Chapter 5 Chapter Four

1 It was not the maid who woke Eleanor the next morning, but Mrs. Bishop herself, in rustling old-fashioned clothes and tear-stained: "Oh, Miss Eleanor, she's dead!" "what?!" "Your dear aunt, my kind mistress... she died in her sleep. Just imagine how many years it has been! I have been here eighteen years!" Eleanor said greedily: "Then my aunt died in her sleep . . . without pain, it was her luck." Mrs. Bishop burst into tears: "He died so suddenly, the doctor said yesterday. He came early this morning, and everything... everything is as usual..."

The girl interrupted Mrs. Bishop: "Not suddenly. After all, she has been ill for a long time." Eleanor put on her pajamas and hurried to Roddy's room.Just stepped into the threshold and said: "Aunt Laura is dead, Roddy. She died in her sleep." Roddy stood up and sighed, and said: "Poor Aunt J thank God she passed away peacefully... It was frightening to think that she might have to suffer for a long time, like last night. " Eleanor asked in surprise: "So you still went in to see her? At that time, you seemed to have stayed downstairs."

Roddy nodded embarrassedly and said: "You know, Eleanor, I'm ashamed that when my aunt was dying... I dared not look at her. I was in my aunt's room last night. The fat nurse was out on errands, so she didn't Know that I have been. I slipped in, and came out after seeing my aunt. She looked terrible. Now all her pain and suffering is over, and you and I are at ease, aren't you?" Eleanor nodded silently. 2 "What's the matter, Nurse Hopkins? Missing something?" Nurse O'Brien asked. Nurse Hopkins blushed and rummaged through the medicine box she had left in the living room last night.

"It's strange, what's wrong with me." "What's the matter?" Nurse Hopkins replied inarticulately: "You know Eliza Raikin with the malignancy? I give her morphine every morning and night. Last night when I came here I gave her the last tablet of morphine in the old glass tube. I could have sworn that new glass tube full of morphine was in the medicine cabinet, too." "Look again, these glass tubes are too small." Nurse Hopkins checked the contents of the medicine box again. "Not in the medicine cabinet. I probably forgot it in the cupboard at home anyway.

Amazing, how embarrassing this memory is!I remember clearly that I brought it with me. " "Did you leave your medicine box somewhere on the way here?" "Never!" Nurse Hopkins said emphatically. "It's okay, we will find it." The other party comforted Nurse Hopkins and said. "Of course I'll find it. The only place I always keep my medicine chest is in the living room and nobody takes anything from it. But I just can't remember. Too bad I have to go home and walk so far the way, and then shuffled back.” Nurse O'Brien said sympathetically:

"You have had a busy night. I hope you will not be too tired during the day... Poor Mrs. Wellman! However, I have thought of it long ago, and she will not delay too long." "I thought so too, but the doctor will probably be surprised." Nurse O'Brien added disapprovingly: "The doctor always hopes for a happy ending." Nurse Hopkins, who was about to leave, didn't want to talk any more. She said: "Dr. Lord is still young, and he doesn't have experience like ours." The nurse closed the door and left after saying this unpopular sentence.

3 Dr. Lord asked in surprise: "So Mrs. Wellman is dead?" "Yes, sir." The doctor was lost in thought.After a while, there was a sudden shout: "Bring some boiling water!" Nurse O'Brien startled, but also aroused her curiosity.Yet she was well aware that her duty was not to ask questions, but to complete the tasks assigned to her.If the doctor ordered her to skin the crocodile.She could only say mechanically in a low voice, "Yes, doctor." So she went to skin the crocodile. 4 Roddy asked again suspiciously: "You mean that my aunt died without a will?"

Mr. Seddon polished his spectacles carefully, and said with certainty: "It seems so." "It's strange," said the lawyer, coughing cautiously: "It's not as strange as you think. There's something like superstition here. People always think they've got a long time to live. I've talked to your aunt more than once to get her to write a will early, but she's very stubborn." , now..." The lawyer spread his hands helplessly. "However, there is no doubt that after the first attack..." Elinor interjected, and Seddon shook her head. "After her condition worsened, she was even less willing to hear such things."

Eleanor said slowly and thoughtfully: "That's why my aunt was so disturbed last night, and she was so eager to send someone to find you quickly..." "Exactly," the lawyer confirmed. Rody was interested in another thing, and he asked nervously: "What should I do now?" "Are you talking about Mrs. Wellman's property?" Seddon coughed again. "Since she is dead and has no will, all her property should be inherited by her next of kin. That is, Miss Eleanor. Although there will be a large inheritance tax to be paid, there will be a considerable amount of money left."

"But, Roddy..." Eleanor said. The lawyer glanced at the two of them and said apologetically: "Mr. Roddy is only Mrs. Wellman's husband's nephew, and there is no blood relationship." "Exactly." Roddy agreed calmly. Eleanor said slowly: "Of course, it doesn't matter much. Because we're ready to get married." It was Mr. Seddon's turn to speak: "Exactly." 5 After Mr. Seddon had gone, Elinor returned to the subject of marriage: "Well, Roddy?" asked Eleanor, trying to keep her voice even. "How about what?"

"Are we planning to get married?" "Don't we seem to have an agreement?" Rody replied indifferently, even a little angrily. The girl couldn't bear it anymore, and she said: "Oh, Roddy, can't you tell the truth about everything?" Roddy was a little embarrassed to speak, and after a while, he said vaguely: "I don't know, what's wrong with me..." "But, I know." Elinor squirmed her dry lips and muttered to herself in a low voice. Roddy seemed to wake up.He said: "Probably because I don't like living off my wife's money." Elinor grew pale, and said: "That's not the problem..." Then she fell silent again, and finally made up her mind, and said her thoughts: "It's all because of Mary, isn't it?" Roddy looked distraught and embarrassed. "It seems so, but how did you guess?" In an instant, his peaceful mood suddenly disappeared. "Oh, Eleanor, I don't even know what's the matter with me. Maybe I'm mad. It happened the day I first saw Mary in the woods, when everything around me seemed turned upside down. You...you can't understand that." "Why? I can fully understand. You go on..." "Believe me, I don't want to love her, how happy I am with you! My dear, how mean I am to tell you this..." "It's nothing, you tell me all about it." "You are unusual, Eleanor. I have told you all, and I am relieved now. Believe me, how dear you are to me! As for my love for Mary, that is It's just... magic. It changed everything, changed my thoughts and opinions, you see..." Eleanor asked tremblingly: "Did you say anything to Mary?" "Say it, this morning. I'm a fool. I'm out of my mind. Of course, Mary told me to go away at once. It's because of Aunt Laura, and because of you." The girl took off her engagement diamond ring and said: "I think you'd better take it back." Roddy took the ring, avoiding Eleanor's sight, and said sadly: "I already feel that I'm a very bad person, if only you could understand that." Eleanor's voice was still unusually calm, and she said: "Do you think Mary will marry you?" Roddy shook his head and said: "Of course, it's not possible yet...she doesn't love me yet, but maybe later" Chances are you're right.You give Mary some time to calm down, don't see her for a while, and then try again. " Roddy was extremely moved and said: "Eleanor, dear! What a wicked friend you are!" He took Elinor's hand impulsively, and kissed it. "You know, Elinor, I love you a little now." The same old days. Sometimes I feel like Mary is a phantom in a dream. Sometimes I regret that I met her... If it weren't for her... How good it is for us to be together, dear. " The girl silently repeated Roddy's words in her heart: "If it wasn't for her..."