"Ready!" she said. "All right, Dolphin! Now, band!--why don't they play up? No hoop lit yet! Get along, Dolphin! Ribbons now! Stand up, man!--why doesn't that man stand up? So; give him his head--that's it! Chalk; more chalk!--this pad's so slippery, I shall never stand on it; and--that's better. Now we go--one, two, three! All right, sir; all right, madam; told you I should clear it. Ah, Charley! Hold the hoop lower--lower yet. What's he at? I shall miss it--miss it! and then--Slacken your curb, miss, or she'll rear! So; that's it--easy does it. Courage now,--head and the heart up; hand and the heel down! Oh, he's jumped short!--he's over! he's over!"
She gave a sharp cry, and half-raised herself on to the pillow. The nurse was by her in an instant; so were they all. Her eyes opened at first dreamily; then she looked round and smiled sweetly. "Kiss me, dear," she said to Barbara. "Guardy! Robert, Robert! kindest, dearest Robert, I'm--going home!"
Then, with tears streaming from both their eyes, Frank led Barbara away; while, haggard and rigid, Simnel knelt by the bedside firmly clutching a dead hand.
[CHAPTER XLI.]
THE DAY AFTER.
When Mr. Simnel woke on the morning succeeding the night of Kate Mellon's death, he felt a numbness in his limbs, a burning, throbbing pain in his head, and a general sensation of prostration. He made an attempt at getting up, thinking he would string himself into vigour with his cold bath; but he found his head whirling--his legs shaking; and, after a severe shivering fit, he was fain to forego the attempt, and to get into bed again. Then he rang his bell, and told his servant to ask Dr. Prater to step round at once, and then to go on to Mr. Scadgers, whom he was to bring back with him. The servant despatched, Mr. Simnel lay back in bed, and endeavoured to give himself up to reflection. But the events of the last twenty-four hours had been far too exciting for that; still lay stretched before his eyes the crushed and mangled figure of his loved one; still her last broken words rung upon his ears.
"'Dearest, kindest Robert!' she called me that--my darling called me that with her last breath. 'Dearest kindest Robert!'--the last words! never to see her any more--never to hear her voice again! All over now; all--No, not all; one thing to be done, and done at once --a settlement with Charles Beresford!"
Simnel smiled very grimly as this idea came into his mind. It was not the first time that the idea had occurred to him. As, bit by bit, he gleaned poor Kitty's incoherent story, as he knelt by her bed, he had rapidly framed his course of action, and indeed carried it out in his mind. He saw himself thrashing Beresford in the streets--saw the row that would take place thereon consequent, the desperate confusion at the Tin-Tax Office; and, through the perspective, had a distant vision of a long stretch of sand on the Calais coast--he and Beresford fronting each other as principals, a couple of soldiers from the neighbouring caserne as seconds, and an army medical man looking on. He knew that Beresford was a man of courage; but he thought that he would probably refuse to fight in such an affair as this; therefore Simnel determined that no option should be given. He would not have a friend of his wait on Beresford with a challenge. He (Simnel) would pick a quarrel with him on some frivolous pretext, and insult him in the street. That was what he had made up his mind to do, and that was what he had intended to do that very day, if his sudden indisposition had not prevented him.
Little Dr. Prater found his patient very restless and tolerably impatient. "Well, my dear sir, and how are we? Glad I was at home, and able to come round at once. A fortunate chance to catch me, for there is a great deal of sickness just now amongst the upper classes. The tongue? Thank you. The pulse? Ah; dear me, dear me! as I feared--a galloping pulse, my dear sir, and a high state of fever! Have you now--have you had any cause for excitement?"
"Yes," said Simnel, shortly; "I was last night at the deathbed of one very dear to me."