He Departeth in Darkness

"Come in! I want to talk to you!" said Mrs. Aylett, beckoning Mabel
into her chamber, from the door of which she had hailed her. "Sit
down, my poor girl! You are white as a sheet with fatigue. I cannot
see why you should have been suffered to know anything about this
very disagreeable occurrence. And Emmeline has been telling me that
Mrs. Sutton actually let you go up into that Arctic room."

"It was my choice. Aunt Rachel went along to carry the light and to
keep me company. She would have dissuaded me from the enterprise if
she could," responded Mabel, sinking into the low, cushioned chair
before the fire, which the mistress of the luxurious apartment had
just wheeled forward for her, and confessing to herself, for the
first time, that she was chilly and very tired.

"But where were the servants, my dear? Surely you are not required,
in your brother's house, to perform such menial services as taking
food and medicine to a sick vagrant."

"Winston had forbidden them to go near the room. I wish I had gone
up earlier. I might have been the means of saving a life which,
however worthless it may seem to us, must be of value to some one."

"Is he so far gone?"

The inquiry was hoarsely whispered, and the speaker leaned back in
her fauteuil, a spark of fierce eagerness in her dilated eyes,
Mabel, in her own anxiety, did not consider overstrained solicitude
in behalf of a disreputable stranger. She had more sympathy with it
than with the relapse into apparent nonchalance that succeeded her
repetition of the doctor's report.