Jock looked up inquiringly.
"You were right to suppress that paper of mine," continued Bobus, "I wouldn't have written it now. I have seen better what a people are without Christianity, be the code what it may, and the civilisation, it can't produce such women as my mother, no, nor such men as you, Jockey, my boy," he muttered much lower.
"Are you coming back, dear old man?" said Jock, with eyes fixed on him.
"I don't know. Tell me one thing, old man: I always thought, when you took to using your brains and getting up physical science, that you must get beyond what satisfied you as a soldier. Now, have the two, science and religion, never clashed, or have you kept them apart?"
"They've worked in together," said Jock.
"You don't say so because you ought, and think it good for me?"
"As if I could, lying here. 'All Thy works praise Thee, O God, and Thy saints do magnify Thee.'"
Bobus was not sure whether this were a conscious reply, or only wandering, and his mother here came in, wakened by the murmur of voices.
The brothers could not bear to lose sight of one another, though Jock was too much exhausted by this conversation, and, by the sickness that followed any endeavour to take food, to speak much again. Thus, when the Rector came, Bobus asked whether he must be sent out of the room, Jock made an earnest sign to the contrary, and he stayed.
There was of course nothing to concern him, especially in the brief reading and prayer; but his mother, looking up, saw that he was finding out the passage in the little Greek Testament.
Janet's lay on a little table close by the bedside. The two copies had met again. The work of one was done. Was the work of the other doing at last?
However that might be, nothing could be gentler, tenderer, or more considerate towards his mother than was Bobus, and her kind friends felt much relieved of their fears for her, since she had such a son to take care of her.
Towards the evening, the negro servant knocked at the door, and Bobus took from him a telegram envelope. His mother opened it and read:
"Friar Brownlow to Mrs. Brownlow. I embark to-day."
A smile shone out on Jock's white weary face, and he said, "Good old Monk! If I can but hold out till he comes, I shall get home again yet. I should like to do him credit."
"Ashton Vineyard, October l2th.
"MY DEAREST CHILD,-You know the main fact by telegram, and now I can write, I must tell you all in more order. We thought our darkest hour was over when the dear John's telegram came, and the hope helped us up a little while. To Jock himself it was like a drowning man clinging to a rope with the more exertion because he knew that a boat was putting off. At least so it was at first, but as his strength faded, his brain could not grasp the notion any longer, and he generally seemed to be fancying himself on the snow with Armine, still however looking for John to come and save them, and sometimes, too, talking about Cecil, and being a true brother in arms, a faithful servant and soldier. The long severe strain of study, work, and all the rest which he has gone through, body and mind, coming on a heart already not quite sound, throughout the past year, was, John thinks, the real reason of his being unable to rally when the fever had brought him down, after the dreadful exertion at Abville. Dear fellow, he never let us guess how much his patience cost him. I think we had looked to John's arrival as if it would act like magic, and it was very sore disappointment when his treatment was producing no change for the better, but the prostration went on day after day. Poor Bobus was in utter despair, and went raging about, declaring that he had been a fool ever to expect anything from Kencroft, and at last he had to be turned out of the sick-room. For I should tell you that the one thing that kept me up was the entire calm grave composure that John preserved throughout, and which gave him the entire command. He never showed any consternation or dismay, nor uttered an augury, but he went quietly and vigilantly on, in a manner that all along gave me a strange sense of confidence and trust, that all that could be done was being done, and the issue was in higher hands. He would not let anyone really help him but Sister Dorothea, with her trained skill as a nurse. I don't think even I should have been suffered in the room, if he had not thought Jock might be more conscious than was apparent, for he had not himself received one token of recognition all those three days. Poor Bobus! the little gleam of light that Jock had let in on him seemed all gone. I do not know what would have become of him but for the good Ashtons. He had been persuaded for a time that what was so real to Jock must be true; but when Jock was no longer conscious, he had nothing to help him, and I am afraid he spoke terrible words when Primrose talked of prayer and faith. I believe he declared that to see one like his brother snatched away when just come to the perfection of his early manhood, with all his capacity and all his knowledge in vain, convinced him either that this universe was one grim, pitiless machine, grinding down humanity by mere law of necessity, or if they would have it that there was supernatural power, it could only be malevolent; and then Primrose, so strong in faith as to venture what I should have shrunk from as dangerous presumption, dared him to go on in his disbelief, if his brother were given back to prayer.
