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«Ah! Doctor,» said the big voice of Somerville Black, «there you are getting into mysticism, which personally I find it safer always to put out of court. To me, therefore, at present it suggests an unusual and most complicated case of nerves, resulting probably from suppressed instincts.»
Then came a crash, followed by:
«Hullo! Ma’am, I didn’t see you coming.»
«Oh!» exclaimed Rose, «that idiot Angelica has run into him with the tea-tray in the dark passage,» and promptly she sped like a swallow towards the door.
As she reached it, it opened, and behold! there was a second collision, this time between Rose and the large advancing shape of Dr. Somerville Black.
With another «Oh!» she recoiled, as a bird might that had unexpectedly come into contact with a bull, and would have fallen had not the advancing Andrew caught her.
«I begin to think,» went on the big voice, «that I have been reincarnated as a shunting railway truck. However, young lady,» he added, suddenly realizing the kind of person with whom he had to do, «if you like to come out of that friendly shelter and charge again, I am sure I don’t mind.»
Then followed explanations, in the midst of which Dr. Watson, who had stayed behind in the passage to assist with the overset crockery, arrived upon the scene. He was a tall, thin, nervous-looking man, with dark eyes and a clean- shaved, ascetic face that would have become a mediæval saint, on which from time to time appeared a smile of singular sweetness. Idealist was written all over him, especially in his eyes which had the dreaming look of the typical visionary. Curiously enough, there was a considerable resemblance between him and Andrew; indeed, they might easily have passed for father and son. Nor did this cease with their physical characteristics, since their mental fibre and attitude were very similar. Both of them were dreamers, both were somewhat impracticable, neither of them had in him the making of a successful man, as the world understands success. Of course, it was the lack of these qualities, as also the presence of others, that drew the two together. From the time that Andrew had appeared at the hospital, a shy, awkward, unusual kind of youth, Dr. Watson had taken a fancy to him which, as years went on, ripened into as much friendship as is possible between men of such different ages. He became his favourite pupil, and somehow it was always understood, without anything very definite being said on the matter, that when he was qualified he would join Dr. Watson in his Whitechapel practice.
Catching sight of him the Doctor’s face brightened with one of his sweet smiles.
«How do you do, Brother Andrew?» he said. «Very glad to see you and to congratulate you.»
Dr. Somerville Black, a man of quick perceptions, glanced quickly at all three of them and then said, addressing Rose:
«Ha-ha, young lady, now I see why you refuged where you did, in this young gentleman’s arms, though to tell the truth, unless I had your father’s word for it, and I suppose he ought to know, I should never have believed that you were brother and sister, even when he is so obviously your father’s son.»
Now Rose coloured in her usual fashion. Dr. Watson looked puzzled, and Andrew, with some irritation, for this term of Brother where Rose was concerned annoyed him, explained that there was a slight mistake as he was unconnected with anyone in the room.
«It is our habit,» added Dr. Watson, «to give the fraternal salutation to friends in this house, as is customary among the community of Christian Socialists to which I and my family belong.»
«Oh! is it?» said Black, with one of his loud, jolly laughs. «Personally I was never so fond of my relations as to wish to extend their number, especially in Whitechapel. However, Sister, to adopt the sororal style, as I think the other Sister in the passage has upset the tea all down my back, I shall be grateful if you can lend me a cloth. I have to go on to see a royal lady, and those infernal flunkeys might notice the stain.»
The article was produced from somewhere and snatching it from Rose’s hand, Andrew began to rub his back.
«I think, young gentleman,» exclaimed Somerville Black, «that our joint Sister there could conduct this operation just as effectively with an expenditure of exactly one-fourth of the muscular force. Unless you are careful, you will wear a hole through my new frock-coat. But why is Brother, or Uncle, or Father Watson offering you his congratulations? Have you perhaps just entered upon some contract of a prenuptial character with our Sister? I seem to diagnose symptoms indicative of the complaint called Love.»
If Rose had coloured before, now she turned positively scarlet. Faintly she murmured some denial and fled from the room, while Andrew commenced an involved contradiction.
