第61章
"It was I who spoke, sir," she said; "Nurse Rosemary Gray.And Ifeel sure I know why my voice startled you.Dr.Brand warned me it might do so.He said I must not be surprised if you detected a remarkable similarity between my voice and that of a mutual friend of yours and his.He said he had often noticed it."Garth, in his blindness, remained quite still; listening and considering.At length he asked slowly: "Did he say whose voice?""Yes, for I asked him.He said it was Miss Champion's."Garth's head dropped back upon the pillow.Then without turning he said in a tone which Jane knew meant a smile on that dear hidden face: "You must forgive me, Miss Gray, for being so startled and so stupidly, unpardonably agitated.But, you know, being blind is still such a new experience, and every fresh voice which breaks through the black curtain of perpetual night, means so infinitely more than the speaker realises.The resemblance in your voice to that of the lady Sir Deryck mentioned is so remarkable that, although I know her to be at this moment in Egypt, I could scarcely believe she was not in the room.And yet the most unlikely thing in the world would be that she should have been in this room.So I owe you and Dr.
Mackenzie most humble apologies for my agitation and unbelief."He stretched out his right hand, palm upwards, towards Jane.
Jane clasped her shaking hands behind her.
"Now, Nurse, if you please," broke in Dr.Mackenzie's rasping voice from the window, "I have a few more details to explain to you over here."They talked together for a while without interruption, until Dr.Rob remarked: "I suppose I will have to be going."Then Garth said: "I wish to speak to you alone, doctor, for a few minutes.""I will wait for you downstairs, Dr.Mackenzie," said Jane, and was moving towards the door, when an imperious gesture from Dr.Rob stopped her, and she turned silently to the fireplace.She could not see any need now for this subterfuge, and it annoyed her.But the freckled little Napoleon of the moors was not a man to be lightly disobeyed.He walked to the door, opened and closed it; then returned to the bedside, drew up a chair, and sat down.
"Now, Mr.Dalmain," he said.
Garth sat up and turned towards him eagerly.
Then, for the first time, Jane saw his face.
"Doctor," he said, "tell me about this nurse.Describe her to me."The tension in tone and attitude was extreme.His hands were clasped in front of him, as if imploring sight through the eyes of another.
His thin white face, worn with suffering, looked so eager and yet so blank.
"Describe her to me, doctor," he said; "this Nurse Rosemary Gray, as you call her.""But it is not a pet name of mine, my dear sir," said Dr.Rob deliberately."It is the young lady's own name, and a pretty one, too.'Rosemary for remembrance.' Is not that Shakespeare?""Describe her to me," insisted Garth, for the third time.
Dr.Mackenzie glanced at Jane.But she had turned her back, to hide the tears which were streaming down her cheeks.Oh, Garth! Oh, beautiful Garth of the shining eyes!
Dr.Rob drew Deryck's letter from his pocket and studied it.
"Well," he said slowly, "she is a pretty, dainty little thing; just the sort of elegant young woman you would like to have about you, could you see her.""Dark or fair?" asked Garth.
The doctor glanced at what he could see of Jane's cheek, and at the brown hands holding on to the mantelpiece.
"Fair," said Dr.Rob, without a moment's hesitation.
Jane started and glanced round.Why should this little man be lying on his own account?
"Hair?" queried the strained voice from the bed.
"Well," said Dr.Rob deliberately, "it is mostly tucked away under a modest little cap; but, were it not for that wise restraint, Ishould say it might be that kind of fluffy, fly-away floss-silk, which puts the finishing touch to a dainty, pretty woman."Garth lay back, panting, and pressed his hands over his sightless face.
"Doctor," he said, "I know I have given you heaps of trouble, and to-day you must think me a fool.But if you do not wish me to go mad in my blindness, send that girl away.Do not let her enter my room again.""Now, Mr.Dalmain," said Dr.Mackenzie patiently; "let us consider this thing.We may take it you have nothing against this young lady excepting a chance resemblance in her voice to that of a friend of yours now far away.Was not this other lady a pleasant person.?"Garth laughed suddenly, bitterly; a laugh like a hard, sob."Oh, yes," he said, "she was quite a pleasant person.""'Rosemary for remembrance,'" quoted Dr.Rob."Then why should not Nurse Rosemary call up a pleasant remembrance? Also it seems to me to be a kind, sweet, womanly voice, which is something to be thankful for nowadays, when so many women talk, fit to scare the crows; cackle, cackle, cackle--like stones rattling in a tin canister.""But can't you understand, doctor," said Garth wearily, "that it is just the remembrance and the resemblance which, in my blindness, Icannot bear? I have nothing against her voice, Heaven knows! But Itell you, when I heard it first I thought it was--it was she--the other--come to me--here--and--" Garth's voice ceased suddenly.
"The pleasant lady?" suggested Dr.Rob."I see.Well now, Mr.
Dalmain, Sir Deryck said the best thing that could happen would be if you came to wish for visitors.It appears you have many friends ready and anxious to come any distance in order to bring you help or cheer.Why not let me send for this pleasant lady? I make no doubt she would come.Then when she herself had sat beside you, and talked with you, the nurse's voice would trouble you no longer."Garth sat up again, his face wild with protest.Jane turned on the hearth-rug, and stood watching it.
"No, doctor," he said."Oh, my God, no! In the whole world, she is the last person I would have enter this room!"Dr.Mackenzie bent forward to examine minutely a microscopic darn in the sheet."And why?" he asked very low.