In which Mr. Paul Dangerfield Mounts the Stairs of the House by the Church-Yard, and Makes Some Arrangements.
The white figure glided1 duskily over the bridge. The river rushed beneath in Egyptian darkness. The air was still, and a thousand celestial2 eyes twinkled down brightly through the clear deep sky upon the actors in this true story. He kept the left side, so that the road lay between him and the Phoenix3 door, which gaped4 wide with a great hospitable5 grin, and crimsoned6 the night air with a glow of candle-light.
The white figure turned the corner, and glided onward7 in a straight, swift line — straight and swift as fate — to the door of Doctor Sturk.
He knocked softly at the hall-door, and swiftly stepped in and shut it.
‘How’s your master?’
‘Jist the same way, plaze yer honour; jist sleepin’— still sleepin’— sleepin’ always,’ answered the maid.
‘Has the Dublin doctor come?’
‘No.’
‘The mistress — where’s she?’
‘In the room, Sir, with the masther.’
‘Present my service to her — Mr. Dangerfield’s compliments, you know — and say I await her permission to come up stairs.’
Presently the maid returned, with poor Mrs. Sturk’s invitation to Mr. Dangerfield to walk up.
Up he went, leaving his white surtout and cocked hat in the hall, and entered the chamber8 where pale little Mrs. Sturk, who had been crying a great deal, sat in a dingy9 old tabby saque, by the light of a solitary10 mould-candle at the bed-side of the noble Barney.
The mutton-fat wanted snuffing; but its light danced and splintered brilliantly over Mr. Dangerfield’s resplendent shoe-buckles, and up and down his cut-steel buttons, and also glimmered12 in a more phosphoric way upon his silver spectacles, as he bowed at the door, arrayed in a puce cut velvet13 coat, lined with pink, long embroidered14 satin waistcoat, fine lace ruffles15 and cravat16, his well-shaped leg gleaming glossily17 in silk, and altogether, in his glimmering18 jewellery, and purple and fine linen19, resembling Dives making a complimentary20 visit to the garret of Lazarus.
Poor little Mrs. Sturk felt her obligations mysteriously enlarged by so much magnificence, and wondered at the goodness of this white-headed angel in point, diamonds, and cut velvet, who had dropped from the upper regions upon the sad and homely21 floor of her Barney’s sick chamber.
‘Dr. Dillon not yet arrived, Madam? Well, ’tis precisely22 his hour; we shall have him soon. How does the patient? Ha! just as usual. How?— why there’s a change, isn’t there?’
‘As how, Sir?’ enquired23 Mrs. Sturk, with a scared look.
‘Why, don’t you see? But you mustn’t be frightened; there’s one coming in whom I have every confidence.’
‘I don’t see, Sir. What is it, Mr. Dangerfield? Oh, pray, Sir?’
‘Why — a — nothing very particular, only he looks more languid than when I saw him last, and discoloured somewhat, and his face more sunk, I think — eh?’
‘Oh, no, Sir —’tis this bad light — nothing more, indeed, Sir. This evening, I assure you, Mr. Dangerfield, at three o’clock, when the sun was shining, we were all remarking how well he looked. I never saw — you’d have said so — such a wonderful improvement.’
And she snuffed the candle, and held it up over Barney’s grim features.
‘Well, Madam, I hope we soon may find it. ’Twill be a blessed sight — eh?— when he sits up in that bed, Madam, as I trust he may this very night, and speak — eh?’
‘Oh! my precious Barney!’ and the poor little woman began to cry, and fell into a rhapsody of hopes, thanksgiving, anecdote24 and prayer.
In the meanwhile Dangerfield was feeling his pulse, with his watch in the hollow of his hand.
‘And aren’t they better — his pulse, Sir — they were stronger this morning by a great deal than last night — it was just at ten o’clock — don’t you perceive, Sir?’
‘H’m — well, I hope, Ma’am, we’ll soon find all better. Now, have you got all things ready — you have, of course, a sheet well aired?’
‘A sheet — I did not know ’twas wanted.’
