"Oh, Grover, but I have been so well until this happened! And how could I help it? Here are you, cross old thing, scolding me in the same breath, first for taking a chill, and then because I didn't stay pottering out in the rain still longer, hunting for a telegraph office. The horse was dead beat; she couldn't go any farther."
"If I could box Mr. Rosenberg's ears, I'd do it with pleasure," was Grover's vindictive reply, somewhat qualified by the extreme tenderness with which she handled the culprit, undressing, tending, soothing her, and laying her down among her pillows to rest.
"Men don't think of things," murmured Virgie weakly, feeling bound to excuse Gerald.
"There's one that does," was the immediate retort. "One that has never had anything to do with ladies, all the time I've known him, till now, but has shown more true consideration than any one of these young fancy men, thinking of nothing but their own pleasure."
Virgie coloured painfully and was silent. This subject was taboo between mistress and maid. Grover could not but know that Virginia was in mortal fear of her husband, and the good woman regretted the man's awkward shyness, which prevented him, as she thought, from making headway. Her mind was filled with keen anxiety lest all the hopes entertained by the household at Omberleigh should be brought to naught by this unnatural separation of the newly wed.
No more was said; and later in the day the maid bitterly regretted having said even so much, for Mrs. Gaunt's fever mounted, and by the night she was delirious.
*****
It seemed to the patient a long time afterwards, though in reality not more than forty-eight hours, when she awoke from a sound sleep, and, glancing round, found the curtains drawn, excluding the sunshine, and her mother seated by her bed.
Mrs. Mynors looked up with an angelic smile when the sleeper stirred, rose and came to the bedside, stooping over her with a look of pity and sympathy.
"Oh, how long have I slept?" said Virginia, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "Where's Grover, mamma? I must get up and be off. I am going back to Omberleigh to-day."