Robert limped back to the sofa, and, seating himself on a chair, looked wistfully into his mother’s countenance; then hid his face in his hands.
“Come, be a man, Maclean; and don’t give way to nervousness! Your mother’s condition is constantly improving, though of course it is not so apparent to you as to me. What has been done with the carriage and horses?”
“Oh, the carriage is a sweet pudding; and the grays—curses on ’em!—are badly bruised. One of them had his flank laid open by a saw lying on a lumber-pile; and I only wish it had sawed across the jugular. They are vicious brutes as ever were bitted, and it makes my blood run cold sometimes to see their devilish antics when Mrs. Gerome insists on driving them. They will break her neck, if I don’t contrive to break theirs first.”
“I should judge from their appearance that it was exceedingly unsafe for any lady to attempt to control them. They seem very fiery and unmanageable. What has been done with them?”
“The deuce knows!—knocked in the head, I trust. I asked two men, who were in the crowd, to take them to the livery-stable. Mrs. Gerome is not afraid of anything, and one of her few pleasures is driving those gray imps, who know her voice as well as I do. I have seen them put up their narrow ears and neigh when she was a hundred yards off; 138 and sometimes she wraps the reins around her wrists and quiets them, when their eyes look like balls of fire. But Rarey himself could not have stopped them a while ago, when they determined to run over that menagerie show. My mistress will say it was my fault, and she will stand by the gray satans through thick and thin. Hist, doctor, my mother groans!”
“Would it not be best for you to go home and acquaint Mrs. Gerome with what has occurred?”
“I would not face her without my mother for—twenty kingdoms! You have no idea how she loves her ‘old Elsie,’ and I couldn’t break the news to her,—I would sooner break my head.”
“This is not a proper place for your mother, and I advise you to remove her to the hospital, which is not very far from my office. She can be carried on a litter.”
“Oh, my mistress would never permit that! She will let no one else nurse my mother; and, of course, she could not go to a public place like a hospital, for you know she is so dreadful shy of strangers.”
After many suggestions, and much desultory conversation, it was finally decided that Elsie should be placed on a mattress, in the bottom of an open wagon, and carried slowly home. A careful driver was provided, and when Dr. Grey had seen his patient comfortably arranged, and established Robert on the seat with the driver, he yielded to the solicitations of the son, that he would precede them to “Solitude,” and acquaint Mrs. Gerome with the details of the accident.