Mrs. Kendal and Lucy were summoned in haste; Gilbert lingered, trying
to help them to restore her to composure. But time ran short; his
father called him, and they hardly knew that they had received his
last hurried embrace, nor that he was really gone, till they heard
Maurice shouting like a Red Indian, as he careered about in the
garden, his only resource against tears; and Sophy came in very
still, very pale, and incapable of uttering a word or shedding a
tear. Albinia was much concerned, for she could not bear to have
sent him away without a more real adieu, and word of blessing and
good augury; it made her feel herself truly unforgiving, and perhaps
turned her heart back to him more fully and fondly than any exchange
of sentiment would have done. But she had not much time to dwell on
this omission, for poor Mrs. Meadows missed him sorely, and after two
days' constant fretting after him, another paralytic stroke renewed
the immediate danger, so that by the time Mr. Kendal returned from
London she was again hovering between life and death.
Mr. Kendal, to his great joy, met Frederick Ferrars at the 'Family
Office.' The changes in the regiment had given him his majority, and
he had flashed over from Ireland to make his preparations for the
campaign. His counsel had been most valuable in Gilbert's equipment,
especially in the knotty question of horses, and he had shown himself
so amiable and rational that Mr.
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