"I don't care to stay behind when I have no one to talk to," he pushed back his chair, but not far enough. "Give me an arm, one of you. Steady there--you needn't haul me along. Stop, I tell you." It was Leo's arm he held--she was the nearest to him--and he leaned upon it heavily.
He also breathed heavily. When she tried to draw him forward he tottered. His daughters looked at one another.
"Let me get you something, father?" said Sue, moving towards the sideboard;--"a little brandy?"--and with a tremulous hand she poured it out, and held it to his lips.
At the same time she gently withdrew Leo's arm, substituting her own, and Leo made no resistance. Their father looked them dazed--but the brandy momentarily revived him.
"I--suppose I go to bed, eh? I'm tired--that's what's the matter with me. Isn't that what's the matter with me, Sue? I'm tired--tired,"--his head sank upon his breast. "Tired--tired!" he muttered.
"Do not lose a moment, Maud;" said Sue, aside.
She was nimbler of foot than Maud--but Maud went also.
"Hey, what? Where are they all off to?" With an effort General Boldero straightened himself and made a pitiful effort to compose a face already distorted. "Where--are they going?"--the next minute he fell in a heap upon the floor.
And by the time Dr. Craig, imperatively summoned, dashed through the doorway which stood open awaiting him, all need of his presence was at an end.
"It could not have been averted, my dear Miss Sue;" in moments such as this the doctor invariably said "Miss Sue". "I have had my eye on your--your poor father for a while back. I kind of opined he was breaking. But it must have been a terrible shock for you all;"--and he shook a sympathetic head to and fro.
"Aye, aye!" He patted her shoulder. "Aye, aye!"
"Prepared or unprepared, my dear lady, it's all the same when it comes. And it was a peaceful end--not a long, tormenting illness. Now then, who have you got to come and look after you all?"
The practical accents smote almost brutally upon her ear, and she lifted her tear-stained face to his in helpless appeal.
"You must have someone, some man, to look after things. You can't wrestle with them alone. There's that cousin of yours, the--" it was on the tip of his tongue to say, "tha heir"; for he was acquainted with all the Boldero family circumstances--but he caught himself up in time. He recalled that he had never seen the heir at the Abbey.