A light touch: Muriel, calm, self-possessed, pale, was beside him. He took from her hands the glass of water, and sprinkled the pallid face, while she drenched her handkerchief with cologne and bathed the still brow and nostrils. The evening wind blew freshly into the room, and gradually a quiver of life came to the marble features. Harrington silently pointed to the loosened bodice, moved away, and stood with his brow resting on his hand.
Minute after minute passed on and all was silent save the fainter gaspings of the boy. Gradually, low rustling movements and faint murmurs, mixed with the sweet and soothing whispers of Muriel, came to him from the couch. He remained motionless, his mind blank and cold. In a minute or two Muriel spoke to him.
“She has recovered, John.”
His hand fell from his brow as he heard her words, and lifting his white face, he moved noiselessly across the room, closed the windows, and came to the pale lady’s side.
“Mother,” he said, kneeling by her, and tenderly folding her in his arms, “I would not have told you if I could have kept it from you.”
“Hush!” she murmured. “You did well. It was terrible, but I had to know it. Come, I am ready now for the rest. Bring Charles here, and let me know all. I will lie here and listen. Do not fear. I can bear everything now.”
Rising to his feet, he crossed the room, lifted the boy from the floor as lightly as though he were a baby, and held him face to face at arms’ length before him. The hapless Tugmutton, dangling broad-limbed and big-footed between the strong supporting hands, stared with blobber visage, ashen with fright and grief, and with mouth, eyes, and nostrils wildly open, into the white face smiling into his, with a smile gentle even in its ghastliness.
“Charles,” said Harrington, in a low, consoling voice, “don’t be frightened, poor boy. See, I am not angry with you. I feel badly for what has happened, but I am not angry with you, Charles.”
The miserable Tugmutton, inert in his suspension, opened his big mouth wide, and burst into a roar of tears.