“Sudden like—early this morning, sir. You will come, won’t you? We’re quite frightened.”
“Yes, I’ll come,” said North quickly. “By what strange irony of fate am I called upon again to attend on her?” he thought to himself, as he recalled her last illness, and the way in which she had declared her passion for him.
“Idiot! fool!” he said. “What a mere child! And I a medical man, and let my weak vanity carry me away so that I could not see that all was delirium.”
“Did you speak, sir?” said Dally, who trotted beside him as he walked with rapid strides towards the Rectory.
“No. Yes. How was it all?”
“Well, sir, I hardly know; only that I left Miss Leo this morning for a minute, and when I came back she’d been drinking something out of a glass, and looked as if she’d poisoned herself.”
“Absurd! But this morning? How came you to be with her this morning? Why, it is only five now.”
“No, sir. We were up very early.”
“Early? Why, you look as if you had not been to bed. Here, Dally, what has been going on at the Rectory?”
“Going on, sir? Oh, I couldn’t tell you. And here’s master, sir; ask him.”