"One would think that you were the person that was going to suffer. But drink this water, my dear, and do not tremble for me; you see that I do not tremble for myself. Listen to me, dearest Belinda! I owe it to your friendship not to torment you with unnecessary apprehensions. Your humanity shall be spared this dreadful scene."

"No," said Belinda, "Marriott is incapable of attending you. I must--I will--I am ready now. Forgive me one moment's weakness. I admire, and will imitate, your courage. I will keep my promise."

"Your promise was to be with me in my dying moments, and to let me breathe my last in your arms."

"I hope that I shall never be called upon to perform that promise."

Lady Delacour made no answer, but walked on before her with steady steps into the room where Dr. X---- and the surgeon were waiting. Without adverting in the least to the object of their visit, she paid her compliments to them, as if they came on a visit of mere civility.

Without seeming to notice the serious countenances of her companions, she talked of indifferent subjects with the most perfect ease, occupying herself all the time with cleaning a seal, which she unhooked from her watch-chain. "This seal," said she, turning to Dr. X----, "is a fine onyx--it is a head of Esculapius. I have a great value for it. It was given to me by your friend, Clarence Hervey; and I have left it in my will, doctor," continued she, smiling, "to you, as no slight token of my regard. He is an excellent young man; and I request," said she, drawing Dr. X---- to a window, and lowering her voice, "I request, when you see him again, and when I am out of the way, that you will tell him such were my sentiments to the hour of my death. Here is a letter which you will have the goodness to put into his hands, sealed with my favourite seal. You need have no scruple to take charge of it; it relates not to myself. It expresses only my opinion concerning a lady who stands almost as high in your esteem, I believe, as she does in mine. My affection and my grat.i.tude have not bia.s.sed my judgment in the advice which I have ventured to give to Mr. Hervey."

"But he will soon be here," interrupted Dr. X----, "and then--"

"And then I shall be gone," said Lady Delacour, coolly,

"'To that undiscover'd country, From whose bourn no traveller returns.'"

Dr. X---- was going to interrupt her, but she continued rapidly, "And now, my dear doctor, tell me candidly, have you seen any symptoms of cowardice in my manner this evening?"

"None," replied he. "On the contrary, I have admired your calm self-possession."

"Then do not suspect me of want of fort.i.tude, when I request that this operation may not be performed to-day. I have changed my mind within these few hours. I have determined, for a reason which I am sure that you would feel to be sufficient, to postpone this affair till to-morrow.

Believe me, I do not act from caprice."

She saw that Dr. X---- did not yield a.s.sent to her last a.s.sertion, and that he looked displeased.

"I will tell you my reason," said she; "and then you will have no right to be displeased if I persist, as I shall inflexibly, in my determination. It is my belief that I shall die this night. To submit to a painful operation to-day would be only to sacrifice the last moments of my existence to no purpose. If I survive this night, manage me as you please! But I am the best judge of my own feelings--I shall die to-night."

Dr. X---- looked at her with a mixture of astonishment and Compa.s.sion.

Her pulse was high, she was extremely feverish, and he thought that the best thing which he could do was to stay with her till the next day, and to endeavour to divert her mind from this fancy, which he considered as an insane idea. He prevailed upon the surgeon to stay with her till the next morning; and he communicated his intentions to Belinda, who joined with him in doing all that was possible to entertain and interest her by conversation during the remainder of the day. She had sufficient penetration to perceive that they gave not the least faith to her prognostic, and she never said one word more upon the subject; but appeared willing to be amused by their attempts to divert her, and resolute to support her courage to the last moment. She did not affect trifling gaiety: on the contrary, there was in all she said more strength and less point than usual.

The evening pa.s.sed away, and Lady Delacour seemed totally to have forgotten her own prophecy respecting the event of the ensuing night; so much so, that she spoke of several things that she intended to do the next day. Helena knew nothing of what had pa.s.sed, and Belinda imagined that her friend put this constraint upon herself to avoid alarming her daughter. Yet, after Helena retired, her mother's manner continued to be so much the same, that Dr. X---- began to believe that her ladyship was actuated merely by caprice. In this opinion she confirmed him by bursting out a laughing when he proposed that some one should sit up with her during the night.

