CHAPTER XVII.
A STRANGE RECOGNITION
Gradually I was aware of somebody moistening my temples. A soft palmheld my hand. Elsie was leaning over me. I opened my eyes with astart.
"Oh, Elsie," I cried, "how kind of you!"
It seemed to me quite natural to call her Elsie.
Even as I spoke, somebody else raised my head and poured somethingdown my throat. I swallowed it with a gulp. Then I opened my eyesagain.
"And Jack, too," I murmured.
It seemed as if he'd been "Jack" to me for years and years already.
"She knows us!" Elsie cried, clasping her hands. "She's muchbetter--much better. Quick, Jack, more brandy! And make hastethere--a stretcher!"
There was a noise close by. Unseen hands lifted me up, and Jack laidme on the stretcher. Half-an-hour at least must have elapsed, I feltsince the first shock of the accident. I had been unconsciousmeanwhile. The actual crash came and went like lightning. And mymemory of all else was blotted out for the moment.
Next, as I lay still, two men took the stretcher and carried me offat a slow pace, under Jack's direction. They walked single-filealong the line, and turned down a rough road that led off near ariver. I didn't ask where they were going: I was too weak andfeeble. At last they came to a house, a small white wooden cottage,very colonial and simple, but neat and pretty. There was a garden infront, full of old-fashioned flowering shrubs; and a verandah ranround the house, about whose posts clambered sweet English creepers.
They carried me in, and laid me down on a bed, in a sweet littleroom, very plain but dainty. It was panelled with polishedpitchpine, and roses peeped in at the open window. Everything aboutthe cottage bore the impress of native good taste. I knew it wasJack's home. It was just such a room as I should have expected fromElsie.
The bed on which they placed me was neat and soft. I lay theredozing with pain. Elsie sat by my side, her own arm in a sling.By-and-by, an Irish maid came in and undressed me carefully underElsie's direction. Then Elsie said to me, half shrinking:
"Now you must see the doctor."
"Not Dr. Ivor!" I cried, waking up to a full sense of this newthreatened horror. "Whatever I do, dear, I WON'T see Dr. Ivor!"
Jack had come in while she spoke, and was standing by the bed, I sawnow. The servant had gone out. He lifted my arm, and held my wristin his hand.
"I'm a doctor myself, Miss Callingham," he said softly, with thatquiet, reassuring voice of his. "Don't be alarmed at that; nobodybut myself and Elsie need come near you in any way."
I smiled at his words, well pleased.
"Oh, I'm so glad you're a doctor!" I cried, much relieved at thenews; "for I'm not the least little bit in the world afraid of YOU.I don't mind your attending me. I like to have you with me." For Ihad always a great fancy for doctors, somehow.
"That's well," he said, smiling at me such a sweet sympathetic smileas he felt my pulse with his finger. "Confidence is the first greatrequisite in a patient: it's half the battle. You're not seriouslyhurt, I hope, but you're very much shaken. Whether you like it ornot, you'll have to stop here now for some days at least, tillyou're thoroughly recovered."
I'm ashamed to write it down; but I was really pleased to hear it.Nothing would have induced me to go voluntarily to their house withthe intention of stopping there--for they were friends of Dr.Ivor's. But when you're carried on a stretcher to the nearestconvenient house, you're not responsible for your own actions. Andthey were both so nice and kind, it was a pleasure to be near them.So I was almost thankful for that horrid accident, which had cut theGordian knot of my perplexity as to a house to lodge in.
It was a fortnight before I was well enough to get out of bed andlie comfortably on the sofa. All that time Jack and Elsie tended mewith unsparing devotion. Elsie had a little bed made up in my room;and Jack came to see me two or three times a day, and sat for wholehours with me. It was so nice he was a doctor! A doctor, you know,isn't a man--in some ways. And it soothed me so to have him sittingthere with Elsie by my bedside.
They were "Jack" and "Elsie" to me, to their faces, before threedays were out; and I was plain "Una" to them: it sounded so sweetand sisterly. Elsie slipped it out the second morning as naturallyas could be.
"Una'd like a cup of tea, Jack;" then as red as fire all at once,she corrected herself, and added, "I mean, Miss Callingham."
