The Trial | Page 8

a sick house at
home. You can perform quarantine with Richard, and then go to Flora,
if she will have you. Well, what are you dawdling about? Go and pack
up.'
'Papa,' said Ethel, who had been abstracted through all the latter part of

the conversation, 'if you please, we had better not settle my going till
to-morrow morning.'
'Come, Ethel, you have too much sense for panics. Don't take nonsense
into your head. The children can't have been in the way of it.'
'Stay, papa,' said Ethel, her serious face arresting the momentary
impatience of fatigue and anxiety, 'I am afraid Aubrey was a good
while choosing fishing-tackle at Shearman's yesterday with Leonard
Ward; and it may be nothing, but he did seem heavy and out of order
to-night; I wish you would look at him as you go up.'
Dr. May stood still for a few moments, then gave one long gasp, made
a few inquiries, and went up to Aubrey's room. The boy was fast asleep;
but there was that about him which softened the weary sharpness of his
father's manner, and caused him to desire Ethel to look from the
window whence she could see whether the lights were out in Dr.
Spencer's house. Yes, they were.
'Never mind. It will make no real odds, and he has had enough on his
hands to-day. The boy will sleep quietly enough to-night, so let us all
go to bed.'
'I think I can get a mattress into his room without waking him, if you
will help me, Mary,' said Ethel.
'Nonsense,' said her father, decidedly. 'Mary is not to go near him
before she takes Gertrude to Cocksmoor; and you, go to your own bed
and get a night's rest while you can.'
'You won't stay up, papa.'
'I--why, it is all I can do not to fall asleep on my feet. Good night,
children.'
'He does not trust himself to think or to fear,' said Ethel. 'Too much
depends on him to let himself be unstrung.'

'But, Ethel, you will not leave, dear Aubrey.'
'I shall keep his door open and mine; but papa is right, and it will not do
to waste one's strength. In case I should not see you before you go--'
'Oh, but, Ethel, I shall come back! Don't, pray don't tell me to stay
away. Richard will have to keep away for Daisy's sake, and you can't
do all alone--nurse Aubrey and attend to papa. Say that I may come
back.'
Well, Mary, I think you might,' said Ethel, after a moment's thought. 'If
it were only Aubrey, I could manage for him; but I am more anxious
about papa.'
'You don't think he is going to have it?'
'Oh no, no,' said Ethel, 'he is what he calls himself, a seasoned vessel;
but he will be terribly overworked, and unhappy, and he must not come
home and find no one to talk to or to look cheerful. So, Mary, unless he
gives any fresh orders, or Richard thinks it will only make things worse,
I shall be very glad of you.'
Mary had never clung to her so gratefully, nor felt so much honoured.
'Do you think he will have it badly?' she asked timidly.
'I don't think at all about it,' said Ethel, something in her father's
manner. 'If we are to get through all this, Mary, it must not be by riding
out on perhapses. Now let us put Daisy's things together, for she must
have as little communication with home as possible.'
Ethel silently and rapidly moved about, dreading to give an interval for
tremblings of heart. Five years of family prosperity had passed, and
there had been that insensible feeling of peace and immunity from care
which is strange to look back upon when one hour has drifted from
smooth water to turbid currents. There was a sort of awe in seeing the
mysterious gates of sorrow again unclosed; yet, darling of her own as
Aubrey was, Ethel's first thoughts and fears were primarily for her
father. Grief and alarm seemed chiefly to touch her through him, and

she found herself praying above all that he might be shielded from
suffering, and might be spared a renewal of the pangs that had before
wrung his heart.
By early morning every one was astir; and Gertrude, bewildered and
distressed, yet rather enjoying the fun of staying with Richard, was
walking off with Mary.
Soon after, Dr. Spencer was standing by the bedside of his old patient,
Aubrey, who had been always left to his management.
'Ah, I see,' he said, with a certain tone of satisfaction, 'for once there
will be a case properly treated. Now, Ethel, you and I will show what
intelligent nursing can do.'
'I believe you