"She pitied him so much, the sweet bright girl, she had so pitied him all along, that I believe she prayed as much for him as for Jock.
"Of course I did not know all this till afterwards, for all was stillness in that room, except when at times the clergyman came in and prayed.
"The next thing I am sure of, was John's leaning over me, and his low steady voice saying, 'The pulse is better, the symptoms are mitigating.' Sister Dorothea says they had both seen it for some hours, but he made her a sign not to agitate me till he was secure that the improvement was real. Indeed there was something in that equable firm gentleness of John's that sustained me, and prevented my breaking down. Even then it was another whole day before my darling smiled at me again, and said, 'Thanks' to John, but oh! with such a look.
"When Bobus heard his brother was better, he gave a sob, such as I shall never forget, and rushed away into the pine-wood on the hillside, all alone. The next time I saw him he was walking in the garden with Primrose, and with such a quieted, subdued, gentle look upon his face, it put me in mind of the fields when a great storm has swept over them, and they are lying still in the sunshine afterwards.
"Since that day, when John said we might send off that thankworthy telegram, there has been daily progress. I have had one of my headaches. That monarch John found it out, and turned me out. I could bear to go, for I knew my boy was safe with him. He made me over to Primrose, who nursed me as tenderly as my Babie could have done, and indeed, I begin to think she will soon be as near and dear to me as my Sydney or Elvira. She has a power over Bobus that no one else ever had, and she is very lovely in expression as well as features, but how will so ardent a Christian as she is receive one still so far off as my poor Robert, though indeed I think he has at least come so far as the cry, 'Help Thou mine unbelief.'
"So now they have let me come back to my Jock, and I see visibly his improvement. He holds out his hand, and he smiles, and he speaks now and then, the dreadful oppression is gone, and all the dangerous symptoms are abating, and I cannot tell how happy and thankful we are. 'Send my love, and tell Sydney she has a blessed Monk,' he says, as he wakes, and sees me writing.
"That dear Monk says he will not go home till he can carry home his patient. When that will be I cannot tell, for he cannot sit up in bed yet. Dear Sydney, how I thank her! John says it was not his treatment, but, under Divine Providence, youthful nature that had had her rest, and begun to rally her strength. But under that blessing, it was John's steady, faithful strength and care that enabled the restoration to take place. "My dear child's loving "MOTHER CAREY."
CHAPTER XLII. DISENCHANTED.
Whatever page we turn, However much we learn, Let there be something left to dream of still. Longfellow.
It was on a very cold day of the cold spring of 1879 that three ladies descended at the Liverpool station, e
scorted by a military- looking gentleman. He left them standing while he made inquiries, but his servant had anticipated him. "The steamer has been signalled, my Lord. It will be in about four o'clock."
"There will be time to go to the hotel and secure rooms," said one lady.
"Oh, Reeves can do that. Pray let us come down to the docks and see them come in."
No answer till all four were seated in a fly, rattling through the street, but on the repetition of "Are we going to the docks?" his Lordship, with a resolute twirl of his long, light moustache, replied, "No, Sydney. If you think I am going to have you making a scene on deck, falling on your husband's breast, and all that sort of thing, you are much mistaken! I shall lodge you all quietly in the hotel, and you may wait there, while I go down with Reeves, and receive them like a rational being."
"Really, Cecil, that's too bad. He let me come on board!"
"Do you think I should have brought you here if I had thought you meant to make yourself ridiculous?"