«Don’t waste words, young man. I think it highly probable that my diagnosis is correct, but that the disease is still in the suppressed form. The rash will appear later, say after fourteen days’ incubation. If it is wrong, however, so much the better for some other fellow.»
At this point Dr. Watson, who had been listening unconcernedly to his eminent colleague’s jovial if unusual jesting, explained that he was congratulating Andrew on having done extremely well in his final examination, as from private sources of information he had just learned was the case. As a matter of fact being, as has been said, very fond of him, it would not have troubled him at all to learn that he and Rose were affianced. Indeed, in an indefinite way he had once or twice hoped that this might happen.
«Oh! that’s it,» said the jolly doctor. «So you are going to become a saw-bones like the rest of us. Well, I wish you luck and a fat practice among the Jews, and if ever you want a helping hand, don’t you forget old Somerville Black, F.R.C.S., M.D., Honorary Physician to exactly twenty-three Royalties, whom he fondly hopes will pay his bill with a baronetcy shortly, since he thinks it probable that they will not do so in any other way. And now here comes our Sister to whom you are not engaged which, as an antique eligible myself who has only buried one wife, I am naturally glad to learn. Young lady, whenever you feel inclined to share a peculiarly hideous house in Harley Street with an old buffer of established income, just drop me a postcard, will you? Good gracious! What’s the matter with the other Sister’s head?» and he pointed to the tow-like chevelure of Angelica of which a considerable portion had been given to the flames.
«It was an accident to the gas stove,» explained Rose, glad to have an opportunity of changing the subject, for Angelica seemed too overcome to speak.
«Ah! then if the scalp is burned I prescribe the application of some fatty ointment to keep away the air. Fee for consultation, two guineas. It would be three in Harley Street. And now for that tea.»
All this while the bewildered Angelica was engaged in setting on the Elizabethan table at more or less irregular intervals, four stout pieces of crockery which looked like porridge-bowls or small slop basins. Then at the end of it she placed a large brown teapot, and in the middle a plate of thick bread and butter, with a handful of knives and another of teaspoons. Rose seized the teapot and began to pour into the porridge-bowls.
«Hullo!» said Somerville Black, «did we smash all the saucers?»
«No,» explained Rose, tears of vexation springing to her eyes. «We have no saucers. Father does not consider them necessary, and I am sorry to say that the best set of bowls was smashed.»
«Oh! I see. The simple life! Well, don’t look vexed, young lady. These things are capital, or would be if only they had a handle. Just show me how you get hold of them, will you? With both hands, I suppose. By George, what a beautiful table this is!»
«Yes,» said Dr. Watson, waking up, for as usual he had been paying no attention. «It is rather fine, isn’t it? Real Elizabethan and, except for those initials cut on it, without blemish.»
«Jolly,» said Somerville Black. «I like oak; there’s something solid about it. When you see another like it, just let me know will you, and Sister, this is the best tea I have tasted for many a day. No, take away that bread and butter, or I shall eat the lot. There, now I must be going. Haven’t enjoyed myself so much for months, so don’t you be surprised if I come back. Good-bye, Sister, what’s your name?»
«Rose,» she murmured.
«Then it is one that suits you very well. Good-bye, Sister Rose, and Brother, what’s your name – oh! West, Brother West, and Father Watson, and Aunt, what do you say? Angelica? Aunt Angelica. I’ll remember you all to the royal ladies.»
So, still shouting chaff over his shoulder, he ran from the house and disappeared into the magnificent carriage and pair that was waiting at the gate.
«Thank heaven he is gone!» said Andrew, who for some time had been sunk in a gloomy silence.
«Why?» asked Rose.
«Because he is vulgar and overpowering and makes bad jokes, and goes on as if the whole place and everybody in it belonged to him.»
«Well, at any rate, he is cheerful and I am sure he meant to be very kind, and there isn’t too much cheerfulness and kindness about here.»
«Good thing too,» muttered Andrew, «if they are of his variety.»
