Page images
PDF
EPUB

this to do with the annoyance you have suffered | presume, think it necessary that her husband from your children ?" should be rich."

"But I do; or that he should have rank to make atonement for his poverty."

"What are her objections to the man you had chosen?"

"She says he is a fool and a profligate, with which I have nothing to do. I don't require my son-in-law to be a wise man or a moral one, but I want to see my daughter a countess. As to the curate, she has promised never to marry him without my consent, which she will never get in my life; and after my death my will has effectually forbidden the banns, for the 1000l. a year I have left her is to be reduced to 2001. if ever she becomes Mrs. Mason. Well now, doctor, if you deny that the climacterical year has anything to do with my indisposition, will you not admit that I have had worry, and vexation, and disappointment enough to disorder any man's health ?"

"Listen, and you shall hear. Thorpe has an only daughter, not unattractive in person, but an artful, sly minx, who, being probably well aware of her father's desperate circumstances, and knowing that my son was likely to be one of the richest fellows in the county, set her cap at him so successfully, that the silly gull became perfectly infatuated with her, and actually made her an offer of his hand, which was, of course, instantly accepted. That George should be easily ensnared, and be ready to throw himself away for a pretty plaything, does not surprise me, for he has ever been a spoilt child, accustomed from boyhood to have his own way, and confirmed by long indulgence in waywardness and obstinacy; but guess my shame and wrath when he told me, with an air of satisfaction, that the proud old insolvent had given his consent to the marriage solely on condition that his daughter's husband should take the name of Thorpe ! What unparalleled insolence! How could he-how could my son-how could any man dream that, after toiling and moiling for years to build up a fortune, and found a family that might perpetuate my name, I should consent to see that name swamped, and my hard-earned wealth sacrificed, to continue the race, and clear "That's purely accidental, for sometimes I am the encumbered estates of a man whom I hated? suddenly seized with distressing tremor of the I dismissed my mean-spirited son with an indignant | heart, giddiness in the head, noise in the ears, prohibition of the marriage; and I have since added a codicil to my will, bequeathing my property to the County Hospital, should he ever espouse Julia Thorpe. There is some little comfort in that reflection; but I leave you to imagine how deeply, how cruelly my heart has been lacerated, by this disappointment of all my fondest and most cherished hopes."

CHAPTER II.

"It must be confessed that your son, knowing your antipathy to Mr. Thorpe, did not make a very discreet selection; but Wordsworth tells us

that

The child's the father of the man,

"I always like my patient to give me his own impressions as to the cause of his malady; but before I tell you mine, you must detail the symptoms. You have a deranged, intermitting pulse, but you are not deficient in strength, for you have maintained this long conversation without any apparent exhaustion."

flashing of the eyes, which continue till I become insensible, and remain so for a considerable time, just as if I were dead. Upon one occasion I remained three hours in this state, and when I recovered consciousness, another hour elapsed before I could speak. A week ago, after great languor of body and mind, I was suddenly deprived of all voluntary motion, my limbs being as rigid as if I were a statue; and while suffering these attacks, several blotches have appeared upon my body, an ailment to which I never have been previously subject. There, doctor, you have heard my symptoms; now, tell me, what 's the matter with

me?"

"These are diagnostics of syncope, paralysis,

and you ought not, therefore, to expect that spoilt and catalepsy, but presented in so complicated and boys should grow up to be dutiful sons."

66

'Ay, there you go, doctor, girding at me with your stereotyped smile and soft voice, as if you were flattering instead of condemning me. At all events, I never spoiled Sarah; indeed, people used to say that, in my blind partiality for George, I neglected his sister, and yet, by a singular coincidence, as if I were doomed to be equally tormented by both my children, she has committed a not less egregious act of folly, and has thwarted my wishes in a still more offensive and more unfilial manner. Not only has she refused an offer from Frank Rashleigh, the man upon whom I had set my heart as a son-in-law, because he is sure of being Earl of Downport, but she has confessed her attachment to Mr. Mason, the curate, a poor creature with a miserable 1007. a year.”

unusual a form that I cannot exactly specify the nature of your malady. Two things I will frankly tell you-I don't like these paroxysms, which are of a very ugly type; and I do not believe that they have been superinduced by mental anxiety, however poignant. Before we can suggest a remedy for your disordered state, we must try to discover the cause, which may, perhaps, be traced to some recent intemperance-some excess either in eating or drinking; or, at all events, to some deviation from your customary diet."

