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"What is the matter?" he demanded angrily. "Oh, my lord; bear it like a Christian. Mistress isn't no more." He leaned back against the door-post and she took hold of him by the arm. "It was the heart, my lord. Dr Filgrave hisself has not been yet; but that's what it was." The bishop did not say a word, but walked back to his chair before the fire. In Memoriam
"Posy never teases me;" and he slowly moved his withered hand down outside the bed, so as to hold the child by her frock. "Let her stay with me, my dear." "Dr Filgrave is downstairs, papa. You will see him, if he comes up?"
"Do not go, Mrs Draper," he said; "I would rather that you should stay with me." So Mrs Draper stayed with him, and administered to his wants. He was desirous of being seen by as few eyes as possible in these first moments of his freedom. He saw Dr Filgrave twice, both before and after the doctor had been upstairs. There was no doubt, Dr Filgrave said, that it was as Mrs Draper had surmised.
But Mrs Draper had kept the secret of her mistress, and none of the family had known that there was aught to be feared. Dr Filgrave, indeed, did tell the bishop that he had dreaded all along exactly that which had happened. He had said the same to Mr Rerechild, the surgeon, when they two had had a consultation at the palace on the occasion of a somewhat alarming birth of a grandchild.
"Dr Filgrave. We sent for him. Perhaps he is here now. Shall I go and see, my lord?" Mrs Draper found that her position there was weary and she wished to escape. Anything on his behalf requiring trouble or work she would have done willingly; but she could not stand there for ever watching the motion of his fingers. "I suppose I must see him," said the bishop.
"Dr Filgrave, my lord, was not at home," said Mrs Draper; "but he will be sent the very moment he arrives." "Very well, Mrs Draper." "But, my lord, will you not come for your dinner? A little soup, or a morsel of something to eat, and a glass of wine, will enable your lordship to bear it better." He allowed Mrs Draper to persuade him, and followed her into the dining-room.
Now Dr Filgrave was the leading physician of Barchester, and nobody of note in the city, or for the matter of that in the eastern division of the county, was allowed to start upon the last great journey without some assistance from him as the hour of going drew nigh. I do not know that he had much reputation for prolonging life, but he was supposed to add a grace to the hour of departure.
Mr Harding expressed no wish to see the doctor, had rather declared his conviction that Dr Filgrave could be of no possible service to him. But he was not a man to persevere in his objection in opposition to the wishes of his friends around him; and as soon as the archdeacon had spoken a word on the subject he assented. "Of course, my dear, I will see him."
"It's true," he said. "It's quite true. She's dead. There's no doubt about that. She's dead. It was last night about seven. That was when they found her, at least, and she may have died about an hour before. Filgrave says not more than an hour." "And how did she die?" "Heart-complaint. She was standing up, taking hold of the bedstead, and so they found her."
Neither the dean nor the archdeacon had the slightest belief in Dr Filgrave, and yet they would hardly have been contented that their father-in-law should have departed without him. "Look at that man, now," said the archdeacon, when the doctor had gone, "who talks so glibly about nature going to rest. I've known him all my life. He's an older man by some months than our dear old friend upstairs.
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