He was suddenly took--the other evenin' I being in my
kitchen heard a great cry. I came runnin' and there in the dining-room I
found him, standing there in the midst, his hands up. His eyes, you must
understand, sir, were wide and staring--'They've beaten me,' he cried,
'They've beaten me'--just like that, sir, and then down he tumbled in a
living fit, foaming at the mouth and striking his poor head against the
fender. Yer may come up, sir, but he won't know yer which he doesn't me
either."
Peter followed her up to the dreary room that his father inhabited. Even
here the paper was peeling off the walls, some of the window-glass was
broken and the carpet was torn. His father lay on his back in an old high
four-poster. His eyes stared before him, cheeks were ashen white--his hands
too were white like ivory.
His lips moved but he made no sound. He did not see Peter, nor did his eyes
turn from the blank stare that held them.
"Has he a doctor?" Peter asked the old woman.
"Ay--there's a young man been coming--" the old woman answered him. She
was, he noticed, more subservient than she had been on the former occasion.
She obviously turned to him now with her greedy old eyes as the one who was
likely soon to be in authority.
Peter turned back to the door. "This room must be made warmer and more
comfortable. I will send a doctor from the hotel this evening--I will come
in again to-night.
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