the carriage went for her; and she gave it to him hot and strong for his imprudence. No wickeder word existed for Miss Devereux in the British vocabulary than that dire word "Imprudence."
Remonstrances and warnings floated over him, however, almost unnoticed. All the evening, between sharp twinges in the arm, and dull throbs in the shoulder, he saw Emmie's soft eyes, dark and tender and overflowing.
Jean's calm light-coloured eyes never looked thus. Dear old Jean! There was nobody exactly like her in the world—but she could not vie with Emmie Lucas in bewitching sweetness.
[CHAPTER IX.]
COMPLEXITIES OF LIFE.
"The same old baffling questions! O my friend,
I cannot answer them . . .
• • • • •
"I have no answer for myself or thee,
Save that I learned beside my mother's knee
'All is of God that is, and is to be;
And God is good.' Let this suffice us still,
Resting in childlike trust upon His will
Who moves to His great ends, unthwarted by the ill."
J. G. WHITTIER.
NEARLY a fortnight had passed since the memorable dinner-party; and Mr. Trevelyan had been unwell, even ill, all the fortnight through. That one moment of dire alarm about Jean appeared to have acted on him as the "last straw," minus which he might presumably have fought on a few weeks longer.
Nobody else would have fought on half as long: so said Dr. Ingram, called in three days later.
Mr. Trevelyan made nothing of the slight attack of unconsciousness, which frightened Jean, after their return home; but all next day he was heavy and listless, unable to employ himself. He still strove against the need for medical advice, declaring that a day or two of rest would set him up. A severe cold next laid hold upon him, however, with persistent hoarseness, and sharp rheumatic pains; and at length, he succumbed.
Dr. Ingram found the once vigorous frame of Stewart Trevelyan enfeebled to an extent which would hardly have been thought credible by any one who had witnessed only a few days earlier his apparent energy. The energy had long been a matter of iron will, not of physical strength; and the marvel was that a breakdown had not arrived sooner.