"My sage sir," said she, "have you lived to this time without ever having been duped by a woman before? I wanted a day's reprieve, and I have gained it--gained a day, spent in most agreeable conversation, for which I thank you. To-morrow," said she, turning to the surgeon, "I must invent some new excuse for my cowardice; and though I give you notice of it beforehand, as Harrington did when he picked the man's pocket, yet, nevertheless, I shall succeed. Good night!"

She hurried to her own apartment, leaving them all in astonishment and perplexity. Belinda was persuaded that she only affected this gaiety to prevent Dr. X---- from insisting upon sitting up in her room, as he had proposed. Doctor X----, judging, as he said, from her ladyship's general character, attributed the whole to caprice; and the surgeon, judging, as he said, from human nature in general, was decided in his belief that she had been influenced, as she herself declared, by cowardice. After having all expressed their opinions, without making any impression upon one another, they retired to rest.

Belinda's bedchamber was next to Helena's; and after she had been in bed about an hour, she fancied that she heard some one walking softly in the next room. She rose, and found Lady Delacour standing beside her daughter's bed. She started at the sight of Belinda, but only said in a low voice, as she pointed to her child, "Don't waken her." She then looked at her for some moments in silence. The moon shone full upon her face. She stooped over Helena, parted the ringlets of hair upon her forehead, and kissed her gently.

"You will be good to this poor girl when I am gone, Belinda!" said she, turning away from her as she spoke: "I only came to look at her for the last time."

"Are you then serious, my dear Lady Delacour?"

"Hush! Don't waken her," said Lady Delacour, putting her finger on her lips; and walking slowly out of the room, she forbade Belinda to follow.

"If my fears be vain," said she, "why should I disturb you with them? If they be just, you will hear my bell ring, and then come to me."

For some time afterward all was perfectly silent in the house. Belinda did not go to bed, but sat waiting and listening anxiously. The clock struck two; and as she heard no other sound, she began to hope that she had suffered herself to be falsely alarmed by a foolish imagination, and she lay down upon her bed, resolving to compose herself to rest. She was just sinking to sleep, when she thought she heard the faint sound of a bell. She was not sure whether she was dreaming or awake. She started up and listened. All was silent. But in a few-minutes Lady Delacour's bell rang violently. Belinda flew to her room. The surgeon was already there; he had been sitting up in the next room to write letters, and he had heard the first sound of the bell. Lady Delacour was senseless, supported in the surgeon's arms. Belinda, by his directions, ran immediately for Doctor X----, who was at the other end of the house.

Before she returned, Lady Delacour had recovered her senses. She begged that the surgeon would leave the room, and that neither Dr. X---- nor Marriott might be yet admitted, as she had something of importance to communicate to Miss Portman. The surgeon withdrew, and she beckoned to Belinda, who sat down upon the side of her bed. Lady Delacour held out her hand to her; it was covered with a cold dew.

"My dear friend," said she, "my prophecy is accomplishing--I know I must die."

"The surgeon said that you were not in the least danger, my dear Lady Delacour; that it was merely a fainting fit. Do not suffer a vain imagination thus to overpower your reason."

"It is no vain imagination--I must die," said Lady Delacour.

'I hear a voice you cannot hear, Which says I must not stay; I see a hand you cannot see, Which beckons me away.'

"You perceive that I am in my perfect senses, my dear, or I could not quote poetry. I am not insane--I am not delirious."

She paused--"I am ashamed to tell you what I know will expose me to your ridicule."

"Ridicule!" cried Belinda: "can you think me so cruel as to consider your sufferings a subject for ridicule?"

Lady Delacour was overcome by the tenderness with which Belinda spoke.

"I will then speak to you," said she, "without reserve. Inconsistent as it is with the strength of mind which you might expect from me, I cannot resist the impression which has been made on my mind by--a vision."

