“I don't like the looks of this, sir,” he said. “I thought he was pretty bad when I went to fetch him—”
Holder pushed past him and looked into the carriage. Leaning back, motionless, in the corner of the seat was the figure of a man. For a terrible moment of premonition, of enlightenment, the rector gazed at it.
“They sent for me from a family hotel in Ayers Street,” the driver was explaining. Mr. Bentley's voice interrupted him.
“He must be brought in, at once. Do you know where Dr. Latimer's office is, on Tower Street?” he asked the man. “Go there, and bring this doctor back with you as quickly as possible. If he is not in, get another, physician.”
Between them, the driver and Holder got the burden out of the carriage and up the steps. The light from the hallway confirmed the rector's fear.
“It's Preston Parr,” he said.
The next moment was too dreadful for surprise, but never had the sense of tragedy so pierced the innermost depths of Holder's being as now, when Horace Bentley's calmness seemed to have forsaken him; and as he gazed down upon the features on the pillow, he wept.... Holder turned away. Whatever memories those features evoked, memories of a past that still throbbed with life these were too sacred for intrusion. The years of exile, of uncomplaining service to others in this sordid street and over the wide city had not yet sufficed to allay the pain, to heal the wound of youth. Nay, loyalty had kept it fresh—a loyalty that was the handmaid of faith...
The rector softly left the room, only to be confronted with another harrowing scene in the library, where a frantic woman was struggling in Sally Grover's grasp. He went to her assistance... Words of comfort, of entreaty were of no avail,—Kate Marcy did not seem to hear them. Hers, in contrast to that other, was the unmeaning grief, the overwhelming sense of injustice of the child; and with her regained physical strength the two had all they could do to restrain her.
“I will go to him,” she sobbed, between her paroxysms, “you've got no right to keep me—he's mine... he came back to me—he's all I ever had....”
So intent were they that they did not notice Mr. Bentley standing beside them until they heard his voice.