Mew's sedatives. The sofa had been wheeled
from the bedroom to the sitting-room, and placed in a comfortable corner
by the fire. There were preparations too for a cup of tea, to be made and
consumed at any hour agreeable to the watcher; a small teakettle
simmering on the hob; a tray with a cup and saucer, and queer little
black earthenware teapot, on the table; a teacaddy and other appliances
close at hand,--all testifying to the grateful attention of the vanished
Pratt.
Gilbert shared the nurse's watch till past midnight. Long before that
John Saltram woke from his heavy sleep, and there was more of that
incoherent talk so painful to hear--talk of people that were dead, of
scenes that were far away, even of those careless happy wanderings in
which those two college friends had been together; and then mere nonsense
talk, shreds and patches of random thought, that scorned to be drawn
from, some rubbish-chamber, some waste-paper basket of the brain.
It was weary work. He woke towards eleven, and a little after twelve
dropped asleep again; but this time, the effect of the sedative having
worn off, the sleep was restless and uneasy. Then came a brief interval
of quiet; and in this Gilbert left him, and flung himself down upon the
sofa, to sink into a slumber that was scarcely more peaceful than that of
the sick man.
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