"Ye've killed him. What more is there you can do?""Oh, madam - nay, madam! I am most deeply grieved that my - my - ""His lordship will wait upon you to the door," said she, designating her son.
The eminent physician effaced himself from her ladyship's attention. It was his boast that he could take a hint when one was given him; and so he could, provided it were broad enough, as in the present instance.
He gathered up his hat and gold-headed cane - the unfailing insignia of his order - and was gone, swiftly and silently.
Rotherby closed the door after him, and returned slowly, head bowed, to the window where his mother was still seated. They looked at each other gravely for a long moment.
"This makes matters easier for you," she said at length.
"Much easier. It does not matter now how far his complicity may be betrayed by his papers. I am glad, madam, to see you so far recovered from your weakness."She shivered, as much perhaps at his tone as at the recollections he evoked. "You are very indifferent, Charles,"said she.
He looked at her steadily, then slightly shrugged. "What need to wear a mask? Bah! Did he ever give me cause to feel for him?" he asked. "Mother, if one day I have a son of my own, Ishall see to it that he loves me."
"You will be hard put to it, with your nature, Charles," she told him critically. Then she rose. "Will you go to him with me?" she asked.
He made as if to acquiesce, then halted. "No," he said, and there was repugnance in his tone and face. "Not - not now."There came a knocking at the door, rapid, insistent. Grateful for the interruption, Rotherby went to open.
Mr. Green staggered forward with swollen eyes, his face inflamed with rage, and with something else that was not quite apparent to Rotherby.
"My lord!" he cried in a loud, angry voice.
Rotherby caught his wrist and checked him. "Sh! sir," he said gravely. "Not here." And he pushed him out again, her ladyship following them.
It was in the gallery - above the hall, in which the servants still stood idly about - that Mr. Green spattered out his wrathful tale of what had befallen in the library.
Rotherby shook him as if he had been a rat. "You cursed fool!" he cried. "You left him there - at the desk?""What help had I?' demanded Green with spirit. "My eyes were on fire. I couldn't see, and the pain of them made me helpless.""Then why did ye not send word to me at once, you fool?""Because I was concerned only to stop my eyes from burning,"answered Mr. Green, in a towering rage at finding reproof where he had come in quest of sympathy. "I have come to you at the first moment, damn you!" he burst out, in full rebellion. "And you'll use me civilly now that I am come, or - ecod! - it'll be the worse for your lordship."Rotherby considered him through a faint mist that rage had set before his eyes. To be so spoken to - damned indeed! - by a dirty spy! Had he been alone with the man, there can be little doubt but that he would have jeopardized his very precarious future by kicking Mr. Green downstairs. But his mother saved him from that rashness. It may be that she saw something of his anger in his kindling eye, and thought it well to intervene.
She set a hand on his sleeve. "Charles!" she said to him in a voice that was dead cold with warning.
He responded to it, and chose discretion. He looked Green over, nevertheless. "I vow I'm very patient with you," said he, and Green had the discretion on his side to hold his tongue. "Come, man, while we stand talking here that knave may be destroying precious evidence."And his lordship went quickly down the stairs, Mr. Green following hard upon his heels, and her ladyship bringing up the rear.
At the door of the library Rotherby came to a halt, and turned the handle. The door was locked. He beckoned a couple of footmen across the hall, and bade them break it open.
