“If that be the case, you must not, upon any account, yield to that inclination to sleep. It is dangerous; you must rise and sit up.”
“I cannot—I wish I could—I cannot. I turn deadly sick as soon as my head is lifted.”
“Alice—I—think I must bleed you again,” he said, taking out the lancet and baring her arm. Then he hesitated a moment; he doubted whether this second bleeding would be right, but he resolved to risk it rather than risk the exposure of their secret by sending for a physician. He opened the vein again, and while the blood was trickling, looked so full of solicitude that Alice felt sorry for him, and said:
“Never mind; don’t you know I knew it was an accident—the striking of my head against the bureau.” She now looked so much better again that he ventured to say, as he bound up her arm:
“I hope, Alice, that this will be a profitable lesson to you, at least. Consider. You—you might have been killed.” Then he raised her in a sitting posture, propped pillows behind her, took a seat in the big chair, and said: “This is really a trifle as it turns out, Alice. This dizziness will soon pass away if you sit up. Only, I hope, as I said before, that this will be a warning to you, for it might have been much more serious, or even fatal. It is dangerous, Alice, dangerous to rebel either by stratagem or force against just authority. And, now listen, for I wish to talk to you of Elsie for two reasons—first, to keep you from falling into an injurious sleep; and, secondly, to let you know my reason for confining her, and my plans and purposes toward her.”
And then General Garnet, for the first time, openly avowed to his wife his fixed determination to break off forever the projected marriage between Magnus and Elsie, and to bestow the hand of the latter upon Lionel Hardcastle, giving her his reasons in full for doing so, and declaring his intention to keep Elsie confined until her consent was obtained, and to take her then from her room at once to the altar, that no deception might be practiced. Alice dreaded lest he should ask her opinion, or her co-operation. Fortunately for her, he did not consider either of the least importance, and soon rising, left the room and went down to dinner.
Alice pressed both hands to her head and groaned forth the prayer:
“Oh, God! guide me aright through this labyrinth of crossing duties, lest I lose my way!”
In the afternoon General Garnet went out again.
And soon after he was gone Milly entered her mistress’ chamber and put in her hand a little slip of paper, which she said Elsie had given her as she handed in her dinner.