There more melancholy news met him. Mrs. Sterling, whose brain had been seriously affected by the fever, was now certainly losing her reason, and Drusilla was almost broken-hearted between the death of her dear friend and the infirmity of her dear mother.
It is said that madness often reverses the whole moral character. Mrs. Sterling who, in her proper senses, had been one of the most active, energetic and domineering of women, was now one of the meekest, gentlest, and most harmless of lunatics. Her illusions were all innocent, and some of them amusing. Sometimes she fancied herself the mistress of Crowood. At other times she imagined that Alexander and Drusilla were married, and making a visit to her there.
Her pleasing illusions did not prevent her from performing all her household duties, only she discharged them in the capacity of mistress, not manager.
Mr. Lyon consulted the country doctor, who told him that in Mrs. Sterling’s case there was a gradual softening of the brain that must prove fatal.
A part of Alexander’s business at Crowood was to take Drusilla back to school. But it was now certain that she must not be separated from her mother.
For Drusilla’s sake, he wished that Mrs. Sterling might have the best medical advice. So he decided to take her to Richmond, to be examined by the faculty there. But as she persisted in imagining herself mistress of Crowood, instead of the hired housekeeper of the master, to be directed by his will, she refused to leave the place.
Then Alexander, taking advantage of the hallucination in regard to the supposed marriage of Drusilla and himself, let a day or two pass, to enable her to forget the first proposal, and then invited her to pay himself and her daughter a visit at their new house in the city.
This the harmless lunatic readily consented to do. And she immediately began to prepare for the journey with a regularity and dispatch not to be excelled by the sanest mind. It was evident that her mental infirmity did not incapacitate her for the functions of her office.
They went to Richmond and took up their abode in the town house, that had been thoroughly renovated and refurnished in honor of that expected marriage which had never yet come off.
Mrs. Sterling was delighted with all she saw, and complimented her imagined son-in-law on his taste and liberality, and congratulated her daughter on her excellent husband and comfortable home.