But if I can
telegraph such a message as will bring him to town, I'll do it. Leave all
that to me. And now, what about your work?"
"I am at a loss what to do, if I am not to take Dr. Jedd to Harold's
Hill."
"Take him to St. Leonards; and if I get my brother out of the way, you
can have Charlotte conveyed to an hotel in St. Leonard's, where she can
stop till she picks up strength enough to come to London."
"Do you think her mother will consent to her removal?
"Do I think you will be such an idiot as to ask for her consent?" cried
George Sheldon impatiently. "My brother's wife is so weak a fool, that
the chances are she'd insist on her daughter stopping quietly, to be
poisoned. No; you must get Mrs. Sheldon out of the way somehow. Send her
to look at the shops, or to bathe, or to pick up shells on the beach, or
anything else equally inane. She's easy enough to deal with. There's that
young woman, Paget's daughter, with them still, I suppose? Yes. Very
well, then, you and she can get Charlotte away between you."
"But for me to take those two girls to an hotel--the chance of scandal,
of wonder, of inquiry? There ought to be some other person--some nurse.
Stay, there's Nancy Woolper--the very woman! My darling has told me of
that old woman's affectionate anxiety about her health--an anxiety which
was singularly intense, it seemed to Lotta. Good God! do you think she,
Nancy Woolper, could have suspected the cause of Mr.
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