"Where does he live? I'll send him up."
"Thank you, oh! thank you. The house with the rails, under the east
cliff."
He was gone, and Rachel endured the reeling of the lights, and the
surges of talk, and the musical performances that seemed to burst the
drum of her ear; and, after all, people went away, saying to each other
that there was something very much amiss, and that poor dear Mrs. Curtis
was very much to blame for not having controlled her daughters.
They departed at last, and Grace, without uttering the terrible word,
was explaining to the worn-out mother that little Lovedy was more
unwell, and that Captain Keith had kindly offered to fetch the doctor,
when the Captain himself returned.
"I am sorry to say that Mr. Frampton is out, not likely to be at home
till morning, and his partner is with a bad accident at Avonford.
The best plan will be for me to ride back to Avoncester, and send out
Macvicar, our doctor. He is a kind-hearted man, of much experience in
this kind of thing."
"But you are not going back," said polite Mrs. Curtis, far from taking
in the urgency of the case. "You were to sleep at Colonel Keith's. I
could not think of your taking the trouble."
"I have settled that with the Colonel, thank you. My dog-cart will be
here directly."
"I can only say, thank you," said Rachel, earnestly. "But is there
nothing to be done in the meantime? Do you know the treatment?"
He knew enough to give a few directions, which revealed to poor Mrs.
Curtis the character of the disease.
"That horrible new sore throat! Oh, Rachel, and you have been hanging
over her all this time!"
"Indeed," said Alick Keith, coming to her. "I think you need not be
alarmed. The complaint seems to me to depend on the air and locality. I
have been often with people who had it."
"And not caught it?"
"No; though one poor little fellow, our piper's son, would not try
to take food from any one else, and died at last on my knee. I do not
believe it is infectious in that way."
And hearing his carriage at the door, he shook hands, and hurried off,
Mrs. Curtis observing-"He really is a very good young man. But oh, Rachel, my dear, how could
you bring her here?"
"I did not know, mother. Any way it is better than her being in Mrs.
Kelland's hive of children."
"You are not going back to her, Rachel, I entreat!"
"Mother, I must. You heard what Captain Keith said. Let that comfort
you. It would be brutal cruelty and cowardice to stay away from her to
night. Good night, Grace, make mother see that it must be so."