"Oh, do call me Una!" I cried; "it's so much nicer and morenatural.... But how did you come to know my name was Una at all?"For she slipped it out as glibly as if she'd always called me so.
"Why, everybody knows that." Elsie answered, amused. "The wholeworld speaks of you always as Una Callingham. You forget you're acelebrity. Doctors have read memoirs about you at MedicalCongresses. You've been discussed in every paper in Europe andAmerica."
I paused and sighed. This was very humiliating. It was unpleasant torank in the public mind somewhere between Constance Kent and LauraBridgman. But I had to put up with it.
"Very well," I said, with a deep breath, "if those I don't care forcall me so behind my back, let me at least have the pleasure ofhearing myself called so by those I love, like you, Elsie."
She leant over me and kissed my forehead with a burst of genuinedelight.
"Then you love me, Una!" she exclaimed.
"How can I help it?" I answered. "I love you dearly already." And Imight have added with truth, "And your brother also."
For Jack was really, without any exception, the most lovable man Iever met in my life--at once so strong and manly, and yet so womanlyand so gentle. Every day I stopped there, I liked him better andbetter. I was glad when he came into my room, and sorry when he wentaway again to work on the farm: for he worked very hard; his handwas all horny with common agricultural labour. It was sad to thinkof such a man having to do such work. And yet he was so clever, andsuch a capital doctor. I wondered he hadn't done well and stayed inEngland. But Elsie told me he'd had great disappointments, andfailed in his profession through no fault of his own. I could neverunderstand that: he had such a delightful manner. Though, perhaps Iwas prejudiced; for, in point of fact, I began to feel I was reallyin love with Jack Cheriton.
And Jack was in love with me too. This was a curious result of myvoyage to Canada in search of Dr. Ivor! Instead of hunting up thecriminal, I had stopped to fall in love with one of his friends andneighbours. And I found it so delicious: I won't pretend to deny it.I was absolutely happy when Jack sat by my bedside and held my handin his. I didn't know what it would lead to, or whether it wouldever lead to anything at all; but I was happy meanwhile just to loveand be loved by him. I think when you're really in love, that'squite enough. Jack never proposed to me: he never asked me to marryhim. He just sat by my bedside and held my hand; and once, whenElsie went out to fetch my beef-tea, he stooped hastily down andkissed, me, oh, so tenderly! I don't know why, but I wasn't theleast surprised. It seemed to me quite natural that Jack should kissme.
So I went idly on for a fortnight, in a sort of lazy lotus-land,never thinking of the future, but as happy and as much at home as ifI'd lived all my life with Jack and Elsie. I hated even to think Iwould soon be well; for then I'd have to go and look out forCourtenay Ivor.
At last one afternoon I was sufficiently strong to be lifted out ofbed, and dressed in a morning robe, and laid out on the sofa in thelittle drawing-room. It looked out upon the verandah, which was highabove the ground; and Jack came in and sat with me, alone withoutElsie. My heart throbbed high at that: I liked to be alone forhalf-an-hour with Jack. Perhaps... But who knows? Well, at any rate,even if he didn't, it was nice to have the chance of a good long,quiet chat with him. I loved Elsie dearly; but at a moment likethis, why, I liked to have Jack all to myself without even Elsie.
So I was pleased when Jack told me Elsie was going into Palmyra withthe buggy to get the English letters. Then she'd be gone a good longtime! Oh, how lovely! How beautiful!
"Is there anything you'd like from the town?" he asked, as Elsiedrove past the
window. "Anything Elsie could get for you? If so,please say so."
I hesitated a moment.
"Do you think," I asked at last, for I didn't want to betroublesome, "she could get me a lemon?"
"Oh, certainly," Jack answered; "there she goes in the buggy! Here,wait a moment, Una! I'll run after her to the gate this minute andtell her."
He sprang lightly on to the parapet of the verandah. Then, with onehand held behind him to poise himself, palm open backward, he leaptwith a bound to the road, and darted after her hurriedly.
My heart stood still within me. That action revealed him. The back,the open hand, the gesture, the bend--I would have known themanywhere. With a horrible revulsion I recognised the truth. This wasmy father's murderer! This was Courtenay Ivor!