LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1456, 16 October 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

DR. CARRIOK. By M. E. Braddon. [From “All the Year Round,”] > . i L J (Concluded.) Heater remembered many such days on which Dr Garrick had spared neither himself nor his horse. ■ She was obliged to submit to his orders, and go back to bed, for she was really too ill to resist him. She laid herself down dressed upon the outside of the counterpane, with her thick winter shawl wrapped round her; for although herjhead and hands were burning, a feeling of deathlike cold crept over her at intervals. It seemed the longest day she had ever lived through. The ceaseless drip of the rain upon the leaves of the f ycamore, whose spreading branches obscured half her window, the unchanging gray of the sky, the sullen murmur of the sea—all added to her gloom of mind. She would have given worlds tq have seen Eustace Tregonnell, alone, to have told him all she had discovered, all she feared ; but she felt power-! leas to rise from her bed, and, even if she, could muster strength and courage to go downstairs in quest of Mr Tregonnell, she knew that Dr Garrick was on guard below, and would do his uttermost to prevent her; being alone with his patient. There was! nothing for her to do but to lie there with! aching head and anxious mind, waiting for night. The good-natured maid-of all-work came to her several times in the course of the day, bringing her broth which she could not touch, and divers cups of tea, which were welcome to her parched lips. She eat nothing all day, but drank deep draughts of cold water. Night came at last. She heard the doors shutting below, and footsteps ascending the stairs. How well she knew each footfall ! The doctor’s a eft deliberate step; David Shelter’s tread, quick yet heavy ; Mr Tregounell’s firm light step ; the maid of-all-work’s slip-shod, ascent. And then all was quiet. The church clock struck ten. The rain, was still falling. There was not a star in the sky. Hester lifted her head with an effort from the pillow where it had lain so heavily all day long. She crawled to her door, ancV noiselessly set it ajar, so slightly, that anyone passing would hardly notice that .it was not shut. Then she opened the door of the closet. The light in Mr Tregonnell’s room shone brightly through the crevices in the sliding shutter. Then she crept back to the room-door and listened with all her might. After about ten minutes she heard the doctor’s step coming along the passage from his own room. He knocked softly at Mr Tregonnell's door, was told to enter, and entered. Before the door closed, Hester heard the patient say ; ‘Upon my word, doctor, I don’t believe I need your ministrations to-night, I feel honestly sleepy.’ Here the door was firmly shut, and onthis side Hester could hear no more.

She went quietly back to the closet, and drew near th,e sliding shutter. At the same moment the door leading to the servant’s staircase was cautiously opened, and David Skelter crept in. All was dark in the closet. It was by intuition only that Hester knew the in-j trader. One rash exclamation from him and she was betrayed. She put one hand' over bis rr,outh, grasping his wrist, firmly with the other, and whispered in his ear : | 1 ‘ Not a word! not a movement! I am going to watch vyitjh yoq! to-night/ And then,' with infinite caution, she slid back; the shutter for- about an, inch, and looked into the ro,om. ' •' ■■• •' Eustace TregonneU was lying outside the bed, wrapped in his long velvet dressing gown, in an attitude of: supreme repose. Dr Garrick was seated beside the bed, his hands moving slowly in mesmerical passes before the patient’s dreamy eyes. In less than a quarter of an hour Mr TregonneU had sunk into a mesmeric slesp, profound, peaceful, deathlike. So far there was no wrong done. The patient was consentient; mesmerism had exerted q healing influence over mind and fiody; mesmerism had been Dr Garrick’s only treatment, _ ‘That’s all, miss,’ whispered David, * He’ll go away now, and leave master to sleep it out. It’s against nature that oao man should be able to send another to. sleep, and I don’t like it.’

‘ Thetq ia no harm in it,’ David,’ replied Hester.

But the doctor did not leave his patient. He withdrew from the bed, and stood, with his back to the mantelpiece, intently watchful of the sleeper. This lasted for more than five minutes; Hester still watching from the shutter, David close at her side. And now Dr Garrick crept stealthily across the room to the dressing table, opened the medicine chest, and took out a bottle. ‘lt’s the chloroform*’ whispered David. * I know the bottle.’ This word chloroform awakened a vague fear in Hester’s mind. She felt as if she were on tho threshold of some hideoiis discovery. ‘ David,’ she whispered, close iu the valet’s ear, * run down softly, as £t»si as you can go, open the street door, and ring the bell. Quick, quick S’ The man obeyed without understanding her. JTia shoeless feet ran swiftly down the stairs. Dr Garrick went back to. tho bed, took the stopper out of the, bottle, and deliberately poured the whole [of the contents on Eustace Tregonnell’s pillow. The patient lay on, his side with his face towards the fireplace. The doctor sprinkled tho chloroform exactly under his nostrils. Then with a delicate hand, as carefully as if he had been covering the faco of a sick child, for whom sleep was the sole chance oi a cure, he drew the light coverlet oyer Eustace Tregomiell’s head, and stood looking down at the shrouded %u;rg with an evil smile on his face. -hi t&e next instant the street-door bell was ringing violently, ‘ Great heaven ! who can it bo at such a time?’ cried the doctor, hurrying from the room, with a backward uneasy glance at the bed. Heater unlocked the closot-door, and rushed into Mr Tregonuell’s room as the doctor disappeared, She threw back the

