human
But what, then, can I bring you instead? You have no wish for fruit; yet I see that your lips are parched. What beverage do you prefer?
gpt
Mrs. Gill supplies me with toast-and-water. I like it best.
human
Do you suffer?--have you pain?
gpt
Very little.
human
What made you ill?
gpt
I wonder what caused this fever? To what do you attribute it?
human
Miasma, perhaps--malaria. This is autumn, a season fertile in fevers.
gpt
I hear you often visit the sick in Briarfield, and Nunnely too, with Mr. Hall. You should be on your guard; temerity is not wise.
human
That reminds me, Miss Keeldar, that perhaps you had better not enter this chamber or come near this couch. I do not believe my illness is infectious. I scarcely fear --with a sort of smile--
gpt
Patience, I will go soon; but I should like to do something for you before I depart--any little service----
human
They will miss you below.
gpt
No; the gentlemen are still at table.
human
They will not linger long. Sir Philip Nunnely is no wine-bibber, and I hear him just now pass from the dining-room to the drawing-room.
gpt
It is a servant.
human
It is Sir Philip; I know his step.
gpt
Your hearing is acute.
human
It is never dull, and the sense seems sharpened at present. Sir Philip was here to tea last night. I heard you sing to him some song which he had brought you. I heard him, when he took his departure at eleven o'clock, call you out on to the pavement, to look at the evening star.
gpt
You must be nervously sensitive.
human
I heard him kiss your hand.
gpt
Impossible!
human
No: my chamber is over the hall, the window just above the front door; the sash was a little raised, for I felt feverish. You stood ten minutes with him on the steps. I heard your discourse, every word, and I heard the salute.--Henry, give me some water.
gpt
Let me give it him.
human
And can I do nothing?
gpt
Nothing; for you cannot guarantee me a night's peaceful rest, and it is all I at present want.
human
You do not sleep well?
gpt
Sleep has left me.
human
Yet you said you were not very ill?
gpt
I am often sleepless when in high health.
human
If I had power, I would lap you in the most placid slumber--quite deep and hushed, without a dream.
gpt
Blank annihilation! I do not ask that.
human
With dreams of all you most desire.
gpt
Monstrous delusions! The sleep would be delirium, the waking death.
human
Your wishes are not so chimerical; you are no visionary.
gpt
Miss Keeldar, I suppose you think so; but my character is not, perhaps, quite as legible to you as a page of the last new novel might be.
human
That is possible. But this sleep--I _should_ like to woo it to your pillow, to win for you its favour. If I took a book and sat down and read some pages? I can well spare half an hour.
gpt
Thank you, but I will not detain you.
human
I would read softly.
gpt
It would not do. I am too feverish and excitable to bear a soft, cooing, vibrating voice close at my ear. You had better leave me.
human
Well, I will go.
gpt
And no good-night?
human
Yes, sir, yes. Mr. Moore, good-night.
gpt
Henry, my boy, go to bed now; it is time you had some repose.
human
Sir, it would please me to watch at your bedside all night.
gpt
Nothing less called for. I am getting better. There, go.
human
Give me your blessing, sir.
gpt
God bless you, my best pupil!
human
You never call me your dearest pupil!
gpt
No, nor ever shall.