‘Hey, this will never do, my dear Madam — he’ll be here and nothing ready; and you’ll do well to send over to the mess-room for a lump of ice. ’Tis five minutes past nine. If you’ll see to these things, I’ll sit here, Madam, and take the best care of the patient — and, d’ye see, Mistress Sturk, ’twill be necessary that you take care that Toole hears nothing of Dr. Dillon’s coming.’
It struck me, when originally reading the correspondence which is digested in these pages, as hardly credible25 that Doctor Sturk should have continued to live for so long a space in a state of coma26. Upon this point, therefore, I took occasion to ask the most eminent27 surgeon of my acquaintance, who at once quieted my doubts by detailing a very remarkable28 case cited by Sir A. Cooper in his lectures, Vol. I., p. 172. It is that of a seaman29, who was pressed on board one of his Majesty’s ships, early in the revolutionary war; and while on board this vessel30, fell from the yard-arm, and was taken up insensible, in which state he continued living for thirteen months and some days!
So with a little more talk, Mrs. Sturk, calling one of her maids, and leaving the little girl in charge of the nursery, ran down with noiseless steps and care-worn face to the kitchen, and Mr. Dangerfield was left alone in the chamber with the spell-bound sleeper31 on the bed.
In about ten seconds he rose sharply from his chair and listened: then very noiselessly he stepped to the door and listened again, and gently shut it.
Then Mr. Dangerfield moved to the window. There was a round hole in the shutter32, and through it he glanced into the street, and was satisfied.
By this time he had his white-pocket-handkerchief in his hands. He folded it deftly33 across and across into a small square, and then the spectacles flashed coldly on the image of Dr. Sturk, and then on the door; and there was a pause.
‘What’s that?’ he muttered sharply, and listened for a second or two.
It was only one of the children crying in the nursery. The sound subsided34.
So with another long silent step, he stood by the capriole-legged old mahogany table, with the scallop shell containing a piece of soap and a washball, and the basin with its jug35 of water standing36 therein. Again he listened while you might count two, and dipped the handkerchief, so folded, into the water, and quietly squeezed it; and stood white and glittering by Sturk’s bed-side.
People moved very noiselessly about that house, and scarcely a minute had passed when the door opened softly, and the fair Magnolia Macnamara popped in her glowing face and brilliant glance, and whispered.
‘Are you there, Mrs. Sturk, dear?’
At the far side of the bed, Dangerfield, with his flashing spectacles and snowy aspect, and a sort of pant, rose up straight, and looked into her eyes, like a white bird of prey37 disturbed over its carrion38.
She uttered a little scream — quite pale on a sudden — for she did not recognise the sinister39 phantom40 who glimmered at her over the prostrate41 Sturk.
But Dangerfield laughed his quiet hollow ‘ha! ha! ha!’ and said promptly42,
‘A strange old nurse I make, Miss Macnamara. But what can I do? Mrs. Sturk has left me in charge, and faith I believe our patient’s looking mighty43 badly.’
He had observed Miss Mag glancing from him to the dumb figure in the bed with a puzzled kind of horror.
The fact is, Sturk’s face had a leaden tint44; he looked, evidently enough, even in that dim candle-light, a great deal worse than the curious Miss Mag was accustomed to see him.
‘He’s very low, to-night, and seems oppressed, and his pulse is failing; in fact, my dear young lady, he’s plainly worse to-night than I like to tell poor Mrs. Sturk, you understand.’
‘And his face looks so shiny and damp-like,’ said Miss Mag, with a horrible sort of scrutiny45.
‘Exactly so, Miss, ’tis weakness,’ observed Dangerfield.
‘And you were wiping it with your pocket-handkerchief when I looked in,’ continued Miss Mag.
‘Was I— ha, ha —’tis wonderful how quick we learn a new business. I vow46 I begin to think I should make a very respectable nursetender.’
‘And what the dickens brings him up here?’ asked Miss Mag of herself; so soon as the first shock was over, the oddity of the situation struck her as she looked with perplexed47 and unpleasant sort of enquiry at Mr. Dangerfield.
