" "Well, so they are, you
poor dear," she replied, bending over and kissing the white forehead,
for which it is to be hoped Mr. Perrowne absolved her; "but you must
stay here, for see, I have brought Marjorie to nurse you till you are
fit to carry a knapsack again." Then Miss Carmichael came forward, and
the patient became ceremoniously polite in a wheezing way, and was
ashamed of himself to be ill and give so much trouble; but he allowed
himself to be shaken up and receive his strengthening mixtures, and
behaved like a very feeble rational man with a little, but real, hold on
life. That was the turning point in the lawyer's career; and, when the
doctor descended from seeing him later in the morning, he announced that
the crisis was past, and that, with proper care, the Squire's
prospective nephew would live. Joy reigned once more in Bridesdale, from
Mr. Terry to Marjorie, and from the stately Mrs. Du Plessis to Maguffin
in the kitchen.
The only thing to mar the pleasure of that day was the inquest, and even
that brought an agreeable surprise. When Matilda Nagle was called, she
refused to acknowledge the name, insisting that she was Matilda Rawdon,
and producing from her pocket a much crumpled marriage certificate,
bearing the signature of a well-known clergyman who had exercised his
sacred office in a town within thirty miles of Toronto.
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