"Back!" she said; "I am going to sit up with Antony; the poor fellow must not be left. The doctor said so."

Hallett took a turn up and down the room, and then stopped.

"You have had no sleep for two nights, Antony," he said. "Lie down. I will sit up with my sister, and watch by poor Revitts' side."

I protested, but it was in vain; and at last I lay down in my clothes to watch the faces of brother and sister by the shaded lamp, till my eyes involuntarily closed, and I opened them again to see the two faces in the same positions, but without the lamp, for there was the morning light.

CHAPTER THIRTY.

REVITTS' NURSE ARRIVES.

Hallett left quite early, to see that Mrs Hallett was properly attended to, and he moreover undertook to speak to either Mr Ruddle or Mr Lister about my absence, as, joined to my desire to stay with poor Revitts, Hallett wished me to bear his sister company.

Our patient was on the whole very quiet, but at times he moved his head to and fro and talked loudly, much being unintelligible, but I saw Linny's countenance change several times as she heard him threaten the man he looked upon as an enemy.

"Can I do anything for you?" said Linny to him on one occasion, as he tried to raise himself upon his arm and stared at her wildly.

"'Taint as if I'd got my staff out to him, you know," he said in a whisper. "He's a coward, that's what he is, and I shall know him again, and if I do come acrost him--ah!"

Linny shrank away, with her eyes looking wild and strange, so that I thought she was frightened by his words, and I interposed and put my arm under the poor fellow's head.

"Lie down, Bill," I said. "Does your head hurt you?"

"I don't mind about my head," he muttered, "but such a coward; treat a little bit of a girl like that. Where's my notebook? Here, it's time I went. Where's that boy?" he cried angrily; "I know what London is. I won't have him stop out of a night."

He sank back exhausted, and as I turned from him to speak to Linny, I saw that she was in tears.

"He frightens you," I said; "but you needn't be afraid."

"Oh no! I'm not," she cried; "it's only because I'm low and nervous. I shall be better soon."

The surgeon came twice that day, and said the case was serious, but that there was no cause for alarm.

"He gives no clue, I suppose, to who struck him, my boy?" he said.

"No, sir," I replied; "he talks about some man, and says he would know him again."

"The police are trying hard to find out how it was. If they could find the girl it would be easy."

I was just going to say, "Here she is, sir!" when I happened to glance at Linny, who was pale as ashes, and stood holding up her hand to me to be silent.

This confused me so that I hardly understood what the surgeon said, only that he wanted a stronger and more mature person to attend to Revitts; but when I told him that the landlady came up to help he was satisfied, and left, saying that he should come in again. He was no sooner gone than Linny caught me by the arm.

"Oh, what an escape!" she cried; "Antony, you know how wilful and cruel I have been to poor Steve?"

"Yes," I said, nodding my head.

"And you know how I have promised him that I will always do as he wishes?"

"Yes, I know that too," I said; "and I hope you will."

"I will--indeed I will, Antony," she wailed; "but please promise me, pray promise me, that no one shall ever know besides us that it was I whom Mr Revitts here--a--protected."

"But the wretch of a fellow who behaved so badly to you, and beat poor Revitts like this, ought to be punished."

"No, no--no, no?" she cried excitedly; "let it all pa.s.s now, Antony-- dear Antony, for my sake."

"I like you, Linny," I said; "but I like dear old Revitts, too. He has been the best of friends to me, and I don't see why a friend of yours should escape after serving him like this."

"He--he is not a friend of mine now," she said, half hysterically; "but, dear Antony, I could not bear for him to be punished. It was in a fit of pa.s.sion. I had made him angry first. Please, please don't say any more--I cannot bear it!"

She sank down on the hearth-rug, covering her face with her hands and sobbing bitterly, while I felt, boy-like, powerless to say anything to comfort her, till I exclaimed:

"Well, I won't tell or say anything I know, Linny, if you will keep your word to Stephen."

"I will--indeed I will, dear Antony," she cried, starting up and catching both my hands. "I was very, very foolish, but I know better now, and it--it--it is all past."

She said those last words in such a piteous, despairing way, looking so heart-broken, that my sympathies were now all on her side, and I promised her again that I would not tell Revitts or the police that she was the girl who had been in question. I repented of my promise later on, but at my time of life it was not likely that I should know how ready a woman who loves is to forgive the lapses of him who has won her heart, and of course I could not foresee the complications that would arise.

The surgeon came again, as he had promised, and after the examination of the patient, ordered some ice to be obtained to apply to his head, and directly he had gone I started off to fetch it, thinking as I did so that Hallett would soon be with us.

I was not long in getting a lump of bright, cold, clear ice, and on hurrying back, I heard voices in the room, when, to my surprise and delight, there stood Mary, but looking anything but pleased. She had thrown a large bundle on the floor, her large Paisley shawl across the foot of the bed, her umbrella on the table, and a basket crammed full of something or another was on a chair.

As for Mary herself, she was standing, very red in the face, her arms akimbo, her bonnet awry, and a fierce angry look in her eyes, before poor Linny, who was shrinking away from her, evidently in no little alarm.

"Oh, Antony?" she cried, "I'm so glad you've come! Who is this woman?"

"Who's this woman, indeed!" cried Mary, now boiling over in her wrath; "'this woman' indeed! Perhaps you'll tell her that I'm a poor deceived, foolish, trusting creature, who left her place at a moment's notice to come and nuss him, and then find as I ain't wanted, and that he's already got his fine doll of a madam to wait on him."

"Oh, Mary!" I cried; "you dear foolish old thing!"

"Yes, of course, that's what I said I was, Master Antony, and even you turn agen me. But I might have known that such a fellow as William Revitts would have half-a-dozen fine madams ready to marry him."

This was accompanied by pantings, and snorts, and little stamps of the foot, and a general look about poor Mary as if she were going to pull off her bonnet, jump upon it, and tear down her hair.

"Oh, you foolish old thing!" I cried, flying at her and literally hugging her in my delight at seeing her so soon, in the midst of my trouble.

"Be quiet, Master Antony," she cried wrathfully, but throwing one arm round me as she spoke, in reply to my embrace. "But I won't stand it, that I won't."

"But, my good woman," faltered Linny.

"Don't you 'good woman' me, s.l.u.t!" cried Mary furiously. "I was going to give up and let you nurse him and till him, for aught I cared, but I won't now. He's engaged to me these four years, and he's mine, and this is my place and room, and out you go, and the sooner the better; and--as for B--B--B--Bill--do take your hand from before my mouth, Master Antony! You're a boy and don't understand things. Now, then, madam, you pack!"

"Mary, be quiet!" I cried; "this is Mr Hallett's sister, who kindly came to help nurse poor Bill till you could come. Bill does not know her; he never saw her before, but once."

"Only once?" said Mary suspiciously.