"the captain sahib! the captain sahib!" cried jani in shrill tones; and prostrated herself before the brazier, her face on the floor.
"does she think she has called him from the dead?" wondered baby. her thoughts danced in a mist; she would have liked to have caught one and clung to it, but they kept whirling beyond all control. she sat as if tied to her chair, staring stupidly at the two who held each other clasped so close—at the black head bent upon the golden head. then she saw how the grip of rosamond's hands relaxed; how the whole clinging figure fell inertly, while he—man or ghost—seemed to let it slip from him as though in surprise.
he turned his head and looked at aspasia. there was indeed, something unearthly about his countenance; in the ashen pallor on cheek and chin, in contrast to the bronze of the rest of the face, which seemed still to hold the touch of that indian sun under which he had died. his eyes burnt with fierce light in their dark hollows. aspasia felt that she ought to shudder with terror, that the situation, at least, ought to be one of desperate interest, but she was only conscious of a numb curiosity. she sat and stared. then her gaze wandered from the mysterious presence to the figure lying on the bed. she saw the sharp outline of rosamond's chin upturned, and thought, without the least emotion, that perhaps her aunt was dead. the very gold of the hair seemed lifeless, turning to ash. that cry still ringing in her ears must have been a death-cry. it had been as the cry of a soul that is passing.
she watched the man lay his hand on the still forehead, saw him look sharply about him and inhale the air with deep breath.
suddenly, in two great strides, he was across the room. there was a noise of tearing curtains and jingling glass; and aspasia found herself inhaling icy breaths of air in gasps. heavily, with a sob of pain, she woke from her stupor. she seemed to be drawing this delicious coldness into herself as if it were new life. the man passed before her once again. he was holding jani's tripod high in his hands. a trail of aromatic vapour swept against her face; and, as she involuntarily breathed it, she had a nauseating sense of suffocation, and the vanishing stupor returned upon her momentarily, like the shadow of some huge bird's wings. with an effort she turned her eyes, saw the man hoist the brazier in his hands and hurl it through the open window, saw the charcoal scattered apart like a shower of falling stars, heard a crash without. then she knew it was no ghost.
the singular white and bronze face bent over her.
"you are better, miss cuningham?" said a voice. she knew that voice, too; she smiled lazily.
"now i know you," she said. "you are muhammed."
he smiled back at her, a fugitive smile, mixed sweetness and sadness.
"by-and-by you will know me better—by-and-by," he said. "now try and wake up, if you can, and help me."
he had left her and was again at the bed. aspasia did as she was bidden. she shook herself from her torpor and stood up, somewhat dizzy, somewhat sick, but yet herself.
the man, muhammed or another, she did not allow herself to think out the matter further, was hanging over rosamond's inanimate form. now he laid down the hand he held and bent his dark head to her breast. baby flung one look of horror at the rigid upturned chin.
"she's dead!" she screamed.
he raised himself abruptly, his countenance grey even under the bronze.
"she is not dead," he answered her quickly, with a gesture that forbade her words, "but i have been too sudden with her, and jani has been playing devil's tricks with her drugs. is there any brandy——?" he wheeled round as he spoke, for the door had opened and old mary's figure appeared.
the ancient house was now full of rumours. old mary's blue eyes were fixed in a stare of uttermost ecstasy. her trembling hands were lifted as if in invocation; all at once she stretched them out, with an inarticulate cry of exaltation. then her voice faltered into homely accents:
"my lamb!" she stammered.
"oh, mary," said the man, and his tones rang with boyish note. "mary dear, brandy! mary, if you love me, quick."
he sat down on the side of the bed chafing rosamond's fingers. silently aspasia held up a bottle of essence, taken from the dressing-table. he nodded, and she began to lave her aunt's temples, not daring to let her thoughts or eyes rest on the waxen face, on the ominous air of irrevocable repose about the long relaxed figure. she wished the silent lips did not wear that mysterious smile. determinedly arresting her mind on those strong words: "she is not dead," she felt that so long as she could hold this confidence it would help to keep the dread angel at bay.
"i was too sudden with her," said the man again, "but when i heard her call me, i think i went mad—i had waited so long!"
then it seemed to aspasia that, from the first moment since he had spoken to her in the passage to-night, she had known him.
"you are harry english," she said. and saying this, she began to cry. she looked down at the piteous fixed smile. he had waited so long! was it not now too late?
"oh," she said aloud, sobbing, "is it now not too late?"
then he flung himself on his knees beside the bed, and she drew back, for none should come between them. he gathered the inanimate form into his arms; his lips were close to the deaf ear, and he was speaking into it.
