Doctor Feversham's Story Page #3

"Doctor Feversham's Story" by Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu is a compelling tale that blends elements of mystery and the supernatural. The story follows the experiences of Doctor Feversham, a physician whose unusual and tumultuous life is marked by strange occurrences and tragic events. As Feversham confronts his own past and the specter of death, the narrative delves into themes of love, loyalty, and the boundaries of life and death. Le Fanu's signature gothic style imbues the story with an atmospheric tension, making it a captivating exploration of the human psyche and the mysteries that lie beyond the veil of existence.

• Horror

								

once with their uncommon beauty. For the rest, he was a fine well-grown
young man, no darker in complexion than an Englishman might well be, and
with a careless, happy boyishness of manner, which won immediately on
the regard of strangers, and rendered his presence in the house like
that of a perpetual sunbeam. We all wondered, after a little while, what
we had done before Luis came among us. He was as a son to Sir James;
Miss Patricia softened to this new and pleasing interest in her
colorless existence as I could not have believed it was in her
fossilized nature to do; Miss Henderson became animated, almost young,
under the reviving influence of the youth and joyousness of our new
inmate; and I own that I speedily attached myself with a warm and
affectionate regard to the happy, unselfish nature that seemed to
brighten all who came near it.

"But the most remarkable effect of the presence of Don Luis de Cabral
among us was visible in Miss Collingham. 'Love at first sight,' often
considered as a mere phrase, was, in the case of these two young
creatures, an unmistakable reality. From the moment of their first
meeting, the cousins were mutually drawn toward each other; and seeing
the bright and wonderful change wrought by the presence of Don Luis in
Blanche Collingham, I could not but remember, with the interest that
attaches to a curious psychological phenomenon, the words she uttered in
her trance on the eve of his arrival. 'Life, light, and liberty,'
indeed, appeared given to all that was best and brightest in her nature.
Her health improved visibly, and her beauty, always touching, became
radiant in its full development. My duties toward her were now merely
nominal; and when, about two months later, Sir James announced to me her
approaching marriage, and confessed that it was with this object he had
invited Don Luis to come and make the acquaintance of his English
relations, the strong opinions I entertained against the marriage of
first cousins, and also on the especial inadvisability of any project of
marriage in the case of Miss Collingham, could not prevent my hearty
rejoicing in the fair prospect of happiness in which two persons who
deeply interested me were indulging.

"Winter set in early and severely that year among our northern hills,
and with a view to Blanche's removal from its withering influence, which
I always considered prejudicial to her, the preparations for the
marriage were hurried on, and the ceremony was fixed to take place about
the middle of December. The travelling-carriage which was to convey the
young couple on their way southward was to arrive at the nearest
railway-station--then more than thirty miles distant--a week before the
marriage; and as some important portions of the trousseau, together with
a valuable package of jewels intended by Don Luis as presents for his
bride, were expected at the same time, the young man announced his
intention of riding across the hills to ----, in order to superintend
the conveyance of the carriage and its contents along the rough mountain
roads that it must traverse.

"We were all sitting around the great fireplace in the winter parlor on
the evening before his departure. Miss Collingham had been languid and
depressed throughout the day, and often adverted to the long wintry ride
he was to undertake in a strain of apprehension at which Don Luis
laughed gayly. To divert her mind, he recounted various adventures
which had befallen him in foreign lands, with a vigorous simplicity of
description which enchained her attention and interested us all.

"Suddenly, so sitting, Miss Collingham leaned forward, and in a changed,
eager voice exclaimed, 'Luis, take away your hand from your throat!'

"We looked. Luis' hands were lying one over the other on his knee in a
careless attitude that was habitual to him.

"'Take it away, I say! Oh, take it away!'

"Miss Collingham started to her feet as she uttered these words almost
in a shriek, and then fell back rigid and senseless, her outstretched
hand still pointing to her betrothed.

"The fit was a severe one, but by morning it had yielded to remedies,
and Luis set off early on his ride, to make the most of the short
daylight, and intending to return with the carriage on the morrow. All
that day Miss Collingham remained in a half-conscious state. It was a
dreary day of gloom, with a piercing north wind, and toward evening the
snow began to fall in those close, compact flakes which forebode a heavy
storm. We were glad to think that Luis must have reached his destination
before it began; but when the next morning dawned on a wide expanse of
snow, and the air was still thick with fast-falling flakes, it was
feared that the state of the roads would preclude all hope of the
arrival of the carriage on that day.

"My patient took no heed of the untoward state of the weather. She was
still in a drowsy condition, very unlike that which usually succeeded
her attacks, and Miss Henderson, who had watched by her through the
night, told me she spoke more than once in a strange, excited manner, as
though carrying on a conversation with some one whom she appeared to see
by her bedside. As the good lady, however, could give but a very
imperfect and incoherent account of what had passed, I was left in some
doubt as to whether Miss Collingham had seen more or Miss Henderson less
than there really was to be seen, as I had before had reason to believe
that she was not a very vigilant nurse.

"So the hours went on, and night closed in. Sir James began to feel some
uneasiness at the non-appearance, not only of Don Luis, but also of the
priest, who was to have arrived at Collingham-Westmore on that day.

"On questioning some of the servants who had been out of the house, the
absence of Father O'Connor at least was satisfactorily accounted for:
they all declared that it would be quite impossible for those best
acquainted with the hills to find their way across them in the blinding
drifts which had never ceased throughout the day. We concluded that
Father O'Connor and Don Luis were alike storm-stayed, and had no remedy
but patience.

"Late in the evening--it must have been near midnight--I was in Miss
Collingham's dressing-room with Miss Patricia, who intended to watch by
her through the night. We were talking by the fire, of the snow-storm
which still continued, and of the hindrance it might prove to the
marriage--the day fixed for which was now less than a week
distant--when we heard a voice in the adjoining room, where we imagined
the object of our care to be sleeping. We went in. Miss Collingham was
sitting up in bed, her eyes wide open, in one of her rigid fits. She was
speaking rapidly in a low tone, unlike her usual voice.

"'You cannot get through all that snow,' she said. 'Get help; there are
men not far off with spades. Oh, be careful! You are off the road! Stop,
stop! that is the way to Armstrong's Clough. Does not the postboy know
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