Lady of Quality Read online

  'I shouldn't be doing my duty by you, miss, if I didn't warn you. In my experience, if you get one trouble coming on you which you didn't expect you may look to get two more.'

  Miss Wychwood might smile at this oracular pronouncement, but it was in a mood of considerable dismay that she went down, some minutes later, to the breakfast-parlour. Here she found Lady Wychwood eating bread-and-butter, with her infant daughter in her lap, and Lucilla watching this domestic picture with a kind of awed fascination. Miss Wychwood, knowing how anxious her sister-in-law was inclined to be whenever anything ailed her children, was much relieved to see her looking so calm. She said, as she bent to kiss her: 'I am so sorry, Amabel, to hear that Tom is now a victim of this horrid influenza!'

  'Yes, it is most unfortunate,' agreed her ladyship, sighing faintly. 'But not unexpected! I thought he would be bound to take it from Maria, for she had been playing with him the very day she began to feel unwell. But Nurse doesn't think it will prove to be a bad attack, and I am persuaded I may have complete faith in Dr Tidmarsh. I formed the opinion, when I was talking to him the other day, that he is a perfectly competent person, which, of course, one would expect a Bath doctor to be. The worst of it is,' she added, her eyes filling with tears, and her lips trembling a little, 'that I must not take care of Tom myself. Whenever he has been ill he has always called for Mama, and never have I left him for more than a minute! However, I do see that it's my duty to keep Baby out of the way of the infection, and I don't mean to be silly about it. I have talked it over with Nurse, and we are agreed that she is to look after Tom, and I am to have sole charge of Baby. Which I shall like very much, shan't I, my precious?'

  Miss Susan Wychwood, who had been chortling to herself, responded to this by uttering a series of unintelligible remarks, which her mama interpreted as signifying agreement; and blew several bubbles.

  'What a clever girl!' said Lady Wychwood, in a voice of doting fondness.

  When the doctor arrived, he confirmed Nurse's diagnosis; warned Lady Wychwood that Tom was unlikely to make such a quick recovery as Miss Farlow's had been; and told her that she must not worry if he was still inclined to be feverish at the end of a sennight, because it was often so with obstreperous little boys whom it was almost impossible to keep quietly in their beds, since the instant their aches and pains subsided it was one person's work – or, perhaps it would be more accurate to say two persons' work, to prevent them from bouncing about, and even getting out of bed the instant one took one's eye off them. 'I have two little rascals of my own, my lady!' he told her, with ill-concealed pride. 'Just such bits of quicksilver as your boy is, so you may believe I don't speak without personal experience!' He then told her that she was very wise to preserve her baby from any risk of infection; complimented her on Miss Susan Wychwood's sturdy limbs and powerful lungs; and went off leaving her to inform Annis that he was quite the most agreeable and sympathetic doctor she had ever known.

  On Miss Farlow the news that Tom was ill acted like a tonic. She did indeed burst into tears, and say that she would never dare to look dear Lady Wychwood in the face again, but this threatened relapse into gloom was not of long duration. An opportunity to prove herself to be of real value had presented itself, and she seized it. She cast off her shawls, dressed herself, and emerged from her bedchamber, rather shakily, but determined to share with Nurse the task of keeping Tom quiescent. Nurse accepted her services graciously. 'For there is no denying, Miss Jurby,' said Nurse, 'that though she may be a hubblebubble female with a tongue that runs like a fiddlestick, she does know how to handle children, and will sit for hours telling them fairy-tales, and the like, which makes it possible for me to get a bit of rest.'

  It began to seem as though Jurby's bleak prophecy was going to be falsified, but two days later Betty, the young housemaid who had waited on Miss Farlow throughout her indisposition, also took to her bed, a circumstance of which Jurby informed her mistress with somewhat heartless satisfaction. 'Which all goes to show how right I was, miss!' she said, opening the doors of the big wardrobe which housed Miss Wychwood's dresses. 'I told you troubles come in threes, and if it's only Betty who's got this dratted influenza there's no harm done. Now, will you wear your blue cambric today, or shall I put out the French muslin, with the striped spencer?'

  'Jurby,' said Miss Wychwood, in an uncertain voice, 'I think – I am afraid – that I too have the influenza!'

  Jurby turned quickly. Miss Wychwood was sitting on the edge of her bed, still wearing her nightgown, and although the rainy spell had given way to a hot, sunny day she was shivering so violently that the teeth chattered in her head. Jurby took one look at her, and then cast the French muslin aside, and hurried towards her, muttering: 'Oh, my goodness me! I might have known this would happen!' She grasped Miss Wychwood's hands, and instantly thrust her back into bed. 'And there you'll stay, Miss Annis!' she said, in a threatening tone. 'It's to be hoped you've nothing worse the matter with you than influenza!'

  'Oh, no, I don't think so!' Annis said faintly. 'It came on me during the night. I woke up, feeling as though I had been beaten all over with cudgels, and with such a headache – ! I hoped it would pass off, if I kept my eyes shut, but it didn't, and I feel quite dreadfully ill. Don't tell her ladyship!'

  'Now, don't start fretting and fussing, Miss Annis!' said Jurby, laying a hand on Miss Wychwood's brow. 'I'm bound to tell her ladyship that you're out of curl today, and mean to stay in bed, but I won't let her come into the room, I promise you!'

  'Don't let Miss Lucilla come near me either!'

  'The only person who'll come into this room is the doctor!' said Jurby grimly, stumping over to the window and drawing the blinds across it. 'Do you lie quiet now till I come back, and don't get into the high fidgets, fancying the house will fall down just because you're knocked up with all the trouble you've had, and mean to recruit your strength by staying in bed today, because it won't!' She sprinkled lavender-water lavishly over the pillow, drenched a handkerchief with it, which she tenderly wiped across Miss Wychwood's burning forehead, assured her that she would be as right as a trivet before the cat had time to lick her ear, and hurried away, first to send the page-boy scurrying down the hill with an urgent message for Dr Tidmarsh, and then to inform Lady Wychwood, who had not yet left her room, that Miss Annis was laid up, and that she had sent for the doctor. 'I don't doubt it's nothing worse than the influenza, my lady, but she's in a raging fever!' she said bluntly.

  Lady Wychwood started up instinctively, saying: 'I'll come at once!'

  'No, that you won't, my lady!' said Jurby, barring her passage to the door. 'There's nothing you can do for her, and you've got the baby to consider. Miss Annis has laid it on me not to let you, or Miss Lucilla, come near her. Very agitated she is, for fear you should insist on seeing her and get ill in consequence. If you don't want her to get into a stew, which I'm sure you don't, you'll do as she asks you.'

  'Alas, I must! ' said Lady Wychwood, much distressed. 'Why, oh, why didn't I send the children home with Nurse the instant Miss Farlow took ill? Why didn't I persuade Miss Annis to go to bed yesterday, and send for Dr Tidmarsh immediately? I could see she wasn't quite well, but I never dreamed she was sickening for anything, because she is so very rarely ill! I might have guessed, though! Fool that I was!'

  'Well, my lady, I don't see that it would have done a bit of good if the doctor had come to see her yesterday, because if she had the influenza on her there was nothing he nor anyone else could have done to drive it off. And as for not guessing she was ill, I don't see that you've any call to blame yourself, for I didn't guess it, and – if you'll pardon me for saying so, my lady! – there's no one who knows her as well as I do! I knew she wasn't in very plump currant but I thought she was out of sorts, on account of having to dance attendance on Miss Farlow, on top of –' She checked herself, and ended her sentence by saying, at her most forbidding: 'Other things!'

  They looked at one another. After a moment, Lady Wychwood said simp