WYLDER'S HAJVD.
227
ford hastened his toilet, and was down stairs, and in the
room assigned by the housekeeper to the ill-starred Cap-
tain Lake, before Doctor Buddle had arrived.
It had already the dismal character of a sick chamber.
Its light was darkened; its talk was in whispers; and jts
to-ings and fro-ings on tip-toe. An obsolete chambermaid
had been already installed as nurse. Little Mrs. Ester-
broke, the housekeeper, was fussing hither and thither
about the room noiselessly.
While the wounded Captain lay on the bed, with his
clothes on, and the coverlet over him, and that clay-
colored apathetic face, with closed eyes, upon the pillow,
without sigh or motion, not a whispered word escaped him;
but his brain was appalled, and his heart died within him
iD the unspeakable horror of death.
Lord Chelford, too, having looked on Lake with silent,
but awful misgivings, longed for the arrival of the Doctor;
and was listening and silent when Buddle's short step and
short respiration were heard in the passage. So Larcom
came to the.door to announce the Doctor in a whisper,
and Buddle fussed into the room, and made his bow to
Lord Chelford, and his brief compliments and condolen-
ces.
"Not asleep?" he enquired, standing by the bed.
The Captain's lips moved a disclaimer, I suppose, but
no sound came.
So the Doctor threw open the window-shutters, and
clipped Stanley Lake's exquisite coat ruthlessly through
with his scissors, and having cleared the room of all use-
less hands, he made his examination.
It was a long visit. Buddle in the hall afterwards de-
clined breakfast — he had a board to attend. He told
Lord Chelford that the case was "a very nasty one."
In fact, the chances were against the Captain, and he,