"rosamond, my wife, rosamond, i have come back to you—come back to me. rosamond, beloved!"
the room was suddenly full of people.
was it possible, aspasia asked herself, that between that cry of rosamond and this gathering of the inmates of the house so short a time had lapsed. she felt as if she had lived a span of years.
"my goodness," cried lady aspasia. "who was screaming? any one hurt? i never heard such a scream in my life!"
then speech and movement alike left the eager lady. gazing at the bed, she stood open-mouthed with stupefaction—an odious inclination to laugh barely stifled, for decency's sake, in her throat.
sir arthur also had halted on the threshold. his eyes were fixed, as if he could hardly credit their evidence, upon the figure of the man in the shooting-jacket who knelt at the side of the low bed, almost covering the unconscious body with his embrace. and, indeed, sir arthur's eyes at the moment were playing him false.
"bethune!" ... he exclaimed. "major bethune!"
not a thought, not a glance had he for the death-like stillness of his wife's face against the crisp black head—to him that head appeared sleek, close-cropped, indefinitely brown. he cried out again loudly:
"you infernal scoundrel..." and caught the intruder roughly by the shoulder.
the kneeling man merely turned his head.
"what ... what ... the devil!——" the words died on sir arthur's lips. his eyes protruded. "who the devil are you, sir?"
"who is it?" came lady aspasia's whisper, more penetrating than natural tones.
"oh hush, hush," said baby, rebuking she knew not what spirit of sacrilegious curiosity. "hush! it is harry english, uncle!"
slowly the man got up from his knees and looked round; then his eye came back to sir arthur.
"harry english!" repeated lady aspasia's lips, voicelessly.
her mind leaped; an irrepressible lightning satisfaction wrote itself on her harsh, handsome face; then her glance swept over the bed, and the corners of her mouth went down in a grimace. there lay death—death already, or very near, or she had never seen it. a double release! this double release was unnecessary—nay, a complication. fate played such tricks at times! but sir arthur had staggered and reeled, and lady aspasia, ever practical, had to postpone thought for action. she caught him firmly by the elbow:
"hold up, arty; be a man."
the lieutenant-governor's first impulse had naturally been to deny the monstrous thought, to wither aspasia for her impious suggestion. then a look at the black and white portrait over the dressing-table, fitfully but vividly illumined by the flames of the draught-blown candles—a look from that strong presentment to the pallid-faced, black-haired man by the bed, brought an overwhelming conviction. he faltered under it. for a while he could collect no words, no thought; but presently, as the tide of blood began slowly to recede, eddying, from his brain, broken phrases escaped him, almost in a whisper:
"your—your conduct is infamous, sir," he babbled, "ungentlemanly—ungentlemanly in the extreme!" ...
harry english, with one hand on rosamond's quiet breast as if mutely claiming his own, spoke then, his eyes on the creature who had robbed him.
"your place, sir, is no longer here," he said. his voice was very low, but it contained an authority which sir arthur instinctively felt with a fresh spasm of indignation and self-pity, trembling upon tears. "your place is no longer here," repeated english. "leave the room."
the lieutenant-governor fairly suffocated:
"how long has she known it?" cried he, panting, as he pointed to the bed. "no wonder i thought her mad. you have killed her!" he exclaimed acridly, upon another revulsion of thought.
"had you not better have a doctor?" came lady aspasia's dispassionate accents. "if it's not too late," she added cynically.
baby called out as if she had been struck, and burst into fresh tears.
the inert figure on the bed was all the girl had of home, all she had of certain love. this marble woman, no longer kin to her, had lavished on her more than a mother's care; from those lips, now so silent, except in the last sad days of trouble, aspasia had never heard an ungentle word.
"she must not die," sobbed she.
"she will not die," said harry english.
he shifted his hand till it rested over rosamond's heart. then he looked down at the face, with its faint smile of secret joy, pitifully exposed to all these eyes; and his own countenance took an expression of tenderness so infinite that weeping baby, catching sight of it, held her breath. he moved and stood with his back to the bed, to shelter in some measure the unconscious woman from the violation of curious looks.
"i must beg you all to go," he said.
sir arthur, who had been gradually growing, within and without, to the purple stage of fury, now exploded. portrait or no portrait, the story was preposterous. this fellow was an impostor!
"turn me out! ... 'tis you, sir, i'll turn out. i'll have you committed, sir, i'll——"
"please," said a voice from the door, "if any one is ill, let it not be forgotten that i am a doctor. i offer my services," said monsieur chatelard.
