That was a strange ride. At starting Lionel lit a cigar, and puffed fiercely out of the window; idly looking at the Parliament-houses and other familiar objects which met his gaze as they drove over Westminster Bridge, the passing populace, the hoardings blazing with placards, the ordinary bustle and turmoil of every-day life. He was angry and savage; savage with Margaret for the annoyance she had brought upon him, savage with Bowker for having found him out, savage with himself for having allowed himself, in the impulse of a moment, to be betrayed into this expedition. Then, as the houses became fewer, and the open spaces more frequent; as they left behind them the solid blocks of streets and rows and terraces, dull wretched habitations for ninth-rate clerks, solemn old two-storied edifices where the shipping agents and Baltic merchants of a past generation yet lingered in their retirement, frowsy dirty little shops with a plentiful sprinkling of dirtier and frowsier taverns, imbued as was the whole neighbourhood with a not-to-be explained maritime flavour,--as they slipped by these and came into the broad road fringed by pretty gardens, in which stood trim villas stuccoed and plate-glassed, with the "coach-house of gentility" and every other sign of ease and wealth; then leaving these behind, emerged into country lanes with wide-spreading meadows on either side, green uplands, swelling valleys, brown shorn fields whence the harvest had been carried,--as they passed through all these the cruel thoughts in Lionel's mind softened, and he began to think of the scene to which he was being hastened, and of his own share in bringing about that scene. As he flung away the butt-end of his cigar, there rose in his mind a vision of Margaret as he had first seen her, walking on the Castle Hill at Tenby with some of her young companions, and looking over the low parapet at the boiling sea raging round Catherine's Rock. How lovely she looked, glowing with youth and health! What a perfectly aristocratic air and tournure she had, visible in the careless grace of her hat, the sweeping elegance of her shawl, the fit of her boots and gloves! How completely he had been taken aback by the apparition! how he had raved about her! had never rested until he had obtained an introduction, and--ah, he remembered at that moment distinctly the quivering of her eyelids, the fluttering of her young bosom under its simple gauze, her half hesitating timid speech. That was comparatively a short time ago--and now in what condition was he to find her? He was not all bad, this man--who is?--and the best part of him was awakened now. He crossed his arms, leaned back in the carriage, and was nearer repentance than he had been since his childhood.
And old William Bowker, what was he thinking of? Indeed, he had fallen into his usual day-dream. The comparison between Margaret and his own lost love, made when he first saw her, had always haunted him; and he was then turning in his mind how, if such a complication as they were experiencing at that moment had been possible, it would have affected her and him. From this his thoughts glided to the impending interview, and he wondered whether he had done right in bringing it about. He doubted whether Margaret would have the physical strength to endure it; and even if she had, whether any good--even so far as the arousing even a transient good in his companion--would result from it. As he was pondering upon these things, Lionel turned quietly upon him and said in a hoarse voice,
"You said she was very ill?"
"Very ill; could hardly be worse--to be alive."
"It's--" and here he seemed to pull himself together, and nerve himself to hear the worst--"it's consumption, I suppose, caught from--damn it all, how my lip trembles!--brought on by--want, and that."
"It originated in rheumatic fever, produced by cold and exposure, resulting in heart-disease and a complication of disorders."
"Has she had proper advice?--the best, I mean, that can be procured?"
"Yes; she has been seen twice by ---- and ----" said Bowker, naming two celebrated physicians, "and her own doctor sees her every day."
"And their opinions agree?"
"They all agree in saying that--"