Theodora better understood her mother’s stifled sympathy for Violet, and her father’s more openly shown feeling for Arthur.
‘We were in great alarm for her,’ continued Mrs. Nesbit, ‘and the poor child was a miserable little thing, and pined away till we thought it best to send him home to be under English treatment; and your father chose to go with him to see John, who was in a very unsatisfactory state.’
‘And mamma did not go?’
‘She was unfit for the journey, and I remained with her. It was a fortunate arrangement of mine, for I knew he could not survive, and anxiety for him retarded her recovery, though we had hardly ever let her see him.’
‘Then he died?—how soon?’
‘At Frankfort, a fortnight after we parted with him. It was a dreadful shock to her; and if it had happened in the house, I do not think she would ever have recovered it. Was it a fortnight? Yes, I know it was; for it was on the 3rd of September that I had your papa’s letter. We were going to a party at Prince K—‘s, where there was to be a celebrated Italian improvisatrice, and I would not give her the letter till the next morning.’
Theodora stared at her in incredulous horror.
‘It threw her back sadly; but I did my utmost to rally her spirits, and her health did not suffer so materially as I feared; but she has strong feelings, and the impression has never been entirely removed. She scarcely ventured to look at Arthur or at you. How could your papa have let this child come here?’
‘Is he like poor little Theodore?’ said the sister.
‘Only as one wretched-looking baby is like another. This one is not a bit like the Martindales; it is exactly his mother’s face.’