Page:Braddon--The Trail of the Serpent.djvu/70

66 Jabez North on his way home must go the same way as the doctor; so they walk side by side.

"Do you think he will recover?" asks Jabez.

"I doubt it. He has evidently been exposed to great hardship, wet, and fatigue. The fever is very strong upon him; and I'm afraid there's not much chance of his getting over it. I should think something might be done for him, to make him a little more comfortable. You are his brother, I presume, in spite of the apparent difference between you in station?"

Jabez laughed a scornful laugh. "His brother! Why, I never saw the man till ten minutes before you did."

"Bless me!" said the old doctor, "you amaze me. I should have taken you for twin brothers. The likeness between you is something wonderful; in spite, too, of the great difference in your clothes. Dressed alike, it would be impossible to tell one from the other."

"You really think so?"

"The fact must strike any one."

Jabez North was silent for a little time after this. Presently, as he parted from the doctor at a street-corner, he said—

"And you really think there's very little chance of this poor man's recovery?"

"I'm afraid there is positively none. Unless a wonderful change takes place for the better, in three days he will be a dead man. Good night."

"Good night," says Jabez, thoughtfully. And he walked slowly home.

It would seem about this time that he was turning his attention to his personal appearance, and in some danger of becoming a fop; for the next morning he bought a bottle of hair-dye, and tried some experiments with it on one or two of his own light ringlets, which he cut off for that purpose.

It would seem a very trivial employment for so superior and intellectual a man as Jabez North, but it may be that every action of this man's life, however apparently trivial, bore towards one deep and settled purpose.

, being of such a truly benevolent character, came the next day to Blind Peter, full of kind and sympathetic inquiries for the sick man. For once in a way he offered something more than sympathy, and administered what little help he could afford from his very slender purse. Truly a good young man, this Jabez.