“In the library, did you say? it’s very good of the boy to take such interest about poor Alice, but he always was kind-hearted. Go to her at once, Emily, dear; she was asleep when you sent for me, but she might wake at any minute, you know—go to her, I won’t be away long.”
On reaching the library, Coverdale found Lord Alfred awaiting his arrival in an extreme state of nervous trepidation; grasping his hand, Harry shook it warmly, saying—
“This is very kind of you, Alfred, my dear boy; you see you find us still anxious; I hope there is no serious cause for alarm, but you know it’s a case in which a man can’t help feeling very, very anxious.”
As Coverdale thus spoke words of encouragement, which his looks and manner, his quivering lip, brimming eye, and the forced cheerfulness of his voice, alike belied, Lord Alfred, more deeply affected than he could have been by the most vehement reproaches, lost all self-control, and, bursting into tears, exclaimed:—
“Do not speak so kindly to me; it kills me. I’d rather by half you would horsewhip me until I could not stand, for that is what I deserve. Oh! what misery my wicked folly has brought about! But for me, you would never have met with this accident, and Mrs. Coverdale would have escaped the anxiety and the shock which has brought on this illness; if I could but do anything to help you or her, I should hate myself less.”
Harry approached him, and laid his hand on his shoulder.
“Listen to me, my dear boy,” he said, kindly, but impressively, “these things cannot happen to a man without obliging him to reflect seriously, and, as I hope, to some good purpose; you should not judge of your own conduct, or of any one’s else, simply by results; we are instruments in God’s hands to work out His designs; and all that we can do is to make ourselves acquainted with the rules He has laid down for our guidance, and strive to act according to them, but the results are in His hands, and there we must be content to leave them. You have acted foolishly, but you are aware of it, and sorry for it; and in such a case, to look back is worse than useless; the only good in ever recalling the past is, that the recollection may guard you against falling again into a similar temptation should such a outcome in your way. So much for sermonizing; and now, you say you want to make yourself of use, and I can see you mean it. My poor Alice’s mother is a great invalid, and the shock of hearing of this affair has made her more ill than usual; she is most anxious about her daughter. Emily—you met Emily?”
“Yes, a most interesting, charming young lady; I knew her directly from her likeness to poor Mrs. Coverdale,” was the reply.
“Well, Emily or I write every day, but the letter takes twelve hours to get there by post; now, Sir J. C———— is coming down this afternoon to see poor Alice again, and Gouger fancies some change is about to take place in her; he supposes the crisis of the complaint is at hand—in fact—” Harry paused, for as he spoke of the approach of the moment in which Alice’s sentence for life or death was to declare itself, a choking sensation in his throat deprived him of the power of utterance; trying to conceal his emotion under a feigned cough, he resumed, “Now, if you wish to perform a really kind and good-natured action, will you remain here until the physician has given his opinion, and then take my dog-cart and mare, and drive over to the Grange, and detail his report to Mrs. Hazlehurst? They will give you a kind welcome and a bed, and you can either go to town from thence, or come back and dine and sleep here; you’ll not be a bit in the way, and will help to amuse Emily, and tempt her out of the sick room; for the good little girl is so zealous in her attendance on her sister that I live in constant dread of her knocking up, and then I should have two of them on my hands at once—what do you say?”
“Say! if you think that by going to the world’s end I can be of the smallest use or comfort to you, you have only to speak the word, and I’m off,” was the eager reply; then in a plaintive tone, Lord Alfred continued: “Coverdale, are you quite sure you don’t hate me for all this misery I’ve brought upon you?”