Reclining on the pillows of an invalid1 chair was Arthur Bohun, looking as yellow as gold, recovering from an attack of jaundice. The day of James Bohun's funeral it had poured with rain; and Arthur, standing2 at the grave, had caught a chill. This had terminated in the jaundice--his unhappy state of mind no doubt doing its part towards bringing on the malady3. He was recovering now. Sir Nash, at whose house he lay, was everything that was kind.
Madam was kind also: at least she made a great profession of being so. Her object in life just now was to get her son to marry Miss Dallory. Madam cared no more for her son Arthur or his welfare than she did for Richard North; but she was shrewd enough to foresee that the source, whence her large supplies of money had hitherto been drawn4, was now dried up: and she hoped to get supplies out of Arthur for the future. Marrying an heiress, wealthy as Miss Dallory, would wonderfully increase his power to help her. Moreover, she wished to be effectually relieved from that horrible nightmare that haunted her still--the possibility of his marrying Ellen Adair.
So madam laid her plans--as it was in her scheming nature ever to be laying them--and contrived5 to bring Miss Dallory, at that time in London with her aunt, to Sir Nash Bohun's for a few days' visit when Arthur was recovering. The young lady was there now: and Matilda North was there; and they both spent a good part of every day with Arthur; and Sir Nash made much of Mary Dallory, partly because he really liked her, and partly because he thought there was a probability that she would become Arthur's wife. During his illness, Captain Bohun had had time for reflection: not only time, but calmness, in the lassitude it brought to him mentally and physically6: and he began to see his immediate7 way somewhat clearer. To give no explanation to the two ladies at Eastsea, to whom he was acting8, as he felt, so base a part, was the very worst form of cowardice9; and, though he could not explain to Ellen Adair, he was now anxious to do so to Mrs. Cumberland. Accordingly the first use he made of his partially-recovered health, was to ask for writing materials and write her a note in very shaky characters. He spoke10 of his serious illness, stated that certain "untoward11 circumstances" had occurred to intercept12 his plans, but that as soon as he was sufficiently13 well to travel he should beg of her to appoint a time when she could allow him a private conference.
The return post brought him a letter from Ellen. Rather to his consternation14. Ellen assumed--not unnaturally15, as the reader will find--that the sole cause of his mysterious absence was illness; that he had been ill from the first, and unable to travel. It ran as follows:--
"My Dearest Arthur,
"I cannot express to you what my feelings are this morning; so full of joy, yet full of pain. Oh I cannot tell you what the past two or three weeks have been to me; looking back, it almost seems a wonder that I lived through them. For I thought--I will not say here what I thought, and perhaps I could not say, only that you were never coming again; and that it was agony to me, worse than death. And to hear now that you could not come: that the cause of your silence and absence has been dangerous illness, brings to me a great sorrow and shame. Oh Arthur, my dearest, forgive me! Forgive also my writing to you thus freely; but it almost seems to me as though you were already my husband. Had you been called away only half-an-hour later you would have been, and perhaps even might have had me with you in your illness.
"I should like to write pages and pages, but you may be too ill yet to read very much, and so I will say no more. May God watch over you and bring you to health again.
"Ever yours, Arthur, yours only, with the great love of my heart,
"Ellen Adair."
And Captain Arthur Bohun, in spite of the cruel fate that had parted them, pressed the letter to his heart, and the sweet name, Ellen Adair--sweeter than any he would ever hear again--to his lips, and shed tears of anguish16 over it in the feebleness induced by illness.
They might take Mary Dallory to his room as much as they pleased; and Matilda might exert her little wiles17 in praising her, and madam hers to leave them "accidentally" together; but his heart was too full of another, and of its own bitter pain, to have room for as much as a responsive thought to Mary Dallory.
"Arthur is frightfully languid and apathetical!" spoke Miss North one day in a burst of resentment18. "I'm sure he is quite rude to me and Mary: he lets us sit by him for an hour at a time, and never speaks."
"Consider how ill he has been--and is," remonstrated19 Sir Nash.
Mrs. Cumberland's span of life was drawing into a very narrow space: and it might be that she was beginning to suspect this. For some months she had been growing inwardly weaker; but the weakness had for a week or two been visibly and rapidly increasing. Captain Bohun's unaccountable behaviour had tried her--for Ellen's sake. She was responsible to Mr. Adair for the welfare of his daughter, and the matter was a source of daily and hourly annoyance20 to her. When this second tardy21 note arrived, she considered it, in one sense, a satisfactory explanation; in another, not so: since, if Captain Bohun had been too ill to write himself, why did he not get some one else to write to her and say so? However, she was willing to persuade herself that all would be right: and she told Ellen, without showing her the note, that Captain Bohun had been dangerously ill, unable to come or write. Hence Ellen's return letter.
But, apart from the progress of the illness in itself, nothing had done Mrs. Cumberland so much harm as the news of her daughter-in-law's death. It had been allowed to reach her abruptly22, without the smallest warning. I suppose there is something in our common nature that urges us to impart sad tidings to others. Dinah, Jelly's friend and underling, was no exception to this rule. On the day after the death, she sat down and indited23 a letter to her fellow-servant, Ann, at Eastsea, in which she detailed24 the short progress of Mrs. Rane's illness, and her strangely sudden death. Ann, before she had well mastered the cramped25 lines, ran with white face to her mistress; and Miss Adair afterwards told her that she ought to have known better. That it was too great a shock for Mrs. Cumberland in her critical state, the girl in her repentance26 very soon saw. Mrs. Cumberland asked for the letter, and scarcely had it out of her hand for many hours. Dead! apparently27 from no sufficient cause; for the fever had lasted only a day, Dinah said, and had gone again. Mrs. Cumberland, in her bewilderment, began actually to think the whole thing was a fable28.
Not for two or three days did she receive confirmation29 from Dr. Rane. Of course the doctor did not know or suppose that any one else would be writing to Eastsea; and he was perhaps willing to spare his mother the news as long as he could do so. He shortly described the illness--saying that he, himself, had entertained very little hope from the first, from the severity of the fever. But all this did not help to soothe30 Mrs. Cumberland; and in the two or three weeks that afterwards went on, she faded palpably. Little wonder the impression, that she was growing worse, made its way to Dallory.
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1
invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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malady
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| n.病，疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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6
physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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7
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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8
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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9
cowardice
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| n.胆小，怯懦 | |
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10
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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11
untoward
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| adj.不利的，不幸的，困难重重的 | |
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12
intercept
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| vt.拦截，截住，截击 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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14
consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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unnaturally
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| adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地 | |
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anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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wiles
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| n.（旨在欺骗或吸引人的）诡计，花招；欺骗，欺诈( wile的名词复数 ) | |
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18
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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remonstrated
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| v.抗议( remonstrate的过去式和过去分词 )；告诫 | |
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annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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tardy
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| adj.缓慢的，迟缓的 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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indited
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| v.写（文章，信等）创作，赋诗，创作( indite的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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repentance
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| n.懊悔 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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28
fable
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| n.寓言；童话；神话 | |
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29
confirmation
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| n.证实，确认，批准 | |
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30
soothe
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| v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承 | |
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