第170章

Janet had been sedulous in her attentions to Sir Louis, and had not troubled her mistress; but she had not had an easy time of it. Her orders had been, that either she or Thomas should remain in the room the whole day, and those orders had been obeyed.

Immediately after breakfast, the baronet had inquired after his own servant. 'His confounded nose must be right by this time, I suppose?'

'It was very bad, Sir Louis,' said the old woman, who imagined that it might be difficult to induce Jonah to come into the house again.

'A man in such a place as his has no business to be laid up,' said his master, with a whine. 'I'll see and get a man who won't break his nose.'

Thomas was sent to the inn three or four times, but in vain. The man was sitting up, well enough, in the tap-room; but the middle of his face was covered with streaks of plaster, and he could not bring himself to expose his wounds before his conqueror.

Sir Louis began by ordering the woman to bring him chasse-cafe. She offered him coffee, as much as he would; but no chasse. 'A glass of port wine,' she said, at twelve o'clock, and another at three had been ordered for him.

'I don't care a--for the orders,' said Sir Louis; 'send me my own man.'

The man was again sent for; but would not come. 'There's a bottle of that stuff that I take, in that portmanteau, in the left-hand corner--just hand it to me.'

But Janet was not to be done. She would give him no stuff, except what the doctor had ordered, till the doctor came back. The doctor would then, no doubt, give him anything that was proper.

Sir Louis swore a good deal, and stormed as much as he could. He drank, however, his two glasses of wine, and he got no more. Once or twice he essayed to get out of bed and dress; but, at every effort, he found that he could not do it without Joe: and there he was, still under the clothes when the doctor returned.

'I'll tell you what it is,' said he, as soon as his guardian entered the room, 'I'm not going to be made a prisoner of here.'

'A prisoner! no, surely not.'

'It seems very much like it at present. Your servant here--that old woman--takes it upon her to say she'll do nothing without your orders.'

'Well; she's right there.'

'Right! I don't know what you call right; but I won't stand it. You are not going to make a child of me, Dr Thorne; so you need not think it.'

And then there was a long quarrel, between them, and but an indifferent reconciliation. The baronet said that he would go to Boxall Hill, and was vehement in his intention to do so because the doctor opposed it. He had not, however, as yet ferreted out the squire, or given a bit of his mind to Mr Gazebee, and it behoved him to do this before he took himself off to his own country mansion. He ended, therefore, by deciding to go on the next day but one.

'Let it be so, if you are well enough,' said the doctor.

'Well enough!' said the other, with a sneer. 'There's nothing to make me ill that I know of. It certainly won't be drinking too much here.'

On the next day, Sir Louis was in a different mood, and in one more distressing for the doctor to bear. His compelled absence from intemperate drinking had, no doubt, been good for him; but his mind had so much sunk under the pain of the privation, that his state was piteous to behold. He had cried for his servant, as a child cries for its nurse, till at last the doctor, moved to pity, had himself gone out and brought the man in from the public-house. But when he did come, Joe was of but little service to his master, as he was altogether prevented from bringing him either wine or spirits; and when he searched for the liqueur-case, he found that even that had been carried away.

'I believe you want me to die,' he said, as the doctor, sitting by his bedside, was tyring, for the hundredth time, to make him understand that he had but one chance of living.

The doctor was not in the least irritated. It would have been as wise to be irritated by the want of reason in a dog.

'I am doing what I can to save your life,' he said calmly; 'but as you said just now, I have no power over you. As long as you are able to move and remain in my house, you certainly shall not have the means of destroying yourself. You will be very wise to stay here for a week or ten days: a week or ten days of healthy living might, perhaps, bring you round.'

Sir Louis again declared that the doctor wished him to die, and spoke of sending for his attorney Finnie, to come to Greshamsbury to look after him.

'Send for him if you choose,' said the doctor. 'His coming will cost you three or four pounds, but can do no other harm.'

It was certainly hard upon Dr Thorne that he should be obliged to entertain such a guest in the house;--to entertain him, and foster him, and care for him, almost as though he were a son. But he had no alternative; he had accepted the charge from Sir Roger, and he must go through with it. His conscience, moreover, allowed him no rest in the matter: it harassed him day and night, driving him on sometimes to great wretchedness. He could not love this incubus that was on his shoulders; he could not do other than be very far from loving him. Of what use or value was he to any one? What could the world make of him that would be good, or he of the world? Was not an early death his certain fate? The earlier it might be, would it not be better? Were he to linger on yet for two years longer--and such a space of life was possible for him--how great would be the mischief that he might do; nay, certainly would do!