Angelo controlled himself, and said, "By sending for me whenever I
can be of the slightest use." Then, comprehending his danger, he added,
hastily, "And I fear I am none whatever now." Then he rose to go.
Lady Bassett gave him both her hands again, and this time he kissed one
of them, all in a flurry; he could not resist the temptation. Then he
hurried away, with his whole soul in a tumult. Lady Bassett blushed,
and returned to her husband's side.
Doctor Willis came, heard the case, looked rather grave and puzzled,
and wrote the inevitable prescription; for the established theory is
that man is cured by drugs alone.
Sir Charles wandered a little while the doctor was there, and continued
to wander after he was gone.
Then Mary Wells begged leave to sleep in the dressing-room.
Lady Bassett thanked her, but said she thought it unnecessary; a good
night's rest, she hoped, would make a great change in the sufferer.
Mary Wells thought otherwise, and quietly brought her little bed into
the dressing-room and laid it on the floor.
Her judgment proved right; Sir Charles was no better the next day, nor
the day after. He brooded for hours at a time, and, when he talked,
there was an incoherence in his discourse; above all, he seemed
incapable of talking long on any subject without coming back to the
fatal one of his childlessness; and, when he did return to this, it was
sure to make him either deeply dejected or else violent against Richard
Bassett and his son; he swore at them, and said they were waiting for
his shoes.
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