At ten o'clock, feeling cold and ill, she undressed and got into bed, but kept the light burning. Henry was perfectly8 tranquil9. The trams seemed to make a tremendous uproar10. She could not sleep, but Henry apparently11 dozed12 at intervals13. Then she had a severe shock. He was violently sick.
"What's this? What's this?" he murmured feebly and sadly.
He did not know what it was; but Violet, who had witnessed a deal of physical life during her peregrinations[Pg 214] with the clerk of the works, knew what it was. It was what Violet's varied16 acquaintances had commonly called, in tones of awe17 on account of its seriousness, the "coffee-grounds vomit18." It was, indeed, a sinister19 phenomenon.
Henry had dropped back exhausted20. His forehead was wet, and his hair damp with perspiration21. Also he seemed to be terrorized—he who was never afraid until hours or days after the event! At this point it was that Violet went out of the bedroom to send Elsie for the doctor.
As soon as Elsie was gone Violet dressed. She still felt very cold and ill. The minutes dragged. Henry lay inert22. His aspect had considerably23 worsened. The facial emaciation24 was accentuated25, and the pallor of the ears and the lips, and even his beard and hair were limp as if from their own fatigue26. Elsie's greed was now an infinitesimal thing in Violet's mind, and the importance attached to it struck her as wildly absurd. Yet she had a strange, cruel desire (which she repressed) to say to Henry: "Your bluff27 has failed! Your bluff has failed! And look at you!" She thought of the approaching Christmas, for which she had secretly been making plans for merriment; she had meant to get Elsie's aid, because she knew that Elsie had in her the instincts of fancy and romance. Pathetic! She thought of her anger at Elsie's indiscretion in telling a customer that the master would never get up again. Ridiculous anger! He never would get up again; and what did it matter if all Clerkenwell knew in advance? The notion of Henry spending money on the cure of his damaged knee seemed painfully laughable. His dread28, genuine or affected29, of communism, seemed merely grotesque30. She saw a funeral procession, consisting of a hearse and one coach, leave Riceyman Steps. The coffin31 would have to be carried across the space from the shop-door to the main road, as no vehicle could come right to the door. Crowds! Crowds of gapers!
Then she heard a noise below. Elsie, who had run[Pg 215] all the way to Myddelton Square and all the way back, tapped with tremulous eagerness.
"He's coming, 'm." She was panting.
Dr. Raste arrived, but only after an interval14 of nearly half an hour, which seemed to Violet like half a night. The fact was that, despite much practice, he could not dress in less than about twenty minutes; nor was it his habit to run to his patients, whatever their condition. He came with the collar of his thick overcoat turned up. Violet met him on the landing; she had shut the bedroom door behind her. He was calm; he yawned; and his demeanour hovered32 between the politely indifferent and the politely inimical. He spoke33 vaguely34, but in his loud tone, in reply to Violet's murmur15: "I was afraid you weren't coming, doctor."
Violet had by this time lost her sense of proportion. She was incapable35 of bearing in mind that the doctor lived daily and nightly among disease and death, and that he was more accustomed to sick people than to healthy. She did not suspect that in the realism of his heart he regarded sick people and their relations in the mass as persons excessive in their fears, ruthless in their egotism, and cruel in their demands upon himself. She had no conception that to him a night-call was primarily a grievance36 and secondarily an occasion to save life or pacify37 pain. She might have credited that fifty per cent. of his night-calls were unnecessary, but she could never have guessed that he had already set down this visit to Riceyman Steps as probably the consequence of a false, foolish, feminine alarm. She began to explain to him at length the unique psychology38 of the sufferer, as though the doctor had never before encountered an unwilling39 and obstinate40 patient. The doctor grew restless.
"Yes. Just so. Just so. I'd better have a look at him."
"I haven't dared to tell him I've sent for you," said Violet piteously, reproachful of the doctor's inhumanity.
"Tut-tut!" observed the doctor, and opened the bedroom door.[Pg 216]
He sniffed41 on entering, glanced placidly42 at Henry, then at the fireplace, and then went to the window and drew the curtains and blind aside.
"I should advise you to have a fire lighted at once, and we'll open the window a bit."
He put his hat carefully on the chest of drawers, but did not even unbutton his overcoat or turn down his collar. Then he removed his gloves and rubbed his hands. At last to Henry:
"Well, Mr. Earlforward, what's this I hear?"
