"But," Mary explained, "Dot said he was forced to do it, at peril of his life; that he—the Englishman—held a pistol to his head and swore he'd shoot him if he refused."
"Pah," said Jack, contemptuously, "he'd never have dared go so far as that. Master Weeks is but a poor coward." Then he asked quickly, "Think you, Mary, that Dot is telling our father aught of the matter now?"
"I cannot say," was his wife's irresolute answer. "I fear so, and yet I cannot but hope so, as well,—for how can another ever tell him?"
"Aye," groaned the young man; "it will come nigh to killing him."
But Dorothy had not told her father anything. No sooner had he come to her bedside than her eyes filled with a contented light, and slipping her hand within his close clasp, she fell tranquilly asleep, too stunned and numbed by physical weakness and contending emotions,—her senses too dulled from the effects of Aunt Lettice's draught—to find words wherein to pour out her heart to him.
He left her sleeping quietly, and returned to those below; and soon thereafter the seizure came, and he fell back in his chair, speechless, with closed eyes and inert limbs.
It was Mary and Aunt Lettice who ministered to him, with the help of his son and the faithful Tyntie, who was summoned from Dorothy's room, where she had been sent to watch the sleeping girl.
Leet was too old and slow of movement to be entrusted with the summoning of Dr. Paine; and Trent, who slept in one of the outer buildings, was aroused and despatched forthwith, with orders to use all possible speed, as they feared the master was already dead or dying.
They carried him at once to his own bed, where he lay unconscious, with no change in his appearance or breathing; and his son, sitting beside him, gazed with agonized eyes upon the white face lying against the pillows, his own face almost as white, and seeming to have aged under this flood of sorrow now opened in their midst.
It was well along toward morning, although yet dark, with the sky cloudless and gemmed with stars, before Dr. Paine arrived.