"
He took her to her room. As he laid her down on the bed, she
caught his hand, and said, entreatingly:
"You won't go to London, darling, and leave me here ill?"
He promised that nothing should separate him from her until she
was well again, and then ran downstairs to send for the doctor.
The doctor came, and pronounced that Mrs. Carling was only
suffering from a nervous attack; that there was not the least
reason to be alarmed; and that, with proper care, she would be
well again in a few days.
Both husband and wife had a dinner engagement in the town for
that evening. Mr. Carling proposed to write an apology and to
remain with his wife. But she would not hear of his abandoning
the party on her account. The doctor also recommended that his
patient should be left to her maid's care, to fall asleep under
the influence of the quieting medicine which he meant to give
her. Yielding to this advice, Mr. Carling did his best to
suppress his own anxieties, and went to the dinner-party.
CHAPTER II.
AMONG the guests whom the rector met was a gentleman named
Rambert, a single man of large fortune, well known in the
neighborhood of Penliddy as the owner of a noble country-seat and
the possessor of a magnificent library.
Mr. Rambert (with whom Mr.
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