No diplomacy43 with the patient! No ingenious excusing of his presence! The patient just had to accept his presence; and the patient, having no alternative, did accept it.
"Shall I light the fire now, 'm?" asked Elsie timidly at the door.
"Yes," said the doctor shortly, including both the women in his glance.
"But won't she be disturbing you while you're ..." Violet suggested anxiously. She was afraid that this unprecedented44 proceeding45 would terribly upset Henry and so make him worse.
"Not at all."
"I don't think we've ever had this fire lighted," said Violet, to which the doctor deigned46 no reply.
"Run along, Elsie. Take your things off and be quick. The doctor wants a fire immediately."
Before the doctor, changed now from an aggrieved47 human being into a scrupulously48 conscientious49 professional adviser50, had finished his examination, the room was half full of smoke. Violet could not help looking at Elsie reproachfully as if to say: "Really, Elsie, you should be able to control the chimney better than this—and your master so ill!"
The patient coughed excessively, but everyone knew that the coughing was merely his protest against the madness of lighting51 a fire.
"I'm too hot," he muttered. "I'm too hot."
And such was the power of auto-suggestion that he did[Pg 217] in fact feel too hot, though the fire had not begun to give out any appreciable52 heat. He privately53 determined to have the fire out as soon as the doctor had departed; a limit must be set to folly54 after all. However, Henry was at once faced with a great new crisis which diminished the question of the fire to a detail.
"I can't come to any conclusion without washing out the stomach," said Dr. Raste, turning to Violet, and then turning back quickly to Henry: "You say you've no pain there? You're sure?" And he touched a particular point on the chest.
"None," replied Henry.
"The fellow is lying," thought the doctor. "It's amazing how they will lie. I bet anything he's lying. Why do they lie?"
Nevertheless, the doctor could not be quite sure. And he had a general preference for not being quite sure; he liked to postpone55 judgment56.
"I don't mind having my stomach washed out," Henry murmured blandly.
"No, of course not. I'll telephone to the hospital early to-morrow, and Mrs. Earlforward will take you round there in a cab." And to Violet: "You'll see he's well covered, won't you?"
"I will," Violet weakly agreed.
"But I don't want to go to any hospital," was Henry's second protest. "Why can't you do the business here?"
"Impossible in a house!" the doctor announced. "You can only do that sort of thing where you've got all the apparatus57 and conveniences. But I'll make it all smooth for you."
"Oh, no! Oh, no! Not to a hospital!"
"I doubt whether you realize how ill you are, my friend."
"I'm not that ill. When should I come out again?"
"The moment you are better."
"Oh, no! No hospital for me. There's two of them here to nurse me."[Pg 218]
"Your wife is not in a condition to nurse you. You must remember that, please.... Better get him there by eleven o'clock. I shall probably be there first. I'll give you the order—to let you in."
Henry ceased to cough; he ceased to feel hot. His condition suddenly improved in a marvellous way. He had been ill. He admitted now that he had been chronically59 ill. (He had first begun to feel ill either just before or soon after the eating of the wedding-cake on his bridal night.) But he was now better, much better. He was aware of a wonderful amelioration, which surprised even himself. At any rate, he would not go into a hospital. The enterprise was too enormous and too perilous60. Once in, when would he get out again? And nurses were frightful61 bullies62. He would be helpless in a hospital. And his business? It would fall to ruin. Everything would get askew63. And the household? Astounding64 foolishness would be committed in the house if he lost his grip on it. He could manage his business and he could manage his household; and nobody else could. Besides, there was no sound reason for going into a hospital. As for washing out his stomach, if that was all, give him some mustard and some warm water, and he would undertake to do the trick in two minutes. The doctor evidently desired to make something out of nothing. They were all the same. And women were all the same, too. He had imagined that Violet was not like other women. But he had been mistaken! She had lost her head—otherwise she would never have sent for the doctor in the middle of the night. The doctor would undoubtedly65 charge double for a night visit. And the fire, choking and roasting him! He saw himself in the midst of a vast general lunacy and conspiracy66, and he alone maintaining ordinary common sense and honesty. He felt the whole world against him; but he could fight the whole world. He had perfect confidence in the fundamental hard strength of his nature.
