The whole house was astonished at the sudden and dangerous change in the young man, and when Clara Haylark heard of it, she rushed downstairs in great haste, and proffered her services in any way in which they might prove useful—for Clara had a lurking suspicion that her curls and captivating ways might have had a little something to do with Charley’s sudden indisposition.
At least she intimated as much to her mother, in answer to a query; for she solemnly sighed, turned up her eyes with eloquent meaning, and said, “Poor Charles! I’m sure he cannot blame me, mother dear!” and covered her face—the little hypocrite—with a lace-edged handkerchief!
For several days Charles remained half demented and in high fever.
Dame Worthington, for reasons to be hereafter made known—and good ones, too—was crazed with care, and scarcely left him for one moment, either by night or day, but carefully watched his bedside with more than maternal care.
Mistress Haylark, the fair Clara’s mother, also was loud in her advice, and concocted various little palatable dishes and drinks, which Clara, in her curls, and with a serio-comic voice and gesture, administered to the patient with great grace of manner and captivating attitude.
She would read to him, and tell him stories, Dame Worthington always being present, sitting in her chair at a distance, in the shadows of the room, rocking herself in thought, and gazing with a look of care and anxiety upon her “poor, sick boy,” and when Charles was able to move about again, Clara would invariably go to the harp and play a few soft, plaintive airs, which soothed her patient, and won his affection more deeply than the index of his eyes had ever before betrayed to the gay and light-hearted Clara.
At the close of an afternoon spent in this manner, and his courage being greatly stimulated by a glass of brandy prescribed by the doctor, Charley said, “Oblige me, Clara, by singing that beautiful air again.”
His accents seemed so earnest that, as Clara complied, her voice and fingers trembled with unusual excitement.
At the close of the piece, no one being nigh, Charles approached her, and without a gesture of warning, kissed her!
She rose as if shot, looked at him inquiringly for a moment, burst into tears, and left the room!