Lock me
in, Lecount, and send for the police!"
Instead of sending for the police, Mrs. Lecount took a large green paper
fan from the chimney-piece, and seated herself opposite her master.
"You are agitated, Mr. Noel," she said, "you are heated. Let me cool
you."
With her face as hard as ever--with less tenderness of look and
manner than most women would have shown if they had been rescuing a
half-drowned fly from a milk-jug--she silently and patiently fanned him
for five minutes or more. No practiced eye observing the peculiar bluish
pallor of his complexion, and the marked difficulty with which he drew
his breath, could have failed to perceive that the great organ of life
was in this man, what the housekeeper had stated it to be, too weak for
the function which it was called on to perform. The heart labored over
its work as if it had been the heart of a worn-out old man.
"Are you relieved, sir?" asked Mrs. Lecount. "Can you think a little?
Can you exercise your better judgment?"
She rose and put her hand over his heart with as much mechanical
attention and as little genuine interest as if she had been feeling the
plates at dinner to ascertain if they had been properly warmed.
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