What it
said was, "I know what I am doing, mistress Brookes. My lady must
not turn him out. I will take care of him."
"What are you two whispering at there?" cried the earl. "Here am I
at the point of death, and you will not even let me go to bed!"
"Your room will be ready in a few minutes, my lord," said Mrs.
Brookes; and she and Donal went to work in earnest, but with the
door open between the rooms.
When it was ready,
"Now, my lord," said Donal, "will you come?"
"When you are gone. I will have none of your cursed help!"
"My lord, I am not going to leave you."
With much grumbling, and a very ill grace, his lordship submitted,
and Donal got him to bed.
"Now put that cabinet by me on the table," he said.
The cabinet was that in which he kept his drugs, and had not been
touched since he left it.
Donal opened the window, took up the cabinet, and threw it out.
With a bellow like that of a bull, the earl sprang out of bed, and
just as the crash came from below, ran at Donal where he stood
shutting the window, as if he would have sent him after the cabinet.
Donal caught him and held him fast.
"My lord," he said, "I will nurse you, serve you, do anything,
everything for you; but for the devil I'll be damned if I move hand
or foot! Not one drop of hellish stuff shall pass your lips while I
am with you!"
"But I am dying! I shall die of the horrors!" shrieked the earl,
struggling to get to the window, as if he might yet do something to
save his precious extracts, tinctures, essences, and compounds.
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