«It is a curious thing about Somerville Black,» broke in Dr. Watson, evidently following the line of his own thoughts, «that being a man quite without real distinction in our profession he is yet in his own way one of the best and most successful doctors whom I ever knew. I suppose it is to be accounted for by his intense humanity, I mean his insight into the hearts of his fellow-creatures which springs from his wide sympathies. Now he had never met any of you before, but if you were taken with an obscure disease I am sure that he would diagnose it correctly before you had been three minutes in his consulting-room, because already he has added you up and weighed your respective strengths and weaknesses. Then, unless the case was very simple, he would leave the doctoring of you to some one else who is an expert in that particular line, for his power is almost purely one of diagnosis and his gift of healing lies in his magnetic personality.»
«Sounds rather like faith-cure,» said Andrew disparagingly. Then, prompted by the sense of justice that was so strong in him, he added, «At any rate, he must know something as well, as he is an F.R.C.S.»
«Oh! when he became that they were not so particular as they are nowadays; also, I dare say he hypnotized the examiners and made them take a great deal for granted. Anyhow, he hasn’t touched a knife for twenty years. Not but that he does know a great deal in his own way.»
«I suppose that he is really very rich, Father?» said Rose.
«I believe about the richest man in the profession, though he did not make it all out of doctoring. They say that the Jews who come to consult him, give him information and opportunities of investing in all their best things on what is called the ‘ground floor.’ He cannot have inherited his wealth, as I believe his origin was quite humble, and he has no one to leave it to except one peevish daughter who suffers from hypochondria and is as unlike him as possible. She bores him so much that he told me some time ago he really thought of marrying again if only to get the comfort of a home.»
Rose looked as though she would like to ask whether the lady had been selected, but if so, thought better of it and asked nothing. Then, glancing at his watch, the doctor rose and went away, leaving the two alone.
Rose murmured something about clearing away the tea things, but Andrew came and stood beside her and said:
«No, don’t go away, I want to speak to you.»
In his voice there was some note of command such as a man uses towards a woman whom he believes to be his, and Rose was of the class that is susceptible to such exercise of authority, whether justified or not. Also, she was curious, for her instinct told her what was coming and she wished to know whether this attractive young man was in love with her, and if so, how much. A proposal, if he meant to propose, had not come her way before, and it was only natural that she should not wish to nip it in the bud. Lastly, life at Whitechapel was dull and here was a new excitement. So she remained seated and looked up at him through the shadows of the gloaming, like an angel out of mist.
For a moment or two Andrew played with the rose in his buttonhole, and looked down at her with a strange fire in his dark eyes. At last he spoke in a broken, uncertain voice:
«Rose, just before that troublesome man came in I told you that I loved you. Then there was the crash, a rather ill-omened crash,» he added with a little laugh as though uttering a thought aloud, and paused.
She made no answer, unless a sigh could be so described.
«Now I repeat it,» he went on, «in case you should have forgotten in the interval.»
Still she made no answer, being one of those women who feel that their greatest strength lies in silence and forget that it is generally taken to mean consent. Her tender beauty, the grace of her form, the scent that rose from her rippling hair, the loveliness of her eyes into which the twilight seemed to have crept, in their sum intoxicated him who for the first time had passed beneath the yoke of passion. He fell to his knees before her; he cast his arms about her slender waist; he kissed her dress, her hands and then, growing reckless or unknowing, drew her down towards him and pressed his lips upon her face, her eyes, her hair; yes, and on her lips also.
She did not resist him, she let him have his way, only she never kissed him back. While she refrained from that, according to her peculiar code, the rest did not matter. Gently she pushed him away from her and rose. He also rose and stood trembling, ashamed of what he had done.
«I love you! I love you!» he repeated. «You are my angel and my star.»
She smiled a little. Somehow it had never occurred to her to think of herself as either an angel or as a star. Nor did she particularly wish to fill those parts however figuratively, who was quite content to remain just a beautiful young woman in the flesh.
«I know,» she murmured indefinitely, then paused.
«Oh! say more than that,» he went on with passion. «Say that you love me also.»
«I don’t know,» she replied still more indefinitely.
«But you must; you must. It is impossible that I can love so much and not be loved back again. You must love me. You must marry me, Rose.»
At these words she looked up quickly. So he was going all the way – he meant marriage.
«I have never thought much of love, Andrew, and you are very young to talk of marriage. Also, how could we marry when we have nothing to live on?»
