paper peeling as a consequence of salt air, the house is meant to be enjoyed as briefly as possible—the majority of one's dme in a seaside town being spent out of doors, in pursuit of schemes of pleasure. Cassandra's delicate state, however, will confine her yet a few days to her room; or so we are assured by the surgeon's assistant, one William Dagliesh. He is but lately in the employ of Lyme's venerable surgeon and coroner, Mr. Carpenter, and sees to many of that gendeman's patients—Mr. Carpenter having little time to spare, we are told, from his chief passion—the excavation of fossils.
He appeared on our doorstep not an hour after our arrival—sent, so he informed us, at the direction of Mr. Geoffrey Sidmouth, who appears to be one of his particular friends. Mr. Dagliesh is a young man of perhaps thirty, well-made and possessed of a cheerful countenance easily read—too easily, perhaps; for at the sight of Cassandra, reclining in all the interesting attitude of one lately blessed with suffering, her pallor heightening the beauty of her features and her languorous spirits suggesting a certain mystery about her person, the surgeon's professional solicitude became marked by something verging on the mortifying. He flushed scarlet, and lost his tongue; and could so imperfectly meet Cassandra's gaze, as he held her wrist to feel her pulse, or touched her forehead to judge of her fever, that his performance was painful to contemplate. On several instances of his speaking low, we were forced to request that he repeat his words; and this further embarrassment of circumstance completely unmanned him. Though I had seen him to possess a voluble and easy manner at his arrival, it was entirely unequal to the proximity of so much loveliness and distress, and I doubted that we should make any sense of the good surgeon's diagnosis, when once it did come. To aid him in regaining his composure, therefore, I determined to distract his sensibilities; and so embarked upon a topic of some idle interest to myself.
“We sorely missed your command of things medical, Mr. Dagliesh, on the evening of my sister's accident,” I began. “I understood from Mr. Sidmouth, however, that we should not have found you at home on Monday, could we have sent to Lyme for your services. / was willing to attempt any distance or trouble for my sister's good, but that Mr. Sidmouth assured me you should already be called out.”
The poor man turned an even deeper hue of scarlet, and muttered something unintelligible into his collar.
“But perhaps he meant only that your Mr. Carpenter was engaged and we should have found you at liberty.”
“I fear not,” Mr. Dagliesh replied.
“You have, perhaps, a standing engagement on Monday nights?” I persisted.
He turned to me then, a slight frown of consternation creasing his brow, and his eyes roving the room as if in search of an answer. “I was detained by a confinement,” he replied at last; “one that encompassed some thirty hours. Mr. Sidmouth knew me to be so involved, as a consequence of my having broken an engagement we had formed the day before, to dine together that afternoon at the Three Cups. I fear I did not send to him in time, and he rode into Lyme to no purpose. He must have been returned to the Grange only a little while, when you appeared on his doorstep.”
“He has told you, then, of our unfortunate evening?”
“Indeed. He related the particulars only yesterday, when he engaged my services for—” At this, he glanced at Cassandra and was ruined again.
“Mr. Dagliesh,” my sister said faintly, “is there aught you might recommend for the relief of pain? For I confess that my head aches quite dreadfully; the slightest sound or movement deranges it; and the throbbing has quite robbed me of sleep.”
The surgeon jumped up, aflame with the delight of his purpose; declared that he should go himself to the apothecary, Mr. Green; and urged Cassandra to remain quite chary of visitors, whose noise and attention should undoubtedly do her more harm than good. Then, bowing his way towards the door in all the confusion of newfound ardour, he would have struck the far wall had I not gendy seized his arm, and guided him to the hall; whereupon he turned and bowed in my direction, assuring me all the while that Cassandra should enjoy a complete recovery.
It is impossible for me not to value anyone who sees the excellence of my sister; and