“Dear mother, you must not give way so,” Amy said, kissing her forehead. “What shall I get for you?”
“Nothing, nothing. There’s no salve for sores of the mind, my girl,” replied the sick woman. “Let me have a doctor soon,” and then she closed her eyes.
It happened that Luke’s messenger to Avonworth met the doctor at the cross roads, returning from Berne; and he came therefore soon after Amy entered the room. Her mother looked at him eagerly as the doctor felt her pulse.
“Is there any danger, doctor?” she asked earnestly; “shall I die? pray do not deceive me. I am not a young woman, and don’t expect to live longer than my time; but do tell me if it has come?”
“There is no danger, I assure you,” said the doctor. “You have been excited lately, by some trouble perhaps—that affair of your son’s, which has come all right, I am glad to hear. Your greatest want is quiet and repose. You must not alarm or excite yourself: you will soon be better.”
Amy and her father followed the doctor down-stairs to obtain a verification of this statement; and as they left her, Mrs. Somerton repeated slowly to herself, “quiet and repose.”
CHAPTER II.
CONTAINS IMPORTANT REVELATIONS, AND TERMINATES FATALLY.
The next day Mrs. Somerton grew worse, and in the afternoon she insisted that she was dying. The doctor, on the contrary, insisted that she was not doing anything of the sort.
In the afternoon she expressed a strong desire to see Mr. Christopher Tallant.
“I must see him, Luke. There is something which he should know before I die—something of the greatest importance to others besides himself. Do, pray, send for him. It does not matter what yon senseless doctor says; I can feel I am dying, and I durst not die without seeing Mr. Tallant.”