"It is of no use, Sydney," said Babie; "there's no dealing with the stern and staid pere de famille. I wonder what he would have liked Essie to do, if he had had to go and leave her for nearly two months when he had only been married a week?"
"Essie is quite a different thing-I mean she has sense and self- possession."
"Mamma, won't you speak for us?" implored Sydney. "I did behave so well when he went! Nobody would have guessed we hadn't been married fifty years."
"Still I think Cecil is quite right, and that it may be better for them all to manage the landing quietly."
"Without a pack of women," said Cecil. "Here we are! I hope you will find a tolerable room for him and no stairs."
As if poor Mrs. Evelyn were not well enough used to choosing rooms for invalids!
Twilight had come, the gas had been turned on, and the three anxious ladies stood in the window gazing vainly at endless vehicles, when the door opened and they beheld sundry figures entering.
Sydney and Barbara flew, the one to her husband, the other to her mother, and presently all stood round the fire looking at one another. Mrs. Evelyn made a gesture to a very slender and somewhat pale figure to sit down in a large easy chair.
"Thank you, I'm not tired," he briskly said, standing with a caressing hand on his friend's shoulder. "Here's Cecil can't quite believe yet that I have the use of my limbs."
"Yes," said John, "no sooner did he come on board, than he made a rush at the poor sailor who had broken his leg, and was going to be carried ashore on a hammock. He was on the point of embracing him, red beard and all, when he was forcibly dragged off by Jock himself whom he nearly knocked down."
"Well," said Cecil, as Sydney fairly danced round him in revengeful glee, "there was the Monk solicitously lifting him on one side, and Mother Carey assisting with a smelling-bottle on the other, so what could I suppose?"
"All for want of us," said Sydney.
"And think of the cunning of him," added Babie; "shutting us up here that he might give way to his feelings undisturbed!"
"I promised to go and speak about that poor fellow at the hospital," cried John, with sudden recollection.
"You had better let me," said Jock.
"You will stay where you are."
"I consider him my patient."
"If that's the way you two fought over your solitary case all the way home," said Babie, "I wonder there's a fragment left of him."
"It was only three days ago," said John, "and Jock has been a new man ever since he picked the poor fellow up on deck, but I'm not going to let him stir to-night."
"Let me come with you, Johnny," entreated Sydney; "it will be so nice! Oh, no, I don't mind the cold!"
"Here," added her brother, "take the poor fellow a sovereign."
"In compensation for the sudden cooling of your affection," said Jock. "Well, if it is an excuse for an excursion with Sydney I'll not interfere, but ask him for his sister's address in London, for I promised to tell her about him."
"Oh," cried Babie, at the word 'London,' "then you have heard from Dr. Medlicott?"
"I did once," said John, "with some very useful suggestions, but that was a month ago or more."
"I meant," said Babie, "a letter he wrote for the chance of Jock's getting it before he sailed. There's the assistant lectureship vacant, and the Professor would not like anyone so much. It is his own appointment, not an election matter, and he meant to keep it open till he could get an answer from Jock."
"When was this?" asked Jock, flushing with eagerness.
"The 20th. Dr. Medlicott came down to Fordham for Sunday, to ask if it was worth while to telegraph, or if I thought you would be well enough. It is not much of a salary, but it is a step, and Dr. Medlicott knows they would put you on the staff of the hospital, and then you are open to anything."
Jock drew a long breath and looked at his mother. "The very thing I've wished," he said.
"Exactly. Must he answer at once?"
"The Professor would like a telegram, yes or no, at once."
"Then, you wedded Monk, will you add to your favours by telegraphing for me?"
"Yes. Of course it is 'Yes'. How soon should you have to begin, I wonder?"
"Oh, I'm quite cheeky enough for that sort of work. If you'll telegraph, I'll write by to-night's post."
"I'll go and do the telegraphing," said Cecil; "I don't trust those two."
"As if John ever made mistakes," cried Sydney.
"In fact, I want to send a telegram home."
