Mr. Rochester entered, and with him the surgeon he had been to fetch.

“Now, Carter, be on the alert,” he said to this last:  “I give you but half-an-hour for dressing the wound, fastening the bandages, getting the patient downstairs and all.”

“But is he fit to move, sir?”

“No doubt of it; it is nothing serious; he is nervous, his spirits must be kept up.  Come, set to work.”

Mr. Rochester drew back the thick curtain, drew up the holland blind, let in all the daylight he could; and I was surprised and cheered to see how far dawn was advanced:  what rosy streaks were beginning to brighten the east.  Then he approached Mason, whom the surgeon was already handling.

“Now, my good fellow, how are you?” he asked.

“She’s done for me, I fear,” was the faint reply.

“Not a whit! —­ courage!  This day fortnight you’ll hardly be a pin the worse of it:  you’ve lost a little blood; that’s all.  Carter, assure him there’s no danger.”

“I can do that conscientiously,” said Carter, who had now undone the bandages; “only I wish I could have got here sooner:  he would not have bled so much —­ but how is this?  The flesh on the shoulder is torn as well as cut.  This wound was not done with a knife:  there have been teeth here!”

“She bit me,” he murmured.  “She worried me like a tigress, when Rochester got the knife from her.”

“You should not have yielded:  you should have grappled with her at once,” said Mr. Rochester.

“But under such circumstances, what could one do?” returned Mason.  “Oh, it was frightful!” he added, shuddering.  “And I did not expect it:  she looked so quiet at first.”

“I warned you,” was his friend’s answer; “I said —­ be on your guard when you go near her.  Besides, you might have waited till to- morrow, and had me with you:  it was mere folly to attempt the interview to-night, and alone.”

“I thought I could have done some good.”

“You thought! you thought!  Yes, it makes me impatient to hear you:  but, however, you have suffered, and are likely to suffer enough for not taking my advice; so I’ll say no more.  Carter —­ hurry! —­ hurry!  The sun will soon rise, and I must have him off.”

“Directly, sir; the shoulder is just bandaged.  I must look to this other wound in the arm:  she has had her teeth here too, I think.”

“She sucked the blood:  she said she’d drain my heart,” said Mason.

I saw Mr. Rochester shudder:  a singularly marked expression of disgust, horror, hatred, warped his countenance almost to distortion; but he only said —

“Come, be silent, Richard, and never mind her gibberish:  don’t repeat it.”

“I wish I could forget it,” was the answer.

“You will when you are out of the country:  when you get back to Spanish Town, you may think of her as dead and buried —­ or rather, you need not think of her at all.”