"A bad guess, doctor, for in no single respect have I altered my usual mode of living, except in taking two or three doses a day of Raby's Restorative."

"What the deuce is that?"

66

Why, my son George, as I told you, is a firm "But having so rich a father, she does not, I believer in the great danger of the climacterical

year, and having heard that this medicine is a sure and wonderful restorer of the vital energies in old men, very kindly sent me up a large supply from Newmarket, where the patentee resides; and when I complain of getting worse, he is constantly urging me to increase the dose as the only remedy."

action should send a thrill to my heart, and make me cast down my eyes with a feeling of humiliation and remorse. A minute or two elapsed before I could find courage to say—

"Nay, doctor, you must not be squeamish and puritanical. Every one cheats government." "But no one cheats God!" was the reply; and II began to wish my rebuker out of the room, when he suddenly exclaimed

"Telling you, at the same time, that there was no use in sending for a doctor! Odd enough am so often called in by patients who have half killed themselves by trying to cure themselves, that I know the names of quack medicines pretty well, but I never heard of Raby's Restorative. Have you any of this precious compound in the

room ?"

66

"How comes it that your son makes Sarah the dispenser of your quack medicine, if such it is, and the watcher by your bed-side, when he himself ought to perform those duties?"

"Oh! George never misses the great New

Yes; there is an unopened bottle of it by the market meeting, and he has a horse entered for the glass." two first races. He is always happy when he is staying with his young friend, Sir Freeman Dashwood, and I have always indulged him in his whims and fancies."

"There is no label on the bottle," observed the doctor, "an appendage in which patent medicines are seldom deficient; nor is there any vendor's or chemist's name, an omission equally uncommon."

After smelling of it for some time, and applying it very cautiously to the tip of his tongue, he continued

"I think I can guess one of the ingredients; but if you will allow me to analyze the mixture at home, I shall be better enabled to decide. Promise me, in the mean time, not to taste another drop till you see me to-morrow."

"Very well; but I shall miss it, for it's a very pleasant and comfortable cordial. George assures me that when taken in sufficient quantities it has always answered the purpose."

66

I

"Very likely; but what was the purpose? am afraid of quack medicines, as I have already told you, and still more of amateur prescriptions." Why, you are as suspicious as Sarah, who has implored me, over and over, not to go on with the Restorative. Poor girl! she has been a capital nurse, waiting upon me early and late, and never out of humor, except when I insist on following George's advice and increasing the cordial."

"Her looks show that she has been doing too much. This must not be. I will send you a regular nurse to-morrow."

"As to the girl's looks I don't think much of that. Perhaps she is pining for her pauper lover: besides, my children ought to do something for me; I'm sure I have done enough for them, never hesitating, for their sakes, to commit a little irregularity in my contracts, when I thought it could be done safely-always remembering my young folks." “And sometimes, as it seems, forgetting yourself."

"I should n't confess these little malpractices to any one else, and this I do in confidence; my confession is quite entre nous."

"Even to the double doses of Raby's Restorative, although it has hitherto failed so signally in realizing its name. I will hurry home and send you some alexipharmic medicines, which I beg you will take as soon as you can."

"How fond you all are of long words! What the deuce are alexipharmics?"

"They are usually administered when we suspect the presence of poison in the system." "Poison! what a horrible idea! Surely you do not suspect me of having been poisoned?"