coverlet from the sleeper's face, snatched the pillow from under his head, dashed cold water over head and face, flung open the window to the cool, moist, night air, all without loss of an instant. She, who all day had been powerless to lift her head from the pillow, seemed in those terrible moments endowed with unnatural strength. Eustace stirred, faintly at first ; then, as Hester dashed more water into his face, his eyes slowly opened, he gave a struggling sigh, and at last raised his head and looked at her, with eyes that expressed only vague wonder. * What are you doing ? ’ he asked. * What is the matter ? ’ ‘ I think I have saved your life,’ she said quietly; and then, her brain suddenly reeling, she fell in a heap on the floor beside his bed, not unconscious, only giddy and helpless. Dr Garrick came back, saw his intended victim sitting up with his eyes open, and his cousin on the ground by the bed. A glance told him that the game was lost. He did not understand how it had happened—how Hester came there—but he knew that his scheme was a failure. ‘ What the devil have you been doing to me, Dr Garrick ? ’ asked Eustace, not in. the most amiable mood after awakening from deepest unconsciousness to find himself in a pool of water. * Have you been experimenting in hydropathy ? And, good heavensl what an odour of chloroform! My shirt must have been drenched with it.’ 4 You were restless, and I sprinkled a few drops on your pillow. In the name of decency, Hester, what are you doing here ? ’ > The girl rose to her feet, steadied herself with a great effort, and looked her kinsman full in the face. David Skelter had followed the doctor upstairs, and stood on the threshold, ready to rush to his master’s aid the moment he was wanted. 4 1 know all that has happened to-night,’ said Hester, with those steady eyes on the doctor’s face, 4 1 saw all—David and I—we were both watching you through thei little shutter in that closet door. You forgot that shutter, did you not? I saw yovf empty the bottle of chloroform on the pillow,' and draw the coverlet over your patient’s head. You were trying to suffocate him. ]| suppose suffocation of that kind leaves no trace. You have got your patient’s will—the will that leaves you everything, no doubt: and all you wanted was to get fid of your patient. You have failed this time.; David, take care of your master—neither his; property nor his life are safe in this house.’ * Devil !’ cried the doctor, beside himself., 4 Liar! Dirt that I picked up out of the' gutter—a pauper who must have begged or! starved but for my help » A pretty story to. hatch against me, forsooth ! Mr Tregonnell, David, I call you both to witness that this woman is either a lunatic or the most outrageous liar that ever drew the breath of life.’ • • | 4 This woman is my future wife,’ said 1 Eustace Tregonnell, rising from the bed. and! supporting Hester’s tottering figure with hlsf arm. ‘Yes, Hester, you will let it be so, will you not ? I offer you the life you have saved. It is no new thought love; it has: been my pleasant day-dream for a month! past, David, you scoundrel, pack ray port-| manteau this instant. Dr Carrick, I shall have the felicity of leaving your hospitable, abode early to-morrow, but I shall take Miss Eushton with me, and find a more desirable' residence for her with our good old vicar and' his family, until the church can make her mistress of Tregonnell Manor. Now, Hester, 1 my dear, go back to your room, and lock your door. I don’t think Dr Carrick will try his chloroform treatment oa you; he knows that David and I understand him.’ |

The baflied villain stood, pale, silent scarcely breathing—an image of humanity frozen into marble. Then he roused himself slowly, gave aprofound sigh, and walked to the door. On the threshold he turned, and looked steadily at his patient. * The night I first saw you I was inclined to think you a madman, Mr Tregonnell,’ he! said deliberately ; * now I know that you are one. I shall be heartily glad to get rid of aach a dangerous inmate. My house is not certified for the reception ofjlunatics; and if your habits were known.* I should get into trouble. Take care of your master. David. He’ll want a strait-waistcoat before you have been much longer in his service.’ ‘That’s a lie, and you know it,’ David retorted bluntly. Mr Tregonnell took Hester to the vicarage early next morning. He told the vicar everything, and confided the young lady to, his friendly care, pending her marriage. The vicar had a comfortable wife, and grown-up daughters; and Hester spent a month among these new friends—a month that was like one long dream of delight, for did not Eustace Tregonnell dedicate all his days to her society ? St. Hildred House was left empty within a few hours of Mr Tregonnell’s departure. The maid-of-all work was paid and dis missed without warning. Dr Garrick told her that he had a letter from London which obliged him to leave St. Hildred without an hour’s.delay. A rich relative was dying, a relative likely to leave Dr Garrick a handsome fortufae. This fiction decently covered the doctor’s, retreat. He was soon lost in the labyrinth ha knew so well. Despair had fastened its grip upon his soul. He had tried honesty ; he had tried fraud and crime. Both had failed. . ■ • . ! ‘I am one of those unlucky mortals born to fail,’ he told himself. ‘ Neither God nor, the devil will help me.” Dr Garrick made another appeal to the devil. He started in a disreputable neighbourhood as a practitioner of the lowest order—a practitioner who stuck at nothing. For a time things went well with him, and he made money. Then came a scandal, im-j prisonment, disgrace ; and Dr Garrick went down to tho very bottom of the social gulf, never to rise again. t For Hester and her lover life holds nothing' but happiness. They spend six months of every year cruising in the brightest waters, j anchoring by the fairest shores, and thereat of their days at Tregonnell Manor, where, being wealthy and generous, they are uni-l versally beloved.