Stories with a Vengeance — page 100: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

96 OR RUNS YOUR MIND ON ANOTHER LOVE? after a marriage the reverse of happy, although the fault was entirely hers. A second cousin of his own by the female side, she was a portionless orphan, and, when making his proposal to her, he, out of pure kindness of heart, offered her step-sister also a home under his roof. ertrude, while younger than Lady Dashwood, was prettier, but at times very peculiar in her behaviour, although the eccentricities she indulged in often seemed as much the result of a love of fun as of anything else. he was very fond of her brother-in-law, and occasionally, carried away by high spirits, flirted so absurdly with him that it was as good as a scene in a comedietta ; for Sir Clyffe, considering a girl of sixteen a mere child, helped her to play at the game of coquetry, without for an instant think- ing of anything but mnocent amusement. The elder sister was, however, of a different opinion. She became madly jealous—with that worst kind of jealousy which gathers force by remaining silent, | hi till at last it bursts forth like a lava torrent, destroying all before it. An accidental word of hey sister, one morning, made Lady Dashwood lose her self-command, and insist that Gertrude should quit the house instantly, and for ever. “But where can I go, Anna?” cried Gertrude, in despair, terrified at the other’s sudden outbreak, and the blaze of her eyes ae where can I goP Ihave no home but this.” “To the parish workhouse, if you like hissed her sister between her teeth. An ugly scene ensued—an almost in- credible scene, if one did not know the lengths to which jealousy will urge an otherwise just woman; for, frenzied with rage, Lady Dashwood lifted her clenched ‘hand, and struck the poor girl a violent blow. The centre diamond of the elder sister’s guard ring happened to be a very large one, faceted to a sharp projecting point; and had not Gertrude’s thick curls pro- videntially intervened, the blow on the head might have proved fatal. While the two stood panting and glaring at each other, in came Sir Clytfe, to show his wife a fine sea-anemone he had just found on the beach. Gertrude flew to him, trembling like a wounded bird, clinging to his neck, calling him by every endearing name she could think of, and then, from her place of safety, looking up saucily at her ladyship, called her a “jealous, spiteful woman !” 99 Google -At that moment, Lady Dashwood cer- tainly looked viciously at her supposed rival, who, still clinging to Sir Clyffe, trembled so violently that if he hadn’t put his arm round her waist, she must have fallen to the ground. Then, all at once, with a gasp anda gurgle in her throat, she was seized with what appeared to be a bad epileptic fit. Consternation instantly cleared her sister’s mental vision, and her heart smote her at sight of the helpless child, to whom she ought to have been a second mother. A mounted groom was despatched for the old family doctor, Gertrude, meanwhile, groaning and writhing so violently that it took both her brother and his horrified wife to hold her on the sofa. When Doctor Ellis arrived, he, after little more than a glance at his patent, begged that advice from London might be ih- stantly telegraphed for. This was done, and Sir Vivisect Brown came as fast as an express train could carry m. All he did, however, was to endorse his confrere’s opinion—that the young lady must always have been slightly insane, and that the present attack was simply what might have been expected to occur sooner or later. Had nothing happened to agitate her, the sad issue might possibly have been delayed, as a fire may smoulder till sent into flames by a puff of wind; but in any case, it was nothing but a question of time. In the present instance, the malady was hereditary; but not having attacked any branch of the family for a couple of generations, it had been supposed extinct. It was a terrible shock to Lady Dash- wood, filling her, as it did, with fears for her own sanity. From that time she lived in a continual state of mental introspection, quite enough of itself to throw a stronger head than hers off its balance. The immediate result, how- ever, was an immense improvement of her disposition. Gertrude’s affliction distressed Sir Clyffe likewise. Not only was his kindly heart wrung with pity for the pretty, playful, wilful child, but he felt uneasy on his own account; for, although the Dashwoods had _ always been what Americans term a “level- | headed race,” on the ‘distaff side of the house” he came of the same stock as his wife and her sister. A cure of Gertrude’s malady was not to be looked for; but after three or four months of medical treatment, the strong mania by degrees passed off, leaving her tolerably docile, though unable to recognise | cCoMmniclooo S CO)