"It is not my business to suspect, but to deal with symptoms, and yours very much resemble those of a poisoned man. You may have unconsciously received some deleterious matter into your system, which we must instantly endeavor to expel. Many men are thus destroyed without foul play of any sort. Yours is a case that requires prompt remedies, so I must hurry home. I will give directions to Sarah, in case you should have a recurrence of your attacks to-night, and will repeat my visit early in the morning."

CHAPTER III.

While I thought that Doctor Linnel had indulged in very unnecessary suspicions as to Raby's Restorative, I could not shake off an occasional misgiving touching its injurious effects upon my health. That the most deleterious compounds were sometimes sold under the name of quack medicines I was fully aware; but that my son, upon whom I had so fondly doated since his childhood, should press it upon me with so much importunity, unless he were fully convinced of its salutary quality, I could not bring myself to believe. With no ordinary interest, therefore, did I cross-question the doctor next morning, as to the results of his anaylsis; but his answers were so cautious, not to say evasive, that it was difficult

"No such thing; a third party has been lis- to draw from them any very decided inference. tening to you all the time."

Judging, however, by what he supposed or vague

"Bless my heart! you don't say so. Who?ly hinted, rather than by what he actually said, I Where?"

The doctor pointed his fore-finger to the sky, and remained silent. Strange! that so simple an

was led to believe that his impressions were unfavorable, especially when he again alluded, with much significance of manner, to the absence of a

vendor's name, or label of any sort, on the bottles. | rattles! Then it is all over, sure enough, and He congratulated me on having discontinued the draughts, which might possibly, though he would not positively affirm it, have been the cause of my mysterious malady; and expressed a hope that its progress would be arrested by the copious use of the medicines he had prescribed.

My strange complaint, however, had got such complete possession of my system, that it would neither yield to the most potent remedies, nor to the unremitting and affectionate attentions of my daughter, who was now assisted by a regular nurse. With the fond illusion of an invalid, I still clung to the notion that my climacterical year prevented the remedies from proving efficacious; but whatever might be the cause, I could not conceal from myself that I was rapidly sinking. The derangement of all my bodily functions increased, the fainting fits and cataleptic attacks were more frequent and of longer continuance; and though, as I was assured, my personal appearance was far from indicating any fatal result, I felt as if life were passing away from me. At this juncture, unfortunately, the doctor was summoned to attend his sick mother at Bath; but as he left full instructions as to my treatment, and contemplated an early return to his home, I would not allow any other physician to be called in.

His absence, however, was unexpectedly protracted, and I dragged on without any material alteration in my state, until one morning a sudden and totally new sensation paralyzed my whole frame. My head swam; I felt as if Death had laid his hand upon my heart; and I had just breath enough to whisper to my attendant

"Nurse, I am dying! all is over! I feel suffocated. Take off some of the bed-clothes."

These were the last words I uttered before my burial! Marvellous and almost incredible as the statement may appear, I was only in a cataleptic trance, for although my limbs were stretched out in all the rigidity of death, my senses and my consciousness were by no means obliterated. Nay, they were in some respects intensified, for I could hear a distant whisper which would have been previously inaudible; one eye, being only half-closed, retained its full power of vision, and though the other was quite shut, methought I could see through the lid as clearly as if it had been a spectacle-glass. My tongue having lost all power of motion, I was utterly speechless, but my impeded breath, struggling in the transit of my body from vitality to inanimation, forced itself from my throat with a noise of gurgling and strangulation.

high time too, God knows. Hanged if I did n't think the bothering old chap would never die. Can't imagine, for my part, how people can go on lingering in this way, willy-nilly, shilly-shally. If they can't die, they should live; and if they can't live, they should die. That's the worst of sickness; it do make folks so uncommon selfish, which is my peticklar 'bomination."

