Aylwin eBook

Theodore Watts-Dunton
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 645 pages of information about Aylwin.

Aylwin eBook

Theodore Watts-Dunton
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 645 pages of information about Aylwin.

I stood and looked at her—­looked till the street seemed to heave under my feet and the houses to rock.  After this I seem to have wandered back to Wilderspin’s studio, and there to have sunk down unconscious.

XII

THE REVOLVING CAGE OF CIRCUMSTANCE

I

I will not trouble the reader with details of the illness that came upon me as the result of my mental agony and physical exhaustion.  At intervals I was aware of what was going on around me, but for the most part I was in a semi-comatose state.  I realised at intervals that a medical man was sitting by my side, as I lay in bed.  Then I had a sense of being moved from place to place; and then of being rocked by the waves.  Slowly the periods of consciousness became more frequent and also more prolonged.

My first exclamation was—­’Dead!  Have I been ill?’ and I tried to raise myself in vain.

‘Yes, very ill,’ said a voice, my mother’s.

‘Dangerously?’

’For several days you were in danger.  Your recovery now entirely depends upon your keeping yourself calm.’

‘I am out at sea?’

‘Yes,’ said my mother; ‘in Lord Sleaford’s yacht.’

‘How did I come here?’

’Well, Henry, I was so anxious to wait for a day or two to learn the sequel of the dreadful tragedy, that I persuaded Lord Sleaford to delay sailing.  Next day he called at Belgrave Square, and told us he had heard that you had been taken suddenly ill and were lying unconscious at the studio.  I went at once and saw the medical man, Mr. Finch, whom Mr. Wilderspin had called in.  This gentleman took a serious view of your case.  When I asked him what could be done he said that nothing would benefit you so much as removal from London, and recommended a sea voyage.  It occurred to me at once to ask Lord Sleaford if we might take you in his yacht, and he with his usual good-nature agreed, and agreed also that Mr. Finch should accompany us as your medical attendant.’

‘You know all?’ I said; ‘you know that she is dead.’

‘Alas! yes.’

At that moment the doctor came into the cabin, and my mother retired.

‘When did you last see Wilderspin?’ I asked Mr. Finch.

’Before leaving England to join a friend in Paris he went to Belgrave Square to get tidings of you, and I was there.’

‘He told you—­what had occurred to make me ill?’

’He told me that it was the death of some one in whom you took an interest, a model of his, but told it in such a wild and excited way that I lost patience with him.  His addled brains are crammed with the wildest and most ignorant superstitions.’

‘Did you ask him about her burial?’

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Project Gutenberg
Aylwin from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.