«I have something,» he answered, «a couple of hundred a year or so, and my profession.»
«I’m afraid that won’t be worth much to you for a long while, especially as you have made up your mind to work in Whitechapel where everybody expects to be doctored for nothing.»
Now an idea occurred to Andrew, namely, to tell her that he had other prospects of a sort. He rejected it, however, first because they could not materialize except through the death of others, on which it seemed mean and unworthy to speculate, and secondly for the reason that he shared Dr. Watson’s prejudices about rank – to a certain extent his contempt for it, and in short held the whole business sordid, not mete for discussion with this divine and adorable creature. Perhaps it was the greatest mistake of his life, or the wisest act. It depends in what light it is regarded in view of all that was to come. What could such things matter, he reflected, when love, holy, unalterable love and nothing less was at stake? So of those prospects he said nothing.
«Besides,» went on Rose, who had employed the interval in marshalling her arguments, «there is my father to be considered. If I married, he would be quite alone, and I promised my mother that I would always look after him. I could never break that promise, Andrew, just to please myself.»
«You might look after us both,» he suggested.
She shook her delicate head, and said:
«Three in a house would never agree, especially when both had such claims. You would grow jealous and he would be sore, and what would a poor woman do between you?»
«Then do you refuse me?» he asked bluntly. «Oh! don’t tell me that you refuse me.»
«I never said so,» she replied, looking down. «I must have time to think.»
«Oh! take it then,» he answered. «I can come back to- morrow.»
«You silly, Andrew! I mean a long time, at least a year. So many things happen in a year and by then I should know – my own heart. In a year, too, you would know if you really cared about me. You must remember that in a way I am the first girl you have met, and doubtless you will see others whom you may think more suitable for many reasons and – better- looking.»
«I shall see no others,» he replied sternly.
«Well, even if you do not, surely you would not wish to take advantage of my weakness and inexperience to press me to an irrevocable decision. It would not be like you to do so, because you know that a girl who is openly engaged is always tarnished if after all it should come to nothing – whatever the reason.»
As it happened no argument could have been used more likely to appeal to Andrew. He tarnish Rose? Perish the thought! Sooner would he die.
«I see,» he said. «I never looked at it in that light. Take your year. At the end of it I shall claim you, and you will give me the answer that I want.»
She smiled in a dazzling fashion and avoiding that issue, said:
«Very well, so it is agreed. Meanwhile we will be the dearest of friends and you will say nothing as to an engagement, and I will say nothing even to my father. And now, dear Andrew, good night. I hope you will always think of me as I think of you and come to see me whenever you can. Oh! I never said that you might kiss me again, but after all, one more makes no difference.»
Chapter IV
Somerville Black
It is doubtful whether all London held a happier man than was Andrew that night. Of course he was not finally and openly engaged, but then how good were Rose’s reasons against such a course. How noble and unselfish! She thought of her father as a loving daughter should; she thought of him, Andrew, believing – though what put such a mad idea into her head he could not conceive – that he might wish to change his mind; she thought of what he would feel if by any chance their open betrothal came to an end, and he knew that thereby he had caused her name to be breathed upon; she thought, too, of how he might be hampered if he married very young and without sufficient means. In short, she thought of everybody and everything but herself. Oh! indeed she was a pearl above price, a woman whom a king might be glad to marry, an angel, one almost too good for this world. And she had let him kiss her, not once but often, and he knew – oh! full surely – that never, never would she have allowed this unless her heart told her that he was the one man on earth to whom she wished to give that holy right.
He walked back to Justice Street treading so lightly that figuratively he seemed to float, a precious sensation which is granted occasionally to the young. Mrs. Josky saw him coming from her point of vantage on the doorstep and, like Dr. Somerville Black, at once diagnosed the case.
«He’s been and gone and done it,» she said to herself. «Poor young man!»
Then she fled to prepare the supper.
A little later she arrived with that meal to find Andrew gazing rapturously at the ceiling.
«Anything wrong with the plaster, Mr. West?» she asked, «or are you expecting an angel to come down into Justice Street, because if so, I fancy you will have to wait a long while.»
«I was only thinking, Mrs. Josky.»
