第48章 THE WIDOWER AND THE WIDOW (3)

He came up to her and put his hand on her shoulder.'I'm afraid you're sadly tired, my lady?' he said.She braced her muscles, and drew herself up, saying coldly, - 'When I am tired, Lord Cumnor, I will tell you so.' And her own fatigue showed itself during the rest of the evening in her sitting particularly upright, and declining all offers of easy-chairs or footstools, and refusing the insult of a suggestion that they should all go to bed earlier.She went on in something of this kind of manner as long as Lord Cumnor remained at the Towers.Mrs Kirkpatrick was quite deceived by it, and kept assuring Lord Cumnor that she had never seen dear Lady Cumnor looking better, or so strong and well.But he had an affectionate heart, if a blundering head;and though he could give no reason for his belief, he was almost certain his wife was not well.Yet he was too much afraid of her to send for Mr Gibson without her permission.His last words to Clare were, - 'It's such a comfort to leave my lady to you; only don't you be deluded by her ways.She'll not show she's ill till she can't help it.Consult with Bradley,' (Lady Cumnor's 'own woman,' - she disliked the new-fangledness of 'lady's-maid,') 'and if I were you, I'd send and ask Gibson to call - you might make any kind of a pretence,' - and then the idea he had had in London of the fitness of a match between the two coming into his head just now, he could not help adding, - 'Get him to come and see you, he's a very agreeable man; Lord Hollingford says there's no one like him in these parts: and he might be looking at my lady while he was talking to you, and see if he thinks her really ill.And let me know what he says about her.' But Clare was just as great a coward about doing anything for Lady Cumnor which she had not expressly ordered, as Lord Cumnor himself.She knew she might fall into such disgrace if she sent for Mr Gibson without direct permission, that she might never be asked to stay at the Towers again;and the life there, monotonous in its smoothness of luxury as it might be to some, was exactly to her taste.She in her turn tried to put upon Bradley the duty which Lord Cumnor had put upon her.'Mrs Bradley,' she said one day, 'are you quite comfortable about my lady's health? Lord Cumnor fancied that she was looking worn and ill?' 'Indeed, Mrs Kirkpatrick, I don't think my lady is herself.I can't persuade myself as she is, though if you was to question me till night I couldn't tell you why.' 'Don't you think you could make some errand to Hollingford, and see Mr Gibson, and ask him to come round this way some day, and make a call on Lady Cumnor?' 'It would be as much as my place is worth, Mrs Kirkpatrick.Till my lady's dying day, if Providence keeps her in her senses, she'll have everything done her own way, or not at all.There's only Lady Harriet that can manage her at all, and she not always.' 'Well, then - we must hope that there is nothing the matter with her; and I dare say there is not.She says there is not, and she ought to know best herself.' But a day or two after this conversation took place, Lady Cumnor startled Mrs Kirkpatrick, by saying suddenly, - 'Clare, I wish you'd write a note to Mr Gibson, saying, I should like to see him this afternoon.I thought he would have called of himself before now.He ought to have done so, to pay his respects.' Mr Gibson had been far too busy in his profession to have time for mere visits of ceremony, though he knew quite well he was neglecting what was expected of him.But the district of which he may be said to have had medical charge was full of a bad kind of low fever, which took up all his time and thought, and often made him very thankful that Molly was out of the way in the quiet shades of Hamley.His domestic 'raws' had not healed over in the least, though he was obliged to put the perplexities on one side for the time.The last drop - the final straw, had been an impromptu visit of Lord Hollingford's, whom he had met in the town one forenoon.They had had a good deal to say to each other about some new scientific discovery, with the details of which Lord Hollingford was well acquainted, while Mr Gibson was ignorant and deeply interested.