Hastening into the parlor with which my bedroom communicated, the hater of selfishness snatched up a valuable shawl belonging to my daughter, as well as a cloth cloak of my own, and spread them over me, an action which would have surprised me, after having so recently requested her to remove some of the clothes, had I not recollected that these rapacious harpies claim as their perquisite everything lying on the bed when its occupant dies. Oh! how I wished for the use of my tongue, when I heard her afterwards affirming that the poor dear gentleman was "sadly cold and shivery just afore he went off, and so she covered him up comfortable." Making no further addition to her perquisites than by pocketing a few odds and ends lying about the room, the worthy creature, putting on the most heart-broken look she could assume, and with a ready-prepared handkerchief in her hand, hurried away to announce my death to my daughter and the household.

CHAPTER IV.

As Sarah had driven over to Doctor Linnel's to ascertain the day of his return, for which she was becoming hourly more impatient, no one entered my chamber for more than two hours, an interval which gave me leisure to reflect upon my perilous and unprecedented state. In all my former attacks the mind had sympathized with the suspended vitality of the frame, but now I had vital senses and apprehensiveness in a dead integument. Was this dissolution of partnership temporary only? How long would it last? Was it final? What then was to be my ultimate fate? I had read of disembodied spirits, and I could understand the continuance of such a separate existence; but as for me, I was entombed alive in my own body— destined, perhaps, to die hideously and loathsomely, as my corporeal particles putrefied and decomposed. I had read, too, of miserable victims who, being buried in a trance, had turned round in their coffins; and of some who, having forced themselves out of them, had been discovered as huddled skeletons in a corner of the vault, whither they had crawled to die of hunger and exhaustion. Recoiling with a mental shudder from such horrible thoughts, I clung to the hope that, although my present fearful seizure was decidedly different from all my previous attacks, it might, after a little longer interval, terminate, like them, in my revival.

The fat nurse, who had hitherto approached me with a maternal smile and a coaxing voice, as she exclaimed,-" Now, my dear good sir, it's time to take the pills. How purely you do look this morning! My life on't we shall have you riding the white cob again in a week or two!" -the fat nurse, I say, had no sooner caught the While I was alternately horrified and reässured choking sound I have mentioned, than she croaked by these anticipations of my fate, my daughter in her natural accents-"Them's the death- entered, and after bursting into a passion of tears

as she kissed my insensible lips, she kneeled down | my interment, and he was too skilful and expe

by my bed-side, and prayed long and earnestly for the discontinuance of my trance; for, in spite of the positive assurances of my death, she would not abandon the hope of my recovery. Some one, however, in the house, probably the nurse, who wished the forfeiture of the shawls to be confirmed, chose to consider me unequivocally defunct, for I heard the servants closing the shutters in the other apartments, and was made aware of various post mortem proceedings, to which I listened with conflicting feelings that baffle all description. The house was now quiet, but occasional sounds still fell upon my ear with an ominous and harrowing significancy, for every passing hour announced by the hall clock seemed to be a passing-bell that ratified my decease, and brought me so much nearer to the appalling moment when I should be buried alive. At intervals other sounds were distinguishable; and as I caught the grating of wheels on the road, the whistle of a railway train, the clattering and chattering of my servants at their dinner, it seemed to me both unfeeling and unnatural that, on the very day of my supposed death, the world should be pursuing its ordinary occupations, and my own regaling themselves with their customary appetites, as if no such catastrophe had occurred.

servants

Thus I remained, with no other companion than my own sad thoughts, till the evening, when my daughter's maid and the housemaid, having solemnly pledged themselves to stand by each other, whatever might happen, and grasping each other's hand to ensure the performance of the contract, stole on tiptoe into the chamber to have a peep at me, neither of them having ever seen a dead man. Peering at me furtively and askance, as if afraid of being scared by my ghost, they agreed, whisperingly, that I looked for all the world as if I were asleep, although nurse had maintained that I was as dead as a door-nail. Both declared that I should be no real gentleman if I had not remembered all the servants in my will; and as mourning was a matter of course, one of them had resolved that her dress should be made to fasten in front, and the other knew of a most becoming pattern for her white muslin cap. But their conversation was not limited to such frivolities, for the lady's maid declared, on the authority of her mistress, that Dr. Linnel, before he went away, had written to Mr. George, stating that he must return immediately; that Miss Sarah had said she hoped he would arrive the very next morning, and that the doctor himself was expected back on the day after; whereupon they stole away, with their hands still locked together.

