CHAPTER XX 266
sufficed to control like a child -- fallen on him , a few hours since , as a thunderbolt might fall on an oak ?
Oh ! I could not forget his look and his paleness when he whispered : " Jane , I have got a blow -- I have got a blow , Jane ." I could not forget how the arm had trembled which he rested on my shoulder : and it was no light matter which could thus bow the resolute spirit and thrill the vigorous frame of Fairfax Rochester .
" When will he come ? When will he come ?" I cried inwardly , as the night lingered and lingered -- as my bleeding patient drooped , moaned , sickened : and neither day nor aid arrived . I had , again and again , held the water to Mason ' s white lips ; again and again offered him the stimulating salts : my efforts seemed ineffectual : either bodily or mental suffering , or loss of blood , or all three combined , were fast prostrating his strength . He moaned so , and looked so weak , wild , and lost , I feared he was dying ; and I might not even speak to him .
The candle , wasted at last , went out ; as it expired , I perceived streaks of grey light edging the window curtains : dawn was then approaching . Presently I heard Pilot bark far below , out of his distant kennel in the courtyard : hope revived . Nor was it unwarranted : in five minutes more the grating key , the yielding lock , warned me my watch was relieved . It could not have lasted more than two hours : many a week has seemed shorter .
Mr . Rochester entered , and with him the surgeon he had been to fetch .
" Now , Carter , be on the alert ," he said to this last : " I give you but half-an-hour for dressing the wound , fastening the bandages , getting the patient downstairs and all ."
" But is he fit to move , sir ?"
" No doubt of it ; it is nothing serious ; he is nervous , his spirits must be kept up . Come , set to work ."