“Get the bed-clothes open,” continued Ellis, “so that we can put him in at once; it will save me half an hour's time afterwards, and is a thing which should always be thought of on these occasions.”
“Anything else?” inquired I.
“Yes, send somebody for the nearest surgeon; two heads are better than one,” said Ellis.
Remembering, as I approached the cottage, that the window of my room by which Archer and I had quitted it the previous night would be unfastened, I determined I would enter there, and, proceeding to my mother's door, call her up, and break the news as gently as the exigency of the case would permit, leaving her to act by Fanny as she should think best. Accordingly, I flung up the window, sprang in, and, throwing myself on the nearest chair, sat for a moment, panting from the speed at which I had come. As I did so, a timid knock was heard at the door. I instinctively cried, “Come in!” and Fanny entered.
“I have been so anxious all night about what you told me yesterday, that I could not sleep, so I thought I would come to see if you were up,” she commenced; then, for the first time remarking my breathless condition and disordered dress, she exclaimed, “Good Heavens! are you ill? you pant for breath, and your hands and the sleeves of your coat are saturated with water—with—oh! it is blood; you are wounded!” she cried, sinking in a chair, and turning as pale as ashes.
“Indeed, darling, you are alarming yourself unnecessarily; I am perfectly uninjured,” replied I soothingly.
“Something dreadful has happened!” she continued, fixing her eyes upon me; “I read it in your face.”
“An accident has occurred,” I began; “Oaklands——”
“Stop!” she exclaimed, interrupting me, “the two shots I heard but now—his agitation—his strange manner yesterday—oh! I see it all; he has been fighting a duel.” She paused, pressed her hands upon her eyes, as if to shut out some dreadful vision, and then asked, in a low, broken voice, “Is he killed?”
“No,” replied I, “on my word, on my honour, I assure you he is not; the bleeding had ceased when I left him, which is a very favourable symptom.”