The plan of action was undoubtedly changed, and Mr Martin became very
fidgety, and ordered nothing without Sir Peter's sanction. Miss
Stanbury was suffering from bronchitis, and a complication of diseases
about her throat and chest. Barty Burgess declared to more than one
acquaintance in the little parlour behind the bank, that she would go
on drinking four or five glasses of new port wine every day, in direct
opposition to Martin's request. Camilla French heard the report, and
repeated it to her lover, and perhaps another person or two, with an
expression of her assured conviction that it must be false at any rate,
as regarded the fifth glass. Mrs MacHugh, who saw Martha daily, was
much frightened. The peril of such a friend disturbed equally the
repose and the pleasures of her life. Mrs Clifford was often at Miss
Stanbury's bedside and would have sat there reading for hours together,
had she not been made to understand by Martha that Miss Stanbury
preferred that Miss Dorothy should read to her. The sick woman received
the Sacrament weekly not from Mr Gibson, but from the hands of another
minor canon; and, though she never would admit her own danger, or allow
others to talk to her of it, it was known to them all that she admitted
it to herself because she had, with much personal annoyance, caused a
codicil to be added to her will.
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