第39章 PART I(38)

"My letter despatched,"Mr.Engelman continued,"I begged both the doctors to speak with me before they went away,in my private room.There I told them,in the plainest words I could find,exactly what I have told you.Doctor Dormann behaved like a gentleman.He said,'Let me see the lady,and speak to her myself,before the new remedy is tried.'As for the other,what do you think he did?Walked out of the house (the old brute!)and declined any further attendance on the patient.And who do you think followed him out of the house,David,when I sent for Madame Fontaine?Another old brute--Mother Barbara!"After what I had seen myself of the housekeeper's temper on the previous evening,this last piece of news failed to surprise me.To be stripped of her authority as nurse in favor of a stranger,and that stranger a handsome lady,was an aggravation of the wrong which Mother Barbara had contemplated,when she threatened us with the alternative of leaving the house.

"Well,"Mr.Engelman resumed,"Doctor Dormann asked his questions,and smelt and tasted the medicine,and with Madame Fontaine's full approval took away a little of it to be analyzed.That came to nothing!The medicine kept its own secret.All the ingredients but two set analysis at defiance!In the meantime we gave the first dose.Half an hour since we tried the second.You have seen the result with your own eyes.She has saved his life,David,and we have you to thank for it.But for you we might never have known Madame Fontaine.

The door opened as he spoke,and I found myself confronted by a second surprise.Minna came in,wearing a cook's apron,and asked if her mother had rung for her yet.Under the widow's instructions,she was preparing the peculiar vegetable diet which had been prescribed by Doctor Fontaine as part of the cure.The good girl was eager to make herself useful to us in any domestic capacity.What a charming substitute for the crabbed old housekeeper who had just left us!

So here were Madame Fontaine and Minna actually established as inmates under the same roof with Mr.Keller!What would Fritz think,when he knew of it?What would Mr.Keller say when he recognized his nurse,and when he heard that she had saved his life?"All's well that ends well"is a good proverb.But we had not got as far as that yet.The question in our case was,_How_will it end?

CHAPTER XX

When,late that night,I entered my bedroom again,how I blessed the lucky accident of my six hours'sleep,after a night's watching at Mr.

Keller's bedside!

If I had spoken to Doctor Dormann as I had positively resolved to speak,he would,beyond all doubt,have forbidden the employment of Madame Fontaine's remedy;Mr.Keller would have died;and the innocent woman who had saved his life would have been suspected,perhaps even tried,on a charge of murdering him.I really trembled when I looked back on the terrible consequences which must have followed,if I had succeeded that morning in keeping myself awake.

The next day,the doses of the wonderful medicine were renewed at the regular intervals;and the prescribed vegetable diet was carefully administered.On the day after,the patient was so far advanced on the way to recovery,that the stopper of the dark-blue bottle was permanently secured again under its leather guard.Mr.Engelman told me that nearly two doses of it were still left at the bottom.He also mentioned,on my asking to look at it again,that the widow had relieved him of the care of the bottle,and had carefully locked it up in her own room.

Late on this day also,the patient being well-enough to leave his bed and to occupy the armchair in his room,the inevitable disclosure took place;and Madame Fontaine stood revealed in the character of the Good Samaritan who had saved Mr.Keller's life.

By Doctor Dormann's advice,those persons only were permitted to enter the bedroom whose presence was absolutely necessary.Besides Madame Fontaine and the doctor himself,Mr.Engelman and Minna were the other witnesses of the scene.Mr.Engelman had his claim to be present as an old friend;and Minna was to be made useful,at her mother's suggestion,as a means of gently preparing Mr.Keller's mind for the revelation that was to come.Under these circumstances,I can only describe what took place,by repeating the little narrative with which Minna favored me,after she had left the room.

"We arranged that I should wait downstairs,"she said,"until I heard the bedroom bell ring--and then I myself was to take up Mr.Keller's dinner of lentils and cream,and put it on his table without saying a word.""Exactly like a servant!"I exclaimed.

Gentle sweet-tempered Minna answered my foolish interruption with her customary simplicity and good sense.

"Why not?"she asked."Fritz's father may one day be my father;and I am happy to be of the smallest use to him,whenever he wants me.Well,when I went in,I found him in his chair,with the light let into the room,and with plenty of pillows to support him.Mr.Engelman and the doctor were on either side of him;and poor dear mamma was standing back in a corner behind the bed,where he could not see her.He looked up at me,when I came in with my tray.'Who's this?'he asked of Mr.Engelman--'is she a new servant?'Mr.Engelman,humoring him,answered,'Yes.''Anice-looking girl,'he said;'but what does Mother Barbara say to her?'

Upon this,Mr.Engelman told him how the housekeeper had left her place and why.As soon as he had recovered his surprise,he looked at me again.

'But who has been my nurse?'he inquired;'surely not this young girl?'