«What of? Medicines and such-like?» Then her eye fell upon the rose. «You had better put it in water,» she said, pointing to that flower, «for I think you’ve seen the best of it. Or perhaps you would like to press it, for then, being wired, it will hold together a long time, until you want to throw it away or get another.»
«That’s a good idea,» said Andrew, and going to a shelf he took down a massive medical work (it chanced to be on diseases of the heart), and reverently deposited the rose between the pages.
«Better put some tissue-paper round it,» suggested Mrs. Josky, «or it will stain the pretty picture» (which was one of the pectoral cavity cut open to reveal the organs within).
Again Andrew obeyed while Mrs. Josky watched him gloomily.
«Is that a very rare sort of rose, Mr. West,» she asked while she pretended to arrange the plates, «that you take such particular care of it? Or is there some other reason?»
Andrew could resist no longer. He must communicate his joy, and here was an ideal confidante, one who would triumph with him, and understand.
«There is another reason, Mrs. Josky,» he said solemnly. «This flower means a great deal to me; it is the gift of the lady whom I love.»
«Is it, indeed, Mr. West? Well, it is pretty and it didn’t cost her much, but does the lady love you?»
«Oh! yes, I think so. There are some things which young and innocent girls don’t say right out, you know, Mrs. Josky. But in view of what passed —» and he paused.
«Ah! kisses and the rest, I suppose. I’ve heard of them before, I have indeed. But what did pass, Mr. West? If you feel moved to tell me, I’ll tell you what I think.»
So Andrew told her at great length and with an extraordinary wealth of detail, nor, although it agonized her to know that the chops were getting cold, did Mrs. Josky attempt to cut him short.
«I forgot,» said Andrew, when at length the history came to an end. «I promised secrecy; however, as you don’t know who the lady is, it doesn’t matter.»
«No, I don’t know, so of course it doesn’t matter. But I was trying to think this business out, Mr. West. You are kind of engaged to some one you met suddenlike, but she isn’t engaged to you?»
«No, now you mention it, Mrs. Josky, not exactly engaged.»
«In short, the hook’s in your mouth, but not in hers, and a year hence you are to find out whether she likes the taste of the bait.»
«I should never have thought of calling it a hook, Mrs. Josky.»
«Of course not, nobody does who is the right side of thirty. But somehow I didn’t treat Josky like that, all take and no give, so to speak; and what’s more, I don’t think he would have stood it, if I had, for he wasn’t romantic, wasn’t Josky. ’Now you make up your mind, Emma,’ he said to me, ’for I’ve got five minutes to spare for this job and no longer.’»
«Perhaps,» suggested Andrew, «the temperament of the late Mr. Josky and my own differ somewhat.»
«There ain’t no doubt about that, Mr. West. They differs a lot. Well, there it is, you’ve gone through the top and one day you’ll come out at the bottom, and then you’ll know how you like it. Everybody does that kind of thing; why, I did myself before I met Josky. And now I’ll take those chops down and warm them up.»
«I don’t want any chops,» murmured Andrew.
«But you’ll eat them all the same to support you through the trials of this mortal life,» and she departed, leaving him wondering.
Somehow the tale of his perfect romance had not been as enthusiastically received as he could have hoped. But then Mrs. Josky was – well, Mrs. Josky, and could hardly be expected to understand.
As a matter of fact that good woman understood with almost painful clearness.
«She’s a baggage, is that Rose Watson,» she said, addressing a vagrant black-beetle in the kitchen which she had failed to squash, «with no more heart than a dead heifer. She’s keeping him hanging on, poor boy, while she looks round to see if she can’t do better. Well, after all, her looks are her fortune, as the saying goes, and she mustn’t be blamed if she takes them to the highest market. Still, I’m sorry for him, poor boy, for he thinks the world of her. It’s just like the measles and he’s got to get through with them, and that’s all there is about it.»
Three days later Andrew went to tea again at Red Hall, but somehow never got a word alone with Rose, for Sister Angelica and a friend were constantly in evidence, and however long he sat seemed determined to sit longer. On the famous Elizabethan table, however, he observed a new set-out of china which, being a young man of taste and having some knowledge of such things, he was well aware must have been as costly as it was beautiful.