"Ask Lee," she said, and the next moment Mrs. Barker, the housekeeper, came bustling in with smelling salts, and so on, to minister to a mind diseased. And Mary was taken off to bed.
"What on earth can be the matter with her, cousin Tom?" said Charles when she was gone.
"She is out of sorts, and got hysterical; that's what it is," said Tom.
"What odd things she said!"
"Women do when they are hysterical. It's nothing more than that."
But Mrs. Barker came in with a different opinion. She said that Mary was very hot and restless, and had very little doubt that a fever was coming on. "Terribly shaken she had been," said Mrs. Barker, "hoped nothing was wrong."
"There's something decidedly wrong, if your mistress is going to have a fever," said Tom. "Charley, do you think Doctor Mulhaus is at Baroona or Garoopna?"
"Up at the Major's," said Charles, "Shall I ride over for him? There will be a good moon in an hour."
"Yes," said Tom, "and fetch him over at once. Tell him we think it's a fever, and he will know what to bring. Ride like h——l, Charley."
As soon as he was alone, he began thinking. "What the DOOSE is the matter?" was his first exclamation, and, after half-an-hour's cogitation, only had arrived at the same point, "What the DOOSE is the matter?" Then it flashed across him, what did she mean by "ask Lee?" Had she any meaning in it, or was it nonsense? There was an easy solution for it; namely, TO ask Lee. And so arising he went across the yard to the kitchen.