'She will see you presently, but begged to be excused for a few minutes.' 'You see,' said he, 'by my dress, what has happened,' gulping as he spoke. 'I have lost the companion of thirty years!—and—and—' here he paused, and after an effort went on to say, that his wife in her last illness had owned that she had suppressed Adeline's letters, and had declared the reason of it—'But, poor soul!' continued the doctor, 'it was the only sin against me, I believe, or any one else, that she ever committed—so I forgave her: and I trust that God will.'
Soon after they were summoned to the sick room, and Dr Norberry beheld with a degree of fearful emotion, which he vainly endeavoured to hide under a cloak of pleasantry, the dreadful ravages which sorrow and sickness had made in the face and form of Adeline.
'So, here you are at last!' cried he, trying to smile while he sobbed audibly, 'and a pretty figure you make, don't you?—But we have you again, and we will not part with you so soon, I can tell you (almost starting as the faint but rapid pulse met his fingers)—that is, I mean,' added he, 'unless it please God.' Mrs Mowbray and Savanna, during this speech, gazed on his countenance in breathless anxiety, and read in it a confirmation of their fears. 'But who's afraid?' cried the doctor, forcing a laugh, while his tone and his looks expressed the extreme of apprehension, and his laugh ended in a sob.
Mrs Mowbray turned away in a sort of desperate silence; but the mulatto still kept her penetrating eye fixed upon him, and with a look so full of woe!
'I'll trouble you, mistress, to take those formidable eyes of yours off my face,' cried the doctor pettishly; 'for I can't stand their inquiry!—But who the devil are you?'
'She is my nurse, my consoler, and my friend,' said Adeline.
'Then she is mine of course,' cried the doctor, 'though she has a terrible stare with her eyes:—but give me your hand, mistress. What is your name?'
'Me be name Savanna,' replied the mulatto; 'and me die and live wid my dear mistress,' she added, bursting into tears.
'Pshaw!' cried the doctor, 'I can't bear this—here I came as a physician, and these blubberers melt me down into an old woman. Adeline, I must order all these people out of the room, and have you to myself, or I can do nothing.'
He was obeyed; and on inquiring into all Adeline's symptoms, he found little to hope and every thing to fear—'But your mind is relieved, and you have youth on your side; and who knows what good air, good food, and good nurses may do for you!'