The two well-meaning visitors were greatly shocked when they beheld their young protégée. She looked so dull, and vacant, almost like another creature! Her attitude resembled that of a wounded creature, cowering, and withdrawing, from those who wished to do her good. She resisted all Mrs. Ffinch's importunities and persuasions to accompany her to Clouds Rest. This, was the one subject on which the girl seemed to have a fixed opinion; nothing would induce her to return to the hills. Otherwise, whether she was to remain at Coimbatore, or go to England, to live, or to die,—was apparently a matter of complete indifference.
Whilst Mrs. Ffinch was holding a whispered conference with Jane Simpson, Mrs. Hicks seized the opportunity to give Nancy the note from Mayne. The girl turned it over listlessly.
"It is his answer to yours," explained Mrs. Hicks. "He wrote it right away, and gave it to me. I thought it better to wait until I could bring it down myself."
"I suppose so, thank you," she said as she opened it, glanced over it, and then tore it into four pieces. "That's done," she said, looking at Mrs. Hicks, with unexpected animation.
"Well, I'm not so sure!" rejoined the matron, "and I'm not of the same mind as Mrs. Ffinch. We quarrelled about the business the whole way down. Indeed, I think myself, she had half a mind to put me out on the side of the road! I'm afraid I let my temper get the better of me, and said lots of things I'm sorry for now. I expect Mrs. Ffinch is bitterly disappointed that you won't go back with her, Nancy. I shouldn't be surprised if she carried her point yet, and you know we'd all be only too glad to have you among us. Hush! here she comes!"
As the time passed, Nancy's grief and misery, instead of abating seemed to increase. She was no longer an invalid, but helped Nurse Jane about the house, knitted, sewed, and walked out daily. Her attitude was one of an unnatural passivity. Grief had burnt into her very soul, and her inner being was absorbed with one obsession: the memory of her father. Apparently his image filled her thoughts to the exclusion of all else. This much, Nurse Jane gathered, during their infrequent conversations—for Nancy now was almost dumb. As for Mayne, the girl appeared to have forgotten his existence! She was completely prostrated by the loss of her parent, and gradually sinking into an apathetic condition of mind and body, from which at all cost, she must be redeemed.
As Bob Simpson's cheery good humour, and Jane's authoritative efforts, had not the smallest effect upon this white-faced silent inmate, Mrs. Ffinch and Mrs. Hicks and Ted Dawson were summoned,—and held, so to speak, a committee upon the case. They decided that the girl must have a complete change, otherwise, it would be impossible for her to regain her normal balance! Mrs. Ffinch relinquished her efforts to induce Nancy to live with her, had obtained her aunt's address, and sent her one of her most diplomatic letters—to which there had been a cool, but polite reply.
Mrs. Jenkins had also written to her niece, offering to receive her, and to give her an asylum until she could make other arrangements. Nancy, who had been two months at Coimbatore, was a wan, hollow-eyed spectre of herself: it was evident, that in her present environment she would never recover her mental poise. In the day-time she sat and walked, and talked like some dull automatic figure—entirely indifferent to her surroundings. As Mrs. Ffinch gravely considered her—she mentally concluded that, "that way madness lies!" and Mrs. Simpson's friends, who had known the gay and happy Miss Nancy Travers, assured one another, there was no doubt at all, but that the broken-hearted girl was either dying, or going out of her mind!
"She must be sent away at once!" such was Mrs. Ffinch's mandate, after a protracted interview with Nurse Jane. "There is her aunt's invitation—she has the money for her passage, her mourning is ready, and, as it happens, most providentially, Mrs. Sandilands is going home by the Patna. They can travel together. I shall wire to Cook, make all arrangements, secure a separate cabin for Nancy, and this day week, she will find herself at sea!"