AN INTERLUDE
Tuesday passed uneventfully, to all outward seeming.
There was nothing to indicate to Garth that his secretary had sat up writing most of the night; only varying that employment by spending long moments in silent contemplation of his pictures, which had found a temporary place of safety, on their way back to the studio, in a deep cupboard in her room, of which she had the key.
If Nurse Rosemary marked, with a pang of tender compunction, the worn look on Garth's face, telling how mental suffering had chased away sleep; she made no comment thereupon.
Thus Tuesday passed; in uneventful monotony.
Two telegrams had arrived for Nurse Gray in the course of the morning.The first came while she was reading a Times leader aloud to Garth.Simpson brought it in, saying: "A telegram for you, miss."It was always a source of gratification to Simpson afterwards, that, almost from the first, he had been led, by what he called his "unHaided HintuHition," to drop the "nurse," and address Jane with the conventional "miss." In time he almost convinced himself that he had also discerned in her "a Honourable"; but this, Margery Graem firmly refused to allow.She herself had had her "doots," and kept them to herself; but all Mr.Simpson's surmisings had been freely expressed and reiterated in the housekeeper's room; and never a word about any honourable lead passed Mr.Simpson's lips.Therefore Mrs.
Graem berated him for being so ready to "go astray and speak lies."But Maggie, the housemaid, had always felt sure Mr.Simpson knew more than he said."Said more than he knew, you mean," prompted old Margery."No," retorted Maggie, "I know what I said; and I said what I meant." "You may have said what you meant, but you did not mean what you knew," insisted Margery; "and if anybody says another word on the matter, _I_ shall say grace and dismiss the table," continued old Margery, exercising the cloture, by virtue of her authority, in a way which Simpson and Maggie, who both wished for cheese, afterwards described as "mean."But this was long after the uneventful Tuesday, when Simpson entered, with a salver; and, finding Jane enveloped in the Times, said: "A telegram for you, miss."Nurse Rosemary took it; apologised for the interruption, and opened it.It was from the duchess, and ran thus:
MOST INCONVENIENT, AS YOU VERY WELL KNOW; BUT AM LEAVING EUSTON TO-NIGHT.WILL AWAIT FURTHER ORDERS AT ABERDEEN.
Nurse Rosemary smiled, and put the telegram into her pocket."No answer, thank you, Simpson.""Not bad news, I hope?" asked Garth.
"No," replied Nurse Rosemary; "but it makes my departure on Thursday imperative.It is from an old aunt of mine, who is going to my 'young man's' home.I must be with him before she is, or there will be endless complications.""I don't believe he will ever let you go again, when once he gets you back," remarked Garth, moodily.
"You think not?" said Nurse Rosemary, with a tender little smile, as she took up the paper, and resumed her reading.
The second telegram arrived after luncheon.Garth was at the piano, thundering Beethoven's Funeral March on the Death of a Hero.The room was being rent asunder by mighty chords; and Simpson's smug face and side-whiskers appearing noiselessly in the doorway, were an insupportable anticlimax.Nurse Rosemary laid her finger on her lips; advanced with her firm noiseless tread, and took the telegram.
She returned to her seat and waited until the hero's obsequies were over, and the last roll of the drums had died away.Then she opened the orange envelope.And as she opened it, a strange thing happened.
Garth began to play The Rosary.The string of pearls dropped in liquid sound from his fingers; and Nurse Rosemary read her telegram.
It was from the doctor, and said: SPECIAL LICENSE EASILY OBTAINED.
FLOWER AND I WILL COME WHENEVER YOU WISH.WIRE AGAIN.
The Rosary drew to a soft melancholy close.
"What shall I play next?" asked Garth, suddenly.
"Veni, Creator Spiritus," said Nurse Rosemary; and bowed her head in prayer.