"To frighten Essie. She will get a yellow envelope saying you accept a lectureship, and the Professor urgent inquiries after his baby."
"Sydney is getting too obstreperous, Monk," said Cecil. "You had better carry her off. I shall come back by the time you have written your letters, Jock."
"Those two are too happy to do anything but tease one another," said Mrs. Evelyn, as the door shut on the three. "My rival grandmother, as Babie calls her, was really quite glad to get rid of Cecil; she declared he would excite Esther into a fever."
"He did alarm Her Serenity herself," said Babie, laughing. "When she would go on about grand sponsors and ancestral names, he told her that he should carry the baby off to Church and have him christened Jock out of hand, and what a dreadful thing that would be for the peerage. I believe she thought he meant it."
"The name is to be John," said Mrs. Evelyn-"John Marmaduke. He has secured his godmother"-laying a hand affectionately on Babie-"but I must not forestall his request to his two earliest and best friends."
"Dear old fellow!" murmured Jock.
"Everybody is somewhat frantic," said Barbara.
"Jock's varieties of classes were almost distracted and besieged the door, till Susan was fain to stick the last bulletins in the window to save answering the bell; then no sooner did they hear he was better than they began getting up a testimonial. Percy Stagg wrote to me, to ask for his crest for some piece of plate, and I wrote back that I was sure Dr. Lucas Brownlow would like it best to go in something for the Mission Church; and if they wanted to give him something for his very own, suppose they got him a brass plate for the door?"
"Bravo, Infanta; that was an inspiration!"
"So they are to give an alms-dish, and Ali and Elfie give the rest of the plate. Dr. Medlicott says he never saw anything like the feeling at the hospital, or does not know what the nurses don't mean to get up by way of welcome."
"My dear Babie, you must let Jock write his letters," interposed her mother, who had tears in her eyes and saw him struggling with emotion. "In spite of your magnificent demonstrations, Jock, you must repair your charms by lying down."
She followed him into his room, which opened from the sitting-room, and he turned to her, speaking from a full heart. "Oh, mother! It seems all given to me, the old home, the very post I wished for, and all this kindness, just when I thought I had taken leave of it all." He sobbed once or twice for very joy.
"You are sure it suits you?"
"
If I only can suit it equally well! Oh, I see what you mean. That is over now. I suppose the fever burnt it out of me, for it does not hurt me now to see the dear old Monk beaming on her. I am glad she came, for I can feel sure of myself now. So there's nothing at present to come between me and my Mother Carey. Thanks, mother, I'll just fire off my two notes; and establish myself luxuriously before Cecil comes back! I say, this is the best inn's best room. Poor Mrs. Evelyn must have thought herself providing for Fordham. Oh yes, I shall gladly lie down when these notes are done, but this is not a chance to be neglected. Now, Deo gratias, it will be my own fault if Magnum Bonum is not worked out to the utmost; yes, much better than if we had never gone to America. Even Bobus owns that all things _have_ worked together for good!"
His mother, with another look at the face, so joyous though still so wasted and white, went back to the other room, with an equally happy though scarcely less worn countenance.
"I hope he is resting," said Mrs. Evelyn. "Are you quite satisfied about him?"
"Fully. He may not be strong for a year or two, and must be careful not to overtask himself, but John made him see one of the greatest physicians in New York, to whom Dr. Medlicott had sent letters of introduction-as if they were needed, he said, after Jock's work at Abville. He said, as John did, there was no lasting damage to the heart, and that the attack was the consequence of having been brought so low; but he will be as strong and healthy as ever, if he will only be careful as to exertion for a year or so. This appointment is the very thing to save him. I know his friends will look after him and keep him from doing too much. Dr. --- was quite grieved that he had no notion how ill Jock had been, or he would have come to Ashton. Any of the faculty would, he said, for one of the 'true chivalry of 1878.' And he was so excited about the Magnum Bonum."
"Do you think you and he can bear to crown our great thanksgiving feast?"
"My dear, my heart is all one thanksgiving!"
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