Kendal bent to look into the child's
eyes.
'I thought my blight had fallen on you,' was all he said.
'Oh! the thankfulness--' she said; but she could not go on, she must
stifle all that swelled within her, for the babe felt each throb of
her beating heart; and she could barely keep from bursting into tears
as his father kissed him; then, as he marked the still sobbing
breath, said, 'Bowles must see him again.'
'I don't know how to make him cry again! I suppose he must be looked
at, but indeed I think him safe.--See, this little bruise on his
forehead is the only mark I can find. What was it? How did it
happen?'
'Sophia thought proper to take him herself from the nursery to show
him to Mrs. Osborn. In crossing the street, she was frightened by a
party of men coming out of a public-house in Tibbs's Alley, and in
avoiding them, slipped down and struck the child's head against a
gate-post. He was perfectly insensible when I took him--I thought
him gone. Albinia, you must let Bowles see him again!'
'Is any one there?' she said.
'Every one, I think,' he replied, looking oppressed--'Maria, and Mrs.
Osborn, and Dusautoy--but I will call Bowles.'
Apparently the little boy had escaped entirely unhurt, but the
surgeon still spoke of the morrow, and he was so startled and
restless, that Albinia feared to move, and felt the dark study a
refuge from the voices and sounds that she feared to encounter, lest
they should again occasion the dreadful screaming.
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