"A vision!"

"Three times," continued Lady Delacour, "it has appeared to me about this hour. The first night after we came here I saw it; last night it returned; and to-night I have beheld it for the third time. I consider it as a warning to prepare for death. You are surprised--you are incredulous. I know that this must appear to you extravagant; but depend upon it that what I tell you is true. It is scarcely a quarter of an hour since I beheld the figure of ----, that man for whose untimely death I am answerable. Whenever I close my eyes the same form appears before me."

"These visions," said Belinda, "are certainly the effects of opium."

"The forms that flit before my eyes when I am between sleeping and waking," said Lady Delacour, "I am willing to believe, are the effects of opium; but, Belinda, it is impossible I should be convinced that my senses have deceived me with respect to what I have beheld when I have been as broad awake, and in as perfect possession of my understanding as I am at this instant. The habits of my life, and the natural gaiety, not to say levity, of my temper, have always inclined me rather to incredulity than to superst.i.tion. But there are things which no strength of mind, no temerity can resist. I repeat it--this is a warning to me to prepare for death. No human means, no human power can save me!"

Here they were interrupted by Marriott, who could no longer be restrained from bursting into the room. Dr. X---- followed, and going calmly to the side of Lady Delacour's bed, took her hand to feel her pulse.

"Mrs. Marriott, you need not alarm yourself in this manner," said he: "your lady is at this instant in as little danger as I am."

"_You_ think she'll live! Oh, my lady! why did you terrify us in this manner?"

Lady Delacour smiled, and calmly said, as Doctor X---- still continued to count her pulse, "The pulse may deceive you, doctor, but I do not.

Marriott, you may--"

Belinda heard no more; for at this instant, as she was standing alone, near the gla.s.s-door that was opposite to the bed, she saw at a distance in the garden the figure which Lady Delacour had described. Lady Delacour was now so intent upon speaking to Dr. X----, that she saw nothing but him. Belinda had the presence of mind to be perfectly silent. The figure stood still for some moments. She advanced a few steps nearer to the window, and the figure vanished. She kept her eye steadily fixed upon the spot where it had disappeared, and she saw it rise again and glide quickly behind some bushes. Belinda beckoned to Dr.

X----, who perceived by the eagerness of her manner, that she wished to speak to him immediately. He resigned his patient to Marriott, and followed Miss Portman out of the room. She told him what she had just seen, said it was of the utmost consequence to Lady Delacour to have the truth ascertained, and requested that Dr. X----would go with some of the men-servants and search the garden, to discover whether any one was there concealed, or whether any footsteps could be traced. The doctor did not search long before he perceived footsteps in the borders opposite to the gla.s.s-door of Lady Delacour's bedchamber; he was carefully following their track, when he heard a loud cry, which seemed to come from the other side of the garden wall. There was a breach in the wall over which he scrambled with some difficulty. The screams continued with redoubled violence. As he was making his way to the spot from which they proceeded, he was met by the old gardener, who was crossing one of the walks with a lantern in his hand.

"Ho! ho!" cried the gardener, "I take it that we have the thief at last.

I fancy that the fellow whose footsteps I traced, and who has been at my morello cherry-tree every night, has been caught in the trap. I hope his leg is not broke, though!-This way, sir--this way!"

The gardener led the doctor to the place, and there they found a man, whose leg had actually been caught in the spring-trap which had been set for the defence of the cherry-tree. The man had by this time fallen into a swoon; they extricated him as fast as possible, and Doctor X---- had him brought to Lady Delacour's, in order that the surgeon, who was there, might see his leg.

As they were carrying him across the hall, Belinda met them. She poured out a gla.s.s of water for the man, who was just recovering from his swoon; but as she went nearer to give it him, she was struck with his wonderful resemblance to Harriot Freke.

"It must be Mrs. Freke herself!" whispered she to Marriott, whose wide opening eyes, at this instant, fixed themselves upon her.

"It must be Mrs. Freke herself, ma'am!" repeated Marriott.