io6 The Real Charlotte 



on board the launch, it seemed the culminating point of a 

 long and awful nightmare that Charlotte Mullen should 

 fling herself on her knees beside the bodies of her cousin 

 and her friend, and utter yell after yell of hysterical 

 lamentation. 



CHAPTER XV. 



" Sausages and bacon, Lady Dysart ! Yes, indeed, that 

 was his breakfast, and that for a man who — if you'll excuse 

 the expression. Lady Dysart, but, indeed, I know you're 

 such a good doctor that I'd like you to tell me if it was 

 quite safe — who was vomiting lake water for half an hour 

 after he was brought into the house the night before." 



" Do you really mean that he came down to breakfast ? " 

 asked Lady Dysart, with the flattering sincerity of interest 

 that she bestowed on all topics of conversation, but 

 especially on those that related to the art and practice of 

 medicine. " He ought to have stayed in bed all day to let 

 the system recover from the shock." 



" Those were the very words I used to him. Lady Dysart," 

 returned Mrs. Lambert dismally ; " but indeed all the 

 answer he made was, ' Fiddle-de-dee ! ' He wouldn't have 

 so much as a cup of tea in his bed, and you may think what 

 I suffered, Lady Dysart, when I was down in the parlour 

 making the breakfast and getting his tray ready, when I 

 heard him in his bath overhead — just as if he hadn't been 

 half-drowned the night before. I didn't tell you that, Mrs. 

 Gascogne," she went on, turning her watery gaze upon the 

 thin refined face of her spiritual directress. " Now if it 

 was me such a thing happened to, I'd have that nervous 

 dread of water that I couldn't look at it for a week." 



*'No, I am sure you would not," answered Mrs. 

 Gascogne with the over-earnestness which so often ship- 

 wrecks the absent-minded ; " of course you couldn't expect 

 him to take it if it wasn't made with really boiling water." 



Mrs. Lambert stared in stupefaction, and Lady Dysart, 

 far from trying to cloak her cousin's confusion, burst into a 

 delighted laugh. 



" Kate 1 I don't believe you heard a single word that 



