I am trying the best restoratives I know, but we can only wait.
He may take a turn for the better.”
Only he did not take a turn for the better.
Instead, forty-eight hours before he died he took a definite turn for the worse, which caused Dr. James to send for his son, Frank A. Cowperwood, Jr., and Anna, his daughter, who was now Mrs. Templeton.
But not Aileen, as his daughter and son noticed when they arrived.
When asked why Mrs. Cowperwood was not present, Dr. James explained to them that for reasons of her own she had refused to come to visit him any more.
However, although they had known of the existing estrangement between Aileen and Cowperwood, his son and daughter still had their own misgivings as to why she refused to come to see Cowperwood at this crucial time, and they felt obligated to inform her as to his condition.
Therefore, they hurried to a public telephone and called her. But, much to their surprise, they found she was not in a mood to consider anything in connection with him or them, asserting that Dr. James and Miss Fleming, having arranged Cowperwood’s affairs with his consent and with no regard for her wishes, surely could take care of everything. She flatly refused to come.
And so, while they were stunned by this seeming cruelty on Aileen’s part, they felt there was nothing they could do but return to watch the outcome of his turn for the worse.
For fear controlled all present: Dr. James, Berenice, and Jamieson, all of whom stood by helpless for the want of a single clarifying idea.
They waited for hours, the while they listened to his heavy breathing or periods of silence, until suddenly, twenty-four hours later, as if seeking to conclude a great weariness, he stirred sharply, even half-rose on one elbow as though looking about, and then as suddenly fell back and lay still.
Death!
Death!
There it was—irresistible and bleak in the face of all of them!
“Frank!” cried Berenice, stiffening and staring as if in supreme wonder.
She hurried to his side and fell to her knees, seizing his damp hands and covering her face with them.
“Oh, Frank, my darling, not you!” she cried out, and then drooped slowly to the floor, half-fainting.
Chapter 70
The consternation that followed Cowperwood’s death involved so many immediate, as well as remote, problems that for several minutes all stood as if stupefied.
Of the entire group, the doctor was the calmest and most resourceful in his thoughts and actions, his first direction being that he and Jamieson remove Berenice to one of the couches that were in this room.
After doing this, he suggested to Jamieson that he call up Mrs. Cowperwood at once in order to obtain from her instructions as to the burial.
This inquiry, when made by Jamieson, resulted in a most shocking and disturbing reaction on the part of Aileen, a reaction plus an attitude which posed a problem that was seemingly insurmountable without resulting in practically a national scandal.
“Why do you ask me?” she said.
“Why don’t you ask Dr. James and Miss Fleming?
They have been in complete charge of his affairs ever since he has been here, and before.”
“But, Mrs. Cowperwood,” said Jamieson, astounded. “This is your husband.
Do you mean to say that you do not wish to have him removed to your home?”
An inquiry which brought from her the sharp and staccato reply: “I have been personally ignored and lied to by Mr. Cowperwood, and also by his doctor and his mistress.
Let them arrange to have his body sent to a funeral parlor and have the funeral from there.”
“But, Mrs. Cowperwood,” insisted Jamieson, in an agitated voice, “this is a most unheard-of proceeding.
All the newspapers will find out.
Surely you wouldn’t like that in connection with so great a figure as your husband.”
But at this point Dr. James, hearing this shocking statement, came forward and took the telephone receiver from Jamieson.
“Mrs. Cowperwood, this is Dr. James,” he said, coldly.
“I am the physician, as you know, who was called in by Mr. Cowperwood when he came back to this country.
Mr. Cowperwood is no relative of mine, and I have served him as I would any other patient, you included.
But if you persist in this astounding attitude toward a man who is your husband, and whose property you are to inherit, I assure you that you will never be done with the scandal of it. It will follow you to the end of your days.
Surely you must realize the significance of that.”
He waited for a second, but there was silence on her part.
“Now, I am not asking you to do me any favor, Mrs. Cowperwood,” he went on.
“Only yourself.
Certainly his body can be removed to an undertaker’s establishment, and buried anywhere, if that is what you wish.
But is it?
As you know, the press can learn from me or from the undertaker as to what has become of his body.
But once more, and finally, for your own sake, I am asking you to think this over, for if you do as you say, I will see that tomorrow’s papers print the whole story.”
At this point he stopped talking, waiting and hoping for a more humane reply.
But hearing the telephone click, he realized that she had hung up the receiver.
Whereupon he turned to Jamieson, saying:
“That woman is, for the time being, not wholly sane.
We’ll simply have to take this matter into our own hands and act for her.