North and South
Page 312Mr. 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,
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
'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
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.