“Leave me, Milly. Go! Hasten! Go downstairs! I don’t want you this morning,” said Alice, conscious of having betrayed too much emotion in the presence of her servant.
Milly left the room, and Alice hastened, with a flushed brow, and trembling hand, to the big armchair at the head of the bed, over the back of which hung the general’s clothing that he had worn the night before. Alice searched all the pockets of the overcoat in vain. And she took up the dress coat.
But while Alice was hunting for the key, the general had risen upon his elbow, and, unseen by her, was watching her motions with a demoniac leer.
Alice searched all the pockets of the dress coat, and it was not there. Then she raised the vest, and in the pocket found the key. She seized it eagerly, and was about to fly off with it when a heavy blow felled her to the floor! The key dropped from her hand. General Garnet stooped and repossessed himself of it, and looking at her with a laughing devil in his eye, said:
“Oh, was that you? Excuse me, madam! I beg ten thousand pardons; but waking up suddenly, and seeing a hand in my pocket, I naturally enough supposed it to be that of a thief! It’s Heaven’s mercy that I had not shot you by mistake, my dear!”
But seeing that she did not move, he leaned further over the side of the bed, and perceived that in falling the back of her head had struck the corner of the dressing bureau, and that she was stunned by the concussion—stunned or dead, he did not know which. He jumped to the floor and raised her. Her head and limbs fell helplessly over his arms. He laid her on the bed, ran his fingers through the golden tresses of her hair, but found no fracture; there might be a concussion of the brain, but there was no outward sign.
He started to the bell to ring it, but before he got there changed his mind and returned, locked the door, went to the bureau, and taking a couple of linen handkerchiefs, tore them in strips, and took a lancet from his case (all planters kept such things for the exigencies of the plantation). He then went to the bedside, ripped up the sleeve of Alice’s dress, and baring the arm, opened a vein. As the blood began to flow—first very sluggishly, then faster—she opened her eyes and looked at him. He then bound up her arm, and telling her that he hoped this sharp lesson would teach her the danger of opposing his will again, left her and proceeded to dress himself.
Alice attempted to rise, but her head grew dizzy, her eyes dim, and she sank back at the same moment that he sternly bade her be still, and not venture to leave her bed that day. He dressed, and left the chamber.
At noon General Garnet returned and entered the room, and approaching the bedside asked Alice how she felt.
“Only drowsy, inclined to sleep while lying down, but sick and dizzy and blind when I attempt to rise.”