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Page 5
"Sank insensible into your arms," repeated the captain, absorbing
his new information. "Most extraordinary! And--in this state of
health--she goes out to parties, and dances. More extraordinary
still!"
"You are entirely mistaken," said Mrs. Crayford. "She is only
here to-night to please me; and she is only dancing to please my
husband. As a rule, she shuns all society. The doctor recommends
change and amusement for her. She won't listen to him. Except on
rare occasions like this, she persists in remaining at home."
Captain Helding brightened at the allusion to the doctor.
Something practical might be got out of the doctor. Scientific
man. Sure to see this very obscure subject under a new light.
"How does it strike the doctor now?" said the captain. "Viewed
simply as a Case, ma'am, how does it strike the doctor?"
"He will give no positive opinion," Mrs. Crayford answered. "He
told me that such cases as Clara's were by no means unfamiliar to
medical practice. 'We know,' he told me, 'that certain disordered
conditions of the brain and the nervous system produce results
quite as extraordinary as any that you have described--and there
our knowledge ends. Neither my science nor any man's science can
clear up the mystery in this case. It is an especially difficult
case to deal with, because Miss Burnham's early associations
dispose her to attach a superstitious importance to the
malady--the hysterical malady as some doctors would call it--from
which she suffers. I can give you instructions for preserving her
general health; and I can recommend you to try some change in her
life--provided you first relieve her mind of any secret anxieties
that may possibly be preying on it.'"
The captain smiled self-approvingly. The doctor had justified his
anticipations. The doctor had suggested a practical solution of
the difficulty.
"Ay! ay! At last we have hit the nail on the head! Secret
anxieties. Yes! yes! Plain enough now. A disappointment in
love--eh, Mrs. Crayford?"
"I don't know, Captain Helding; I am quite in the dark. Clara's
confidence in me--in other matters unbounded--is, in this matter
of her (supposed) anxieties, a confidence still withheld. In all
else we are like sisters. I sometimes fear there may indeed be
some trouble preying secretly on her mind. I sometimes feel a
little hurt at her incomprehensible silence."
Captain Helding was ready with his own practical remedy for this
difficulty.
"Encouragement is all she wants, ma'am. Take my word for it, this
matter rests entirely with you. It's all in a nutshell. Encourage
her to confide in you--and she _will_ confide."
"I am waiting to encourage her, captain, until she is left alone
with me--after you have all sailed for the Arctic seas. In the
meantime, will you consider what I have said to you as intended
for your ear only? And will you forgive me, if I own that the
turn the subject has taken does not tempt me to pursue it any
further?"
The captain took the hint. He instantly changed the subject;
choosing, on this occasion, safe professional topics. He spoke of
ships that were ordered on foreign service; and, finding that
these as subjects failed to interest Mrs. Crayford, he spoke next
of ships that were ordered home again. This last experiment
produced its effect--an effect which the captain had not
bargained for.
"Do you know," he began, "that the _Atalanta_ is expected back
from the West Coast of Africa every day? Have you any
acquaintances among the officers of that ship?"
As it so happened, he put those questions to Mrs. Crayford while
they were engaged in one of the figures of the dance which
brought them within hearing of the opposite couple. At the same
moment--to the astonishment of her friends and admirers--Miss
Clara Burnham threw the quadrille into confusion by making a
mistake! Everybody waited to see her set the mistake right. She
made no attempt to set it right--she turned deadly pale and
caught her partner by the arm.
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