“So did I,” answered Katharine. “Jack,” she continued, after a slight pause, “it won’t do to go and see papa now. Not till the will’s been read to-morrow. You don’t know what a state of mind he’ll be in until he’s heard it—and then—then I’m afraid it will be worse than ever.”
“Yes—let me see—how was it? You and Charlotte and I are to have everything, and pay half the income to the parents. Isn’t that it?”
“That’s it. And there’s a million set aside for the Brights. But Heaven only knows what that dreadful court will do this time!”
“I don’t much care,” answered Ralston. “But all the settling up will be suspended again for ever so long. You’ll never get the money to pay for your new frock, dear, with all your millions!”
“Oh, Jack—really? I’m frightened to death about those bills!”
“I was only laughing at you,” said John, laughing himself. “Besides, as I’m really your husband, I’m responsible for your dressmaker’s bills in the eye of the law. But, I confess, I begin to wonder whether any of us will ever see any of that money.”
CHAPTER XXXII.
Long after midnight Hester Crowdie sat beside her sleeping husband, watching him with unwinking eyes. The soft, coloured light was shaded so that no ray could fall upon his face to disturb his rest, as he lay back upon the yielding pillow, sleeping very soundly. The house was still, but the servants were not all gone to bed, for Hester was anxious. At any moment she might need to send for a doctor. But she sat watching the unconscious man alone.
His eyes were closed, and his face was flushed. He breathed very heavily, though she did not quite realize it; for the sound of his breathing had increased very gradually during many hours, from having been at first quite inaudible until it filled her ears with a steady, rhythmic roar, loud and regular as the noise of a blacksmith’s bellows. But she was scarcely conscious of it, because she had watched so long.
Hour after hour she had sat beside him, hardly changing her position, and never leaving the room. To her the house seemed still, and only now and then the echo of the steam horns reached her ears, made musical by the distance, as it floated from the far river across the dozing city.