In these tidings there was no small comfort. Should I revive, my son would have an instant opportunity of clearing himself from all suspicion touching the restorative, in which I still felt a hope rather than a confidence that he would succeed. Should my trance continue, there was no fear of my being buried alive, for Linnel would again be at my bedside long before the time of

rienced a physician not to distinguish between real and apparent death. My most appalling and revolting terror being thus removed, I patiently counted the clock till my usual bed-time, hoping that I might then fall asleep, and so escape the tedium of a long wakeful night. But sleep is a provision of nature for repairing the day's wear and tear; in my cataleptic state there had been no such expenditure of corporeal energy, and consequently there was no requirement of repose. Perhaps my mind was still too much agitated to settle into any sort of oblivion; perhaps it would never be otherwise, and my trance-existence— might be a perpetual consciousness, and consequently an unvaried misery. Such a state must soon lead to madness; but how could a man be mad and motionless, a maniac and a statue? What inconceivable misery to feel your brain raving and raging with an insanity which can find no vent for its fury, either by the explosions of the voice or the convulsive violence of the limbs! In such sad thoughts, wearily and drearily did the first night of my living death drag its slow length along.

CHAPTER V.

Forlorn as was my state, and frightful as was the prospect before me, the dawning light and the twittering of the birds that announced a new day fell cheerily upon my ear. At this early hour my daughter reäppeared in the chamber, and recoiling with a slight shudder as she kissed me, exclaimed, in a voice broken by emotion-" Cold, quite cold! I fear there is no hope. My poor, dear father!" She did not despair, however, for she again knelt down and prayed fervently for my recovery, after which she retired weeping from the room. Inexpressively grateful to me was this proof of filial affection, although it was not unmingled with selfreproach, for I felt that my recent conduct to the poor girl had hardly entitled me to such a tender devotedness.

The

Various matin sounds now reached me from without; the ploughman's whistle, the wetting of the mower's scythe, the lowing and bleating of cattle, the crowing of cocks challenging each other; and as I listened complacently to this rural chorus, I distinctly and vividly saw-by a species of clairvoyance for which I am utterly unable to account--the whole morning landscape commanded by my drawing-room windows. leaves of the white ash trees, flashing and fading in the ray, looked like so many twinkling eyes; the pines and poplars waving in the breeze, seemed to be stretching themselves out to shake off sleep; the river, dimpled by the air, threw sunny smiles at every flower it passed; the gilded summits of the distant hills sparkled in the blue sky, while their bases were still wreathed in vapor, which gradually floated upwards, and all became bright and joyous as if it were the wedding-day of heaven and earth. How long I remained gazing in delight upon this beautiful revelation I know

not, but probably some hours must have thus inner door, so as to prevent observation or interglided away, for the day had made good progress ruption-committed the codicil to the parlor-fire, when my attention was arrested by the opening closely watching its combustion-and then said, of the parlor-door, and I heard the well-known in a triumphant tone, as he looked tauntingly tofootsteps of my son George. wards the bed, "Well, old gentleman! you haven't gained much by that dodge. The estates will be mine, and Julia will be mine, and all the codicils in the world cannot keep me out of them. Fairly outwitted the governor. Ha! ha! ha!"