Just then up came the meek48 little Mrs. Sturk, and the gentleman greeted her with a ‘Well, Madam, I have not left his bedside since you went down; and I think he looks a little better — just a little — eh?’
‘I trust and pray, Sir, that when the doctor —’ began Mrs. Sturk, and stopped short, for Mr. Dangerfield frowned quickly, and pointed49 towards Miss Mag, who was now, after her wont50, looking round the room for matter of interest.
‘And is Pell comin’ out to-night?’ asked Miss Mag quickly.
‘No, truly. Madam,’ answered the gentleman: ‘Dr. Pell’s not comin’— is he, Mrs. Sturk?’
‘Dr. Pell!— oh, la — no, Sir. No, my dear.’ And, after a pause, ‘Oh, ho. I wish it was over,’ she groaned51, with her hand pressed to her side, looking with a kind of agony on Sturk.
‘What over?’ asked Miss Mag.
Just then a double-knock came to the hall-door, and Mr. Dangerfield signed sternly to Mrs. Sturk, who first stood up, with her eyes and mouth wide open, and then sat down, like a woman going to faint.
But the maid came up and told Miss Mag that her mother and Lieutenant52 O’Flaherty were waiting on the steps for her; and so, though loath53 to go unsatisfied, away she went, with a courtesy to Mr. Dangerfield and a kiss to Mrs. Sturk, who revived on hearing it was only her fat kindly54 neighbour from over the way, instead of Black Doctor Dillon, with his murderous case of instruments.
The gentleman in the silver spectacles accompanied her to the lobby, and offered his hand; but she dispensed55 with his attendance, and jumped down the stairs with one hand to the wall and the other on the banisters, nearly a flight at a time; and the cackle of voices rose from the hall door, which quickly shut, and the fair vision had vanished.
Dangerfield’s silver spectacles gleamed phosphorically after her from under his lurid56 forehead. It was not a pleasant look, and his mouth was very grim. In another instant he was in the room again, and glanced at his watch.
‘’Tis half-past nine,’ he said, in a quiet tone, but with a gleam of intense fury over his face, ‘and that — that — doctor named nine.’
Dangerfield waited, and talked a little to Mrs. Sturk and the maid, who were now making preparations, in short sentences, by fits and starts of half-a-dozen words at a time. He had commenced his visit ceremoniously, but now he grew brusque, and took the command: and his tones were prompt and stern, and the women grew afraid of him.
Ten o’clock came. Dangerfield went down stairs, and looked from the drawing-room windows. He waxed more and more impatient. Down he went to the street. He did not care to walk towards the King’s House, which lay on the road to Dublin; he did not choose to meet his boon57 companions again, but he stood for full ten minutes, with one of Dr. Sturk’s military cloaks about him, under the village tree, directing the double-fire of his spectacles down the street, with an incensed58 steadiness, unrewarded, unrelieved. Not a glimmer11 of a link; not a distant rumble59 of a coach-wheel. It was a clear, frosty night, and one might hear a long way.
If any of the honest townsfolk had accidentally lighted upon that muffled60, glaring image under the dark old elm, I think he would have mistaken it for a ghost, or something worse. The countenance61 at that moment was not prepossessing.
Mr. Dangerfield was not given to bluster62, and never made a noise; but from his hollow jaws63 he sighed an icy curse towards Dublin, which had a keener edge than all the roaring blasphemies64 of Donnybrook together; and, with another shadow upon his white face, he re-entered the house.
‘He’ll not come to-night, Ma’am,’ he said with a cold abruptness65.
‘Oh, thank Heaven!— that is — I’m so afraid — I mean about the operation.’
Dangerfield, with his hands in his pockets, said nothing. There was a sneer66 on his face, white and dark, somehow. That was all. Was he baffled, and was Dr. Sturk, after all, never to regain67 his speech?
