"Paralysis?" suggested Ella.
"It means that, I take it. Paralysis of the heart, Miss Ella. Hubert said syncope--but he is not a doctor. There was no suffering; none. He went off as quietly as one sinks to sleep."
"I can't help wishing that my uncle had never sent for Dr. Jago," mused Ella. "I had far more confidence in Dr. Spreckley, who had studied his constitution for years."
"The Squire used to say," cried Aaron, "that he should never have been alive so long, if it hadn't been for Dr. Jago."
"It may be so. Who now can tell? But I was deeply grieved when Dr. Spreckley ceased to attend him. I thought--some instinct seemed to warn me--that it might not be for the best."
Aaron made no reply, and they sat a little while in silence. Then Ella spoke--in a softer tone.
"Did Uncle Gilbert often talk about me, Aaron? Did I seem to be much in his thoughts?"
"I don't think a day ever passed but what he mentioned you, Miss Ella," warmly replied the old man. "When he used to sit in his easy-chair, staring hard into the fire, I've said to myself many a time, 'He's thinking of one that is far away.'"
"Oh! that he had but sent for me!--How was it, Aaron, that he did not let me come home in time for his birthday? Could not _you_ have suggested to him that I ought to be here?"
The old man coughed uneasily. "I did speak to him about it, Miss Ella. I told him that you would be fretting your heart out at being so long away. But there! you know the kind of man he was--taking his own will and listening to nobody."