Then turning back, he reached out the asked-for hand to extricate his lordship, but in so rough a manner that he nearly brought him into a horizontal position.

"Why, ye micht ha'e done that yersel', my laird," said McCray, angrily.

"And noo I must leave ye, and hurry hame wi' those two puir bairns."

His lordship began to offer expostulations as he began to scuffle out of the bog, but it was to deaf ears, for McCray had run back, and before the n.o.ble suitor was on _terra firma_ the ponies were unloosed and being made to gallop over the rough roadway.

"They'll be dead wi' cauld before I can get them to the Castle,"

muttered McCray, as he held Isa in his arm, and rattled the reins with the other, so that the ponies plunged along furiously. "Puir bairns-- puir bairns!"

McCray's words were muttered, but Brace caught their meaning.

"Drive to the Hall," he said, hoa.r.s.ely; "it is quite a couple of miles nearer."

"Gude sake! I might just as weel commit a murder," muttered the Scot.

"But I shall commit one if I dinna get house-room for the la.s.sie directly. I'll e'en do as he says, if I dee for it. Get on wi' ye!" he roared to the ponies, already speeding along like the wind, when, being no inexpert Jehu, he kept them at a sharp gallop, till a few minutes after, when he drew them up on their haunches at the door of Merland Hall.

End of Volume Two.

Book 2, Chapter IX.

HOW DOCTORS RULE.

Pale and agitated, Mrs Norton hurried out, followed by the Captain, for Brace's long absence had been causing them great uneasiness; but Mrs Norton's agitation increased to a painful degree as soon as she saw in what company he had: returned. Isa's state was the first consideration; and dismissing every other thought, the insensible girl was borne to a bed-room by Captain Norton, as reverently as if she had been something holy, his lip quivering as he marked in the sweet features the lineaments of the one whom he had so fondly loved. Whilst, with all a mother's care, Mrs Norton tended her, taking the first steps towards insuring the poor girl's recovery--steps but for which the services of Dr Challen, for whom McCray had directly galloped off, would have been in vain.

An hour after, when Isa had begun to show signs of returning animation, her wondering eyes ranging from face to face--letting them rest longest upon the soft, motherly countenance bent over her to kiss her so tenderly--there came the sound of wheels, and Dr Challen hurried up to the bedside, to express his approval of what had been done.

"And noo I must go and tell Sir Mooray," said McCray to Captain Norton.

"I thought I'd get the doctor first."

"I sent a groom directly you had gone," said the Captain.

"'Deed and you did weel," said McCray; "but I must stay here and face him, sir, for he'll be over directly with my laird, there, like twa roarin and rampagin' lions."

In effect, five minutes after, there was again the sound of rapid wheels, followed directly after by Sir Murray Gernon's voice in the hall.

"How dared you to bring her here?" he exclaimed, in a hoa.r.s.e, harsh voice, to his old retainer, who met him boldly on the step.

"'Deed, Sir Mooray, so as to save the dear bairn's life, and not have to face ye wi' a cauld dead bodie. It was a case of seconds, Sir Mooray, and I ken ye wadna ha'e likit for me to bring the puir laddie wha savit her from drownin' to the Castle."

"And who saved her?" exclaimed Sir Murray.

"Hoot! Sir Mooray, naebodie else but the douce sailor laddie ye pa.s.sed camin' hame, when the chaise was broke up."

A bitter epithet was hissed from Sir Murray Gernon's lips, as he listened to this announcement; for to his excited imagination it seemed as if Fate were struggling against him and striving to bring together two who, could he contrive it, should be through life as far removed, to all intents and purposes, one from the other, as the two poles.

Sir Murray ascended to the bed-room, and then descended to pace impatiently up and down, frowning and angry, till, after seeing his patient sink into a quiet slumber, Dr Challen gave a sigh of satisfaction, and then joined the baronet.

"What?" exclaimed the doctor, after listening to Sir Murray's first remark.

"She must be taken home directly," said Sir Murray.

"Quite out of the question, my dear Sir Murray," said the doctor, pleasantly, as he partook of the gla.s.s of wine left upon the sideboard.

"But the carriage is waiting, Challen," said Sir Murray. "I came over in the close carriage on purpose. Surely if she is lifted in and driven slowly it cannot hurt her."

"Now look here, Gernon," said the doctor, st.u.r.dily, "I brought that child into the world, and saved her life, sir--saved her life, when not half-a-dozen doctors in England could have done it. I've been your-- Capital gla.s.s of port, by Jove! Try one. You won't? Very good; I will. Let's see--what was I saying? Ah! I've been your family medical attendant ever since I began to practise, and save and except such times as you chose to go abroad and put yourself into the hands of foreign poisoners, I've had your welfare at heart. Now, I'm a crotchety old fellow--better try a gla.s.s of Norton's port: I'll swear it's '20 vintage--crotchety old fellow--over professional matters; and if the Queen herself came meddling in a sick-room where I was engaged, I'd order her out as soon as look at her: ergo, I'm not at all afraid of a baronet."

Sir Murray made a gesture of impatience.

