Mr. Bell did not make his appearance even on the day to which he

had for a second time deferred his visit. The next morning there

came a letter from Wallis, his servant, stating that his master

had not been feeling well for some time, which had been the true

reason of his putting off his journey; and that at the very time

when he should have set out for London, he had been seized with

an apoplectic fit; it was, indeed, Wallis added, the opinion of

the medical men--that he could not survive the night; and more

than probable, that by the time Miss Hale received this letter

his poor master would be no more.

Margaret received this letter at breakfast-time, and turned very

pale as she read it; then silently putting it into Edith's hands,

she left the room.

Edith was terribly shocked as she read it, and cried in a

sobbing, frightened, childish way, much to her husband's

distress. Mrs. Shaw was breakfasting in her own room, and upon

him devolved the task of reconciling his wife to the near contact

into which she seemed to be brought with death, for the first

time that she could remember in her life. Here was a man who was

to have dined with them to-day lying dead or dying instead! It

was some time before she could think of Margaret. Then she

started up, and followed her upstairs into her room. Dixon was

packing up a few toilette articles, and Margaret was hastily

putting on her bonnet, shedding tears all the time, and her hands

trembling so that she could hardly tie the strings.

'Oh, dear Margaret! how shocking! What are you doing? Are you

going out? Sholto would telegraph or do anything you like.' 'I am going to Oxford. There is a train in half-an-hour. Dixon

has offered to go with me, but I could have gone by myself. I

must see him again. Besides, he may be better, and want some

care. He has been like a father to me. Don't stop me, Edith.' 'But I must. Mamma won't like it at all. Come and ask her about

it, Margaret. You don't know where you're going. I should not

mind if he had a house of his own; but in his Fellow's rooms!

Come to mamma, and do ask her before you go. It will not take a

minute.' Margaret yielded, and lost her train. In the suddenness of the

event, Mrs. Shaw became bewildered and hysterical, and so the

precious time slipped by. But there was another train in a couple

of hours; and after various discussions on propriety and

impropriety, it was decided that Captain Lennox should accompany

Margaret, as the one thing to which she was constant was her

resolution to go, alone or otherwise, by the next train, whatever

might be said of the propriety or impropriety of the step. Her

father's friend, her own friend, was lying at the point of death;

and the thought of this came upon her with such vividness, that

she was surprised herself at the firmness with which she asserted

something of her right to independence of action; and five

minutes before the time for starting, she found herself sitting

in a railway-carriage opposite to Captain Lennox.




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