At luncheon, however, when Lord Keith appeared, nothing could be
prettier than his wife's manner to him--bright, sweet, and with a touch
of graceful deference, at which he always smiled and showed himself
pleased, but Rachel thought him looking much older than in the
autumn--he had little appetite, stooped a good deal, and evidently moved
with pain. He would not go out of doors, and Bessie, after following him
to the library, and spending a quarter of an hour in ministering to his
comfort, took Rachel to sit by a cool dancing fountain in the garden,
and began with some solicitude to consult her whether he could be really
suffering from sciatica, or, as she had lately begun to suspect, from
the effects of a blow from the end of a scaffold-pole that had been run
against him when taking her through a crowded street. Rachel spoke of
advice.
"What you, Rachel! you who despised allopathy!"
"I have learnt not to despise advice."
And Bessie would not trench on Rachel's experiences.
"There's some old Scotch doctor to whom his faith is given, and that I
don't half believe in. If he would see our own Mr. Harvey here it would
be quite another thing; but it is of no use telling him that Alick would
never have had an available knee but for Mr. Harvey's management. He
persists in leaving me to my personal trust in him, but for himself he
won't see him at any price! Have you seen Mr. Harvey?"
"I have seen no one."
"Oh, I forgot, you are not arrived yet; but--"
"There's some one," exclaimed Rachel, nervously; and in fact a young man
was sauntering towards them. Bessie rose with a sort of annoyance, and
"Never mind, my dear, he is quite inoffensive, we'll soon get rid of
him." Then, as he greeted her with "Good morning, Lady Keith, I thought
I should find you here," she quickly replied.
"If you had been proper behaved and gone to the door, you would have
known that I am not at home."
He smiled, and came nearer.
"No, I am not at home, and, what is more, I do not mean to be. My uncle
will be here directly," she added, in a fee-faw-fum tone.
"Then it is not true that your brother and his bride are arrived?"
"True in the same sense as that I am at home. There she is, you
see--only you are not to see her on any account," as a bow necessarily
passed between him and Rachel. "Now mind you have not been introduced to
Mrs. Keith, and if you utter a breath that will bring the profane crowd
in shoals upon the Rectory, I shall never forgive you."
"Then I am afraid we must not hope to see you at the bazaar for the
idiots."