“Very well. I only suggested it in case you should feel uneasy.”
“I dont feel quite easy; but I dont care sufficiently about it to make a fuss. It will be time enough when I am actually at death’s door. All I know is that if there is a place of punishment in the next world, it is very unfair, considering what we suffer in this. I didnt make myself or my circumstances. I think I will try to sleep. I am half dead as it is with pain and weariness. Dont go until I am asleep.”
“I will not. Let me get you another pillow.”
“No,” said Susanna, drowsily: “dont touch me.”
Marian sat listening to her moaning respiration for nearly half an hour. Then, having some letters to write, she went to her own room to fetch her desk. Whilst she was looking for her pen, which was mislaid, she heard Susanna stirring. The floor creaked, and there was a clink as of a bottle. A moment later, Marian, listening with awakened suspicion, was startled by the sound of a heavy fall mingled with a crash of breaking glass. She ran back into the next room just in time to see Susanna, on her hands and knees near the stove, lift her white face for a moment, displaying a bleeding wound on her temple, and then stumble forward and fall prone on the carpet. Marian saw this; saw the walls of the room revolve before her; and fainted upon the sofa, which she had reached without knowing how.
When she recovered the doctor was standing by her; and Eliza was picking up fragments of the broken bottle. The smell of the spilled brandy reminded her of what had happened.
“Where is Miss Conolly?” she said, trying to collect her wits. “I am afraid I fainted at the very moment when I was most wanted.”
“All right,” said the doctor. “Keep quiet; youll be well presently. Dont be in a hurry to talk.”
Marian obeyed; and the doctor, whose manner was kind, though different to that of the London physicians to whom she was accustomed, presently left the room and went upstairs. Eliza was howling like an animal. The sound irritated Marian even at that pass: she despised the whole Irish race on its account. She could hardly keep her temper as she said:
“Is Miss Conolly seriously hurt?”