The good man had also locked the
little Emilia into her room, intending, after having taken the first
measures for the care of his patients, to take or send her to the
ladies at Lord Newcastle's, warning them not to return. Madame van
Hunker looked deadly pale, but she was a true wife, and said nothing
should induce her to forsake her husband and his daughters; besides,
it must be too late for her to take precautions. Dirkius looked her
all over in her pure delicate beauty, muttering what I think was:
'Pity! pity!' and then agreed that so it was. As we stood by the bed
where we had laid Cornelia, we could hear at one end old Hunker's
voice shouting--almost howling--for his vrow; and likewise the poor
little Emilia thumping wildly against the door, and screaming for her
mother to let her out. Millicent's face worked, but she said: 'She
must not touch me! She had best not see me! Madame, God sent in you
an angle of mercy. Take her; I must go to my husband!'
And at a renewed shout she ran down the corridor to hide her tears.
The doctor and I looked at one another. I asked if a nurse was
coming. Perchance, he said; he must go and find some old woman, and
old Trudje must suffice meantime. There would as yet be no risk in
my taking the child away, if I held her fast, and made her breathe
essences all through the house.
It was a strange capture, and a dreadful terror for the poor little
girl.
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