Indescribably hideous and revolting, not to say demoniacal, did that laugh appear, coming from a wretch who stood in the presence of his victim, and that victim a father who had never denied him a request! His self-betrayals in the soliloquy to which I had been listening, and his nefarious destruction of the codicil, had dispelled that belief of his innocence to which I had so fondly and

On reaching the bedside, he gazed at me for a few seconds in silence, after which he exclaimed, in an accent of unfeeling surprise-" Hang me if I see much alteration in the governor's appearance; a little paler, perhaps, nothing more." Laying his hand upon my cheek, and subsequently upon my heart, he continued-"No pulsation! and the cold, clammy feel of a corpse! Ay, ay, he's dead enough at last. The only wonder is that he should hold out so long." Oh how I wished for a sudden resuscitation, that I might start from the bed, grapple him by the throat, and shout aloud, "Villain! did you not assert, over and so pertinaciously clung; and I could no longer over, that I should recover rapidly, if I would but swallow double doses of your infernal restorative and now you wonder that it did not kill me sooner!"

repel the horrible conviction that he must have well known the poisonous nature of the restorative, and that he had probably concocted it with his own parricidal hands. The successful destruction of the codicil seemed to have elevated him into a state of almost drunken excitement, for he threw his arms wildly about, walking rapidly up and down the parlor, strode into the

But, alas! so far as corporeal energy was concerned I was indeed a corpse. "I must have a peep at the will," were the next words I heard. "Father told me its contents some time ago; nearly everything left to me; but seeing is believ-bed-chamber, snapped his fingers in triumph, and ing I should find it, he said, in the small drawer talked incoherently of his immediate marriage of the black escritoire." To this article of fur- with Julia, of inviting his Newmarket friends to niture, which stood in the adjoining parlor, he the wedding, of buying hounds and hunters, and accordingly betook himself; and as the door of of stocking his cellars with the rarest wines that communication between the two rooms was left money could command. In the midst of these open, I was enabled to watch all his proceedings, riotous anticipations a tapping was heard at the and to overhear his comments. Having with- parlor door, when the exulting expression of his drawn the will from its place of deposit, he opened features was instantly changed into a look of alarm, the shutters, seated himself by the window, and and his voice betrayed agitation as he demanded, slowly perused it, ejaculating at intervals, "All" Who's there?-who's there? What do you right-all right-everything mine-of course- want?" could n't be otherwise; an only son. But what I could not catch the reply, but the door was on earth could my father mean by leaving so much to Sarah? What do women want with money? Only makes them a prey to fortune-hunters. Glad to see, though, that she is to be cut off if she marries the pauper curate.

unlocked and opened, and my daughter entered,
inquiring why he had locked himself in; to which
he made no answer, but eagerly asked,
"When did you say Doctor Linnel was to

66

The day after to-morrow."

"Confound it, so early! how deuced unlucky!" "I thought you would be glad to know that we shall see him on Friday night or Saturday morning."

Don't want any beg-return?" gars or beggars' brats in the family, always pestering you for assistance. Hallo! what's this? another paper!" So saying, he took up and opened the codicil, ran his eyes over its contents, and starting up as he finished, angrily ejaculated, "Damnation! here's a pretty go-all to be for- "Sarah, the funeral must take place on Friday feited to the county hospital if ever I marry Julia-do you hear?-on Friday." Thorpe, the only girl in the whole wide world "My dear George, how can you talk so wildly! that I wish to marry; a girl, moreover, who is passionately attached to me, and who-why, it would be a downright robbery! Never heard of anything so cruel, so atrocious, so unnatural. But I won't submit to be plundered in this way; not such an ass. I'll have Julia, and I'll have the fortune too, as sure as my name is George; and what's more, I won't lose another moment in securing both. The governor yonder can't peach, for dead men tell no tales; no more can a burnt codicil, so here goes." With these words he "That is no reason for so much indecent haste, again closed the window-shutters-locked the and for such a total want of all filial feeling and

My poor father will only have been dead three days. What earthly motive can there be for hurrying the interment before the usual time?"

"What motive? A thousand-ten thousand, and each stronger than the other. I presume you are at last satisfied that our father is dead?" "Alas! I can no longer doubt it.”

“And you will admit, I suppose, if we keep him for six months, he won't be more dead than he is now?"

« PreviousContinue »