CHAPTER XXI 288
" How long is he going to stand with his back against that door ?" I asked myself ; " I want to commence my packing ." The dinner-bell rang , and suddenly away he bolted , without another syllable : I saw him no more during the day , and was off before he had risen in the morning .
I reached the lodge at Gateshead about five o ' clock in the afternoon of the first of May : I stepped in there before going up to the hall . It was very clean and neat : the ornamental windows were hung with little white curtains ; the floor was spotless ; the grate and fire-irons were burnished bright , and the fire burnt clear . Bessie sat on the hearth , nursing her last-born , and Robert and his sister played quietly in a corner .
" Bless you ! -- I knew you would come !" exclaimed Mrs . Leaven , as I entered .
" Yes , Bessie ," said I , after I had kissed her ; " and I trust I am not too late . How is Mrs . Reed ? -- Alive still , I hope ."
" Yes , she is alive ; and more sensible and collected than she was . The doctor says she may linger a week or two yet ; but he hardly thinks she will finally recover ."
" Has she mentioned me lately ?"
" She was talking of you only this morning , and wishing you would come , but she is sleeping now , or was ten minutes ago , when I was up at the house . She generally lies in a kind of lethargy all the afternoon , and wakes up about six or seven . Will you rest yourself here an hour , Miss , and then I will go up with you ?"
Robert here entered , and Bessie laid her sleeping child in the cradle and went to welcome him : afterwards she insisted on my taking off my bonnet and having some tea ; for she said I looked pale and tired . I was glad to accept her hospitality ; and I submitted to be relieved of my travelling garb just as passively as I used to let her undress me when a child .