Then he observed that the other two had left the room. Yet he did not remember seeing them go. Elsie came[Pg 219] back, her face smudged, to watch the progress of the fire, which was no longer smoking.
"Where's your mistress, my girl?"
"She's talking to the doctor on the landing, sir."
"You see," the doctor was saying in a low voice to Violet, "it may be cancer at the cardiac end of the stomach. I don't say it is. But it may be. That would account for the absence of appetite—and for other symptoms." In the moonlight he saw Violet wiping her eyes. "Come, come, Mrs. Earlforward, you mustn't give way."
"It's not that," Violet spluttered, who was crying at the thought that she had consistently misjudged Henry for many months past. Not from miserliness, but from illness, had he been refusing to eat. He could not eat normally. He was a stricken man, and to herself she had been accusing him of the meanest avarice67 and the lowest stupidity. She now in a flash acquitted68 him on every charge, and made him perfect. His astounding secretiveness as to his condition she tried to attribute to a regard for her feelings.
"What are we to do? What am I to do?"
"Oh!" said Dr. Raste. "Don't let that worry you. We'll get him away all right to-morrow morning. I'll come myself and fetch him."
At the same moment they both saw the bedroom door open and the lank69 figure of the patient in his blue-grey nightshirt emerge. The light was behind him, and threw his shadow across them. Elsie stood scared in the background.
"It's not the slightest use you two standing70 chattering71 there," Henry murmured bitterly. "I'm not going into a hospital, so you may as well know it."
"Oh, Henry!"
"Better get back to bed, Mr. Earlforward," said the doctor rather grimly and coldly.
"I'm going back to bed. I don't need you or anybody else to tell me I oughtn't to be out here. I'm going back to bed." And he limped back to bed triumphant72.[Pg 220]
Dr. Raste, who thought that he had nothing to learn about the strange possibilities of human behaviour, discovered that he had been mistaken. He could not hide that he was somewhat impressed. He again assured Violet that it would be all right in the morning, but he was not very convincing. As for Violet, since Dr. Raste was a little man, she did not consider that he had much chance, morally, against her husband, who was unlike all other men, and, indeed, the most formidable man on earth.
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1
sardonic
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| adj.嘲笑的，冷笑的，讥讽的 | |
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disquieted
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| v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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blandly
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| adv.温和地，殷勤地 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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8
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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tranquil
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| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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dozed
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| v.打盹儿，打瞌睡( doze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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15
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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16
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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vomit
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| v.呕吐，作呕；n.呕吐物，吐出物 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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inert
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| adj.无活动能力的，惰性的；迟钝的 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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emaciation
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| n.消瘦，憔悴，衰弱 | |
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25
accentuated
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| v.重读( accentuate的过去式和过去分词 )；使突出；使恶化；加重音符号于 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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28
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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coffin
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| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
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32
hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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33
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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34
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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36
grievance
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| n.怨愤，气恼，委屈 | |
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pacify
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| vt.使(某人)平静(或息怒)；抚慰 | |
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psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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41
sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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42
placidly
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| adv.平稳地，平静地 | |
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43
diplomacy
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| n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕 | |
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unprecedented
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| adj.无前例的，新奇的 | |
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45
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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46
deigned
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| v.屈尊，俯就( deign的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
aggrieved
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| adj.愤愤不平的，受委屈的；悲痛的；（在合法权利方面）受侵害的v.令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式)；令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式和过去分词) | |
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48
scrupulously
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| adv.一丝不苟地；小心翼翼地，多顾虑地 | |
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49
conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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50
adviser
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| n.劝告者，顾问 | |
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51
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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52
appreciable
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| adj.明显的，可见的，可估量的，可觉察的 | |
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53
privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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54
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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55
postpone
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| v.延期，推迟 | |
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56
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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57
apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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58
callously
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59
chronically
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| ad.长期地 | |
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60
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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61
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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62
bullies
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| n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负 | |
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63
askew
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| adv.斜地；adj.歪斜的 | |
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64
astounding
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| adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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65
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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66
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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67
avarice
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| n.贪婪；贪心 | |
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68
acquitted
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| 宣判…无罪( acquit的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（自己）作出某种表现 | |
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69
lank
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| adj.瘦削的；稀疏的 | |
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70
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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71
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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72
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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