"There, confound you, sir," cried the doctor, testily, "I don't care for your fuming--I'm not going to give way. Now, look here, Gernon: you ought to have more confidence in me, and in what I say. I don't want to boast; but I saved your life; I saved your wife's life; and, as aforesaid, I saved the life of that child up-stairs when it was a tiny spark that a breath would have destroyed. I'm proud of it, you see.

Now you want to kill her, because she is here in the house of the people you most dislike in the world--out-and-out good sort of people, and good friends of mine, all the same. Can't help it--I must speak plain. This is a case where plain speaking is necessary, so you need not fling about. You must sink all these family quarrels, and thank Heaven that the poor child was brought here, where there was a clever, sensible woman like Mrs Norton to take the first steps towards warding off fever."

"But, surely, Challen," exclaimed Sir Murray, deprecatingly now, "with plenty of wrapping, and the carriage!"

"My good man," cried the doctor, now thoroughly angry, "if you will be obstinate, and want her to have plenty of wrapping, go and fetch a lead coffin, and if she is to go in a carriage, send old McCray over to Marshton for Downing's hea.r.s.e. It will be the most sensible thing you can do; for she will be dead before she gets home, or soon after. What the deuce is the use of your talking? Do you think I want her to stay here, or that I take two straws' worth of interest in your confounded affairs and squabbles? That child's life is the first consideration. I won't put up with it, Gernon--I won't indeed. How dare you interfere and want to meddle with things which you don't understand? That child's const.i.tution is not a political matter for you to meddle with. Why, confound you, sir, here we have just got her into as lovely a perspiration as ever I saw upon a human subject! There's the threatened fever evaporating, as it were, from her system, and she sleeping gloriously, when you must come in with your family pride, and want to destroy all that I have done! I tell you what it is--"

"My dear Challen," exclaimed Sir Murray, "I don't want to upset your arrangements. I only thought--"

"Confound you, sir! how dare you to think, here, in a case of life and death? It's a piece of consequential, confounded, t.i.tled presumption-- that's what it is!"

There was no mistaking, either, that Mr Challen was in a professional pa.s.sion; for, as he said, "in matters of medicine he would give way to none," while being, certainly, a very clever pract.i.tioner, and well knowing that fact, he was somewhat ready to leap upon his own little hill, and to crow loudly. He had just descended, proud and elate with the state in which he had left his patient, when, as he mentally termed it, this impertinent interference on the part of Sir Murray made him erect all his hackles, and give battle most furiously for his rights.

"There, there! Don't be angry, Challen," said the baronet. "I give way--I suppose I must bear it."

"Bear it! Of course you must," said the doctor. "I tell you what it is, Sir Murray Gernon: I was within a point of throwing up the case, and leaving you in the hands of that offensive wholesale killer at Marshton--that new man. I was only restrained by a feeling of respect for the poor child. But I'll give up now, if you wish it."

"My dear Challen," cried Sir Murray, "pray don't be so impetuous. I say no more. Have it all as you wish."

"Say no more! Of course you will not!" grumbled the doctor, whose feathers were gradually subsiding to their natural smoothness.

"Only," continued Sir Murray, "get her well, and let us have her home as soon as possible."

"There you go again!" cried the doctor, bristling up once more. "The old story! I suppose you think I want to keep her ill, so as to swell the bill, with 'One draught at bed-time,' and 'The mixture as before.'

Ugh! It's a pity, Sir Murray Gernon, you have not a dozen people about you who are like me--not in the least afraid of you. What are you going to do now?"

"Going back," said Sir Murray, who had just risen.

"Going back, indeed!" said the doctor, impatiently. "Better stay--stay, and see how she is when she wakes. Let's have Norton in and Mrs Norton, and perhaps their son will join: he's none the worse--used to water--salt, fresh, or marshy. A tumbler of punch and a rubber at whist would pa.s.s the time away comfortably. There, hang it, man, twenty years ought to be long enough to heal up these old wounds. They'll have to be healed up when you journey to the great abroad. Take my advice--advice I shan't charge you anything for. Norton's boy has saved your girl's life. Let this unlucky accident be the means of bringing you together-- good out of evil, you know. Hold out the right hand of fellowship, and--trust me--I know Norton; it will be taken in a hearty grasp. Make friends at once, Gernon; you'll be obliged to do it in heaven. Oh!

there, then, I've done. Advice gratis is never valued at its true worth."

"Let me know, Challen, how all goes on when you leave here," said Sir Murray, sternly, as he strode towards the door; and five minutes after the doctor shrugged his shoulders and took another gla.s.s of port to console himself for the rejection of his good offices, as he listened to the wheels of the departing carriage.

"I'm afraid," he said aloud, "contact with all sorts of people has robbed me of this refined sensibility--this keen appreciation of injury.

I fancy if any one had done me a wrong, that I could forgive it in less than twenty years."

"But there never was any wrong, Doctor," said a low, sweet voice, when, turning, Dr Challen became aware that Mrs Norton had entered unperceived.

Book 2, Chapter X.