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MISTRESS BROOKES UPON THE EARL.
They were hardly seated when Simmons appeared, saying he had been
looking everywhere for her ladyship, for his lordship was taken as
he had never seen him before: he had fainted right out in the
half-way room, and he could not get him to.
Having given orders to send at once to Auchars for the doctor, lady
Arctura hastened with Donal to the room on the stair. The earl was
stretched motionless and pale on the floor. But for a slight
twitching in one muscle of the face, they might have concluded him
dead. They tried to get something down his throat, but without
success. The men carried him up to his chamber.
He began to come to himself, and lady Arctura left him, telling
Simmons to come to the library when he could, and let them know how
he was.
In about an hour he came: the doctor had been, and his master was
better.
"Do you know any cause for the attack?" asked her ladyship.
"I'll tell you all about it, my lady, so far as I know," answered
the butler. "--I was there in that room with him--I had taken him
some accounts, and was answering some questions about them, when all
at once there came a curious noise in the wall. I can't think what
it was--an inward rumbling it was, that seemed to go up and down the
wall with a sort of groaning, then stopped a while, and came again.
It sounded nothing very dreadful to me; perhaps if it had been in
the middle of the night, I mightn't have liked it. His lordship
started at the first sound of it, turned pale and gasped, then cried
out, laid his hand on his heart, and rolled off his chair. I did
what I could for him, but it wasn't like one of his ordinary
attacks, and so I came to your ladyship. He's such a ticklish
subject, you see, my lady! It's quite alarming to be left alone with
him. It's his heart; and you know, my lady--I should be sorry to
frighten you, but you know, Mr. Grant, a gentleman with that
complaint may go off any moment. I must go back to him now, my lady,
if you please."
Arctura turned and looked at Donal.
"We must be careful," he said.
"We must," she answered. "Just thereabout is one of the few places
in the house where you hear the music."
"And thereabout the music-chimney goes down! That is settled! But
why should my lord be frightened so?"
"I cannot tell. He is not like other people, you know."
"Where else is the music heard? You and your uncle seem to hear it
oftener than anyone else."
"In my own room. But we will talk to-morrow. Good night."
"I will remain here the rest of the evening," said Donal, "in case
Simmons might want me to help with his lordship."
It was well into the night, and he still sat reading in the library,
when Mrs. Brookes came to him. She had had to get his lordship "what
he ca'd a cat--something or ither, but was naething but mustard to
the soles o' 's feet to draw awa' the bluid."
"He's better the noo," she said. "He's taen a doze o' ane o' thae
drogues he's aye potterin' wi'--fain to learn the trade o' livin'
for ever, I reckon! But that's a thing the Lord has keepit in 's ain
han's. The tree o' life was never aten o', an' never wull be noo i'
this warl'; it's lang transplantit. But eh, as to livin' for ever,
or I wud be his lordship, I wud gie up the ghost at ance!"
"What makes you say that, mistress Brookes?" asked Donal.
"It's no ilk ane I wud answer sic a queston til," she replied; "but
I'm weel assured ye hae sense an' hert eneuch baith, no to hurt a
cratur'; an' I'll jist gang sae far as say to yersel', an' 'atween
the twa o' 's, 'at I hae h'ard frae them 'at's awa'--them 'at weel
kent, bein' aboot the place an' trustit--that whan the fit was upon
him, he was fell cruel to the bonnie wife he merriet abro'd an'
broucht hame wi' him--til a cauld-hertit country, puir thing, she
maun hae thoucht it!"
"How could he have been cruel to her in the house of his brother?
Even if he was the wretch to be guilty of it, his brother would
never have connived at the ill-treatment of any woman under his
roof!"
"Hoo ken ye the auld yerl sae weel?" asked Mrs. Brookes, with a sly
glance.
"I ken," answered Donal, direct as was his wont, but finding somehow
a little shelter in the dialect, "'at sic a dauchter could ill hae
been born to ony but a man 'at--weel, 'at wad at least behave til a
wuman like a man."
"Ye're i' the richt! He was the ten'erest-heartit man! But he was
far frae stoot, an' was a heap by himsel', nearhan' as mickle as his
lordship the present yerl. An' the lady was that prood, an' that
dewotit to the man she ca'd her ain, that never a word o' what gaed
on cam to the ears o' his brither, I daur to say, or I s' warran' ye
there wud hae been a fine steer! It cam, she said--my auld auntie
said--o' some kin' o' madness they haena a name for yet. I think
mysel' there's a madness o' the hert as weel 's o' the heid; an' i'
that madness men tak their women for a property o' their ain, to be
han'led ony gait the deevil puts intil them. Cries i' the deid o'
the nicht, an' never a shaw i' the mornin' but white cheeks an' reid
een, tells its ain tale. I' the en', the puir leddy dee'd, 'at micht
hae lived but for him; an' her bairnie dee'd afore her; an' the
wrangs o' bairns an' women stick lang to the wa's o' the universe!
It was said she cam efter him again;--I kenna; but I hae seen an'
h'ard i' this hoose what--I s' haud my tongue aboot!--Sure I am he
wasna a guid man to the puir wuman!--whan it comes to that, maister
Grant, it's no my leddy an' mem, but we're a' women thegither! She
dee'dna i' this hoose, I un'erstan'; but i' the hoose doon i' the
toon--though that's neither here nor there. I wadna won'er but the
conscience micht be waukin' up intil him! Some day it maun wauk up.
He'll be sorry, maybe, whan he kens himsel' upo' the border whaur
respec' o' persons is ower, an' a woman s' a guid 's a man--maybe a
wheen better! The Lord 'll set a' thing richt, or han' 't ower til
anither!"
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