"I heard from my father yesterday; he seemed quite well then."
"Yes, sir; and he was all right yesterday, and when he got up this morning. He came down to breakfast as usual; he always will have it at eight, you know. Well, he'd just sat down and was beginning, when there come a big ring at the front door bell. It's Watson's duty to go to the door when I'm waiting, but she never came down, and just as I was getting the master his bacon, the bell rings again. Well, he shouted and he stormed—beg your pardon, sir; you know how he carries on; you'll forgive me saying it."
"I know, Elkington; go on."
"So I put the bacon down, sir, and I went myself to see who was there. It was a boy with a telegram; he held out the yellow envelope to me, and he stood waiting while I took it in to the master.
"'What have you got there, Elkington?' he said. And when he saw what it was, he turned the colour of the table-cloth—that ghastly and white.
"'Take it out of the envelope, Elkington,' he says, 'my hand trembles so.'
"So I took it out and handed it to him, and he just looked at it one minute, and then he fell back in his chair in a dead faint, and the telegram slipped down on the floor under the table. I was that frightened, sir, I didn't know what to do. And then Watson came running in to know what was the matter. She do give herself airs, that woman, sir! Well, if you'll believe me, she swept me aside, and she took the master in her charge, and no one should touch him or do anything for him but herself. I said I would go for the doctor, and she said, 'No, I shouldn't, and he would be all right presently.'
"By-and-by the telegraph boy comes out of the hall and asks, 'Is he wanted, and is there any answer?' So I went out and sent him off; and I ran in the front and told Roger, the garden-boy, to fly off for Dr. Cholmondeley. Even Watson was glad when he came, for we thought he was dead, but the doctor brought him round; it was weakness of the heart, he said, and he was to be kept very quiet."
"I'm glad you sent for me, Elkington."
"It was the master did that, sir. I went in his room to take some hot water, and I heard him say to Watson: 'Send for the Captain,' he says. 'No, sir, you keep quiet,' she says; 'you don't want the Captain here; you're all right now.' You'd never believe, sir, how that woman lords it over him! Why, none of the rest of us dares to contradict the old gentleman; but, ever since she came here, she's been worming herself into his favour, and making herself that useful to him he thinks he can't get on without her. But this time she was not going to get her own way. I heard what she said, and I went up to the bed and said: 'Shall I wire for the Captain, sir?' and the old gentleman nodded his head, and Watson looked as if she would kill me. She doesn't like you, doesn't Watson, sir."