Page:The Fate of Fenella (1892).djvu/280

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ADELINE SERGEANT.
265

be better if I could get him to Guernsey and leave him in good hands."

"Do you mean his wife's hands?" the doctor asked abruptly.

"I do. He will never be happy till he has seen her."

"Then why not telegraph to her to come here? The great thing just now with Lord Francis is to keep his mind easy. If her presence would soothe and calm him you had better send for her at once, especially as the boy is unwell. If he should be unduly excited or agitated, however, I would not answer for the consequences."

Jacynth hesitated, "I do not know," he said slowly, "whether she could travel so far. She has been ill—and——"

"And, perhaps—she may not care to come, eh?" said the shrewd old doctor. "You must excuse me if she is a friend of yours, but the fact is, everything I have heard of Lady Francis Onslow leads me to conclude that she will not put herself much out of her way for her husband's sake."

"You do not know her," said Jacynth warmly; then, controlling with some difficulty a feeling of offense, he added, "I believe that she is very much attached to Lord Francis, and would come at once if she thought that he was ill."

"Then telegraph," said the doctor. "Anything rather than let him travel in his present state of