At half-past ten o’clock, Mr. Dangerfield abandoned hope. Had it been Dr. Pell, indeed, it would have been otherwise. But Black Dillon had not a patient; his fame was in the hospitals. There was nothing to detain him but his vices68, and five hundred pounds to draw him to Chapelizod. He had not come. He must be either brained in a row, or drunk under a table. So Mr. Dangerfield took leave of good Mrs. Sturk, having told her in case the doctor should come, to make him wait for his arrival before taking any measures, and directing that he should be sent for immediately.
So Mr. Dangerfield got into his white surtout silently in the hall, and shut the door quickly after him, and waited, a grim sentry69, under the tree, with his face towards Dublin. Father Time had not blunted the white gentleman’s perceptions, touched his ear with his numb70 fingers, or blown the smoke of his tobacco-pipe into his eyes. He was keen of eye, sharp of hearing; but neither sight nor sound rewarded him, and so he turned, after a few minutes, and glided away, like a white ghost, toward the Brass71 Castle.
In less than five minutes after, the thunder of a coach shook Dr. Sturk’s windows, followed by a rousing peal72 on the hall-door, and Dr. Dillon, in dingy splendours, and a great draggled wig73, with a gold-headed cane74 in his bony hand, stepped in; and, diffusing75 a reek76 of whiskey-punch, and with a case of instruments under his arm, pierced the maid, who opened the door, through, with his prominent black eyes, and frightened her with his fiery77 face, while he demanded to see Mrs. Sturk, and lounged, without ceremony, into the parlour; where he threw himself on the sofa, with one of his bony legs extended on it, and his great ugly hand under his wig scratching his head.
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1
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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phoenix
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| n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生 | |
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gaped
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| v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的过去式和过去分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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crimsoned
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| 变为深红色（crimson的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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glimmered
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| v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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ruffles
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| 褶裥花边( ruffle的名词复数 ) | |
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cravat
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| n.领巾，领结；v.使穿有领结的服装，使结领结 | |
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glossily
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| 光滑地 | |
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glimmering
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| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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complimentary
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| adj.赠送的，免费的，赞美的，恭维的 | |
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homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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enquired
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| 打听( enquire的过去式和过去分词 )； 询问； 问问题； 查问 | |
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anecdote
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| n.轶事，趣闻，短故事 | |
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credible
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| adj.可信任的，可靠的 | |
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coma
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| n.昏迷，昏迷状态 | |
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eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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30
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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sleeper
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| n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺 | |
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shutter
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| n.百叶窗；(照相机)快门；关闭装置 | |
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deftly
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| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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jug
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| n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂 | |
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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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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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carrion
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| n.腐肉 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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44
tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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45
scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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46
vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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47
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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meek
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| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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50
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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51
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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52
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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53
loath
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| adj.不愿意的；勉强的 | |
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54
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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55
dispensed
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| v.分配( dispense的过去式和过去分词 )；施与；配（药） | |
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56
lurid
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| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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57
boon
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| n.恩赐，恩物，恩惠 | |
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incensed
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| 盛怒的 | |
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59
rumble
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| n.隆隆声；吵嚷；v.隆隆响；低沉地说 | |
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60
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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61
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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62
bluster
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| v.猛刮；怒冲冲的说；n.吓唬，怒号；狂风声 | |
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63
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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64
blasphemies
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| n.对上帝的亵渎，亵渎的言词[行为]( blasphemy的名词复数 )；侮慢的言词（或行为） | |
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65
abruptness
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| n. 突然，唐突 | |
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66
sneer
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| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
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67
regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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68
vices
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| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
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69
sentry
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| n.哨兵，警卫 | |
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70
numb
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| adj.麻木的，失去感觉的；v.使麻木 | |
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71
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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72
peal
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| n.钟声；v.鸣响 | |
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73
wig
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| n.假发 | |
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74
cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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75
diffusing
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| （使光）模糊，漫射，漫散( diffuse的现在分词 )； （使）扩散； （使）弥漫； （使）传播 | |
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76
reek
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| v.发出臭气；n.恶臭 | |
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77
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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