"When you haven't?" interrupted Seth, with a touch of his old humour. "O, Sally, Sally! would you teach me to tell lies at my time of life? Come now, my dear, be good and reasonable. I'll watch by our treasure till you wake up; I know you wouldn't trust her with anybody else."
"No, that I wouldn't; and if she asks for me you'll call me at once?"
"Yes, you may trust me, Sally."
With that Sally yielded, and, with small persuasion, drank the draught prepared for her.
"I'll go in five minutes," she said, sitting on a stool by the bedside, and gazed lovingly on the sleeping Duchess.
"All right," said Seth, who was sitting on a chair close to her; "rest your head on my knee, dear child."
With a grateful sigh, Sally obeyed, and clasped Seth's hand, which was lying with light touch on her neck.
Thus, with tired eyes watching the Duchess's face, she remained for two or three minutes, when the narcotic she had taken overpowered her, and she sank to sleep. Seth raised her softly in his arms, and placed her in his bed, covering her up warm, and kissing her before he resumed his seat at the Duchess's bedside. The child had been peculiarly restless all the evening, but was now in a calmer state. For an hour Seth kept his watch faithfully, and without moving from his seat; but some anxiety with reference to Sally caused him to step softly to her side.
Sally was in a deep sleep; her fingers were tightly interlaced, and her face wore an anxious expression, but she was at rest. The strangeness of the situation the silence which at such a time so powerfully asserts itself, and the eloquent lesson of love and devotion he saw before him had their due effect upon Seth Dumbrick's mind, and he held his hand before his half-closed eyelids with the air of a man to whom new and strange aspects of life had unexpectedly presented themselves. He was not long thus occupied; he was startled from his musing by a word uttered with singular clearness--a sacred word never before heard in that dim dwelling-place. "Mamma! mamma!" cried the Duchess; and hurrying to her, Seth saw her sitting up in bed, with her white arms stretched forth, and the loving word hanging on her lips. It was like a cry to heaven from a heart whose tenderest pulse had only now found a voice. There was yearning, there was a plaintive reproach in the cry. The Duchess's cheeks were red and hot, her lips were made eloquent by her plaintive appeal to an invisible presence, and her eyes were wide open, seeing nothing that was actually before her. Seth, with great timidity, but with infinite tenderness, placed his arm about the neck of the Duchess, and drew her face to his breast. She submitted unresistingly, and closing her eyes, relapsed into slumber. Seth, then with wrinkled forehead, rasped his chin with his hard hand, and marvelled by what mysterious means the Duchess's thoughts had been driven back to her infant days, when a mother's love undoubtedly encompassed her. There was no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that the mother's love was pure and good; the tone in which the child had uttered the cry proclaimed it. "What dream or fancy," mused Seth, "could have brought to the memory of the child a mother of whom she had such brief experience?" And then his mind reverted to the mystery which surrounded the Duchess's introduction to Rosemary Lane, gaining no light, however, from what had just occurred. "If," he continued, "there are such things as spirits, perhaps the Duchess saw her mother's when she called to her." For although he had settled his convictions with respect to the Bible, he had by no means made up his mind generally on spiritual matters. The night passed without further interruption, and in the early morning Seth very quietly performed Sally's duties of lighting the fire and preparing the breakfast. Sally still slept soundly, and Seth would not disturb her. It was nine o'clock before she opened her eyes, and then she jumped up briskly, bright and fresh, and ready to resume her labour of love.
"The Duchess has been very good, Sally," said Seth; "and how do you feel?"