FIRE AND SWORD.
That evening, however, a little incident occurred which made it
difficult, nay, even impossible, to send the papers home with their
leaves uncut. After tea, Missy hurried out, buttoning a sack on, and
looking carefully around to see that she was not followed by neighborly
notice. It had been a warm and lovely day; May was melting into June;
the evening was perfect, the sun not quite below the hills as yet. Missy
went across the lawn; the tide was high, and there was little wind. She
pulled in the anchor of a little boat that rocked on the waves, and
stepping in, took the oars and pushed out. No one was looking; Mr.
Andrews was no doubt taking his solid and comfortable dinner, and had
not yet ventured to accept Miss Varian's invitation to come and smoke
his cigar at the beach gate. Missy had resolved that he should find no
one there to bear him company, even if she gave up her favorite
after-tea hour on the lawn, all summer. She pulled out into the bay,
with a sense of getting free which is one of the pleasures of a woman on
a horse or in a boat by herself. Some of Missy's happiest hours were
spent skimming over the bay like a May-fly. No one could recall her to
duty or bondage till she chose. She almost forgot Aunt Harriet when she
was across the harbor; housekeeping cares fell from her when she pushed
off into the water, and only came back when the keel grated on the
shore again. To-night she drew a long breath of freedom as she pulled
herself, with light-dipping oars, far out on the serene blue bay, and
then, resting, held her breath and listened. How sweet and placid the
scene!
Fret and headache, sin and temptation!--it was difficult to believe in
them, out here in the cool and fresh stillness, palpitating with the
gentle swell of the tide, fanned by an air that scarcely moved the
waters, transfigured by the glorious hues that overspread the heavens
and colored sea and land. "It is good to be here. Why must I ever go
back again?" she thought, and then scorned herself for the unpractical
and sentimental longing. "At any rate, I shall have time to go over to
the West Harbor, before it is night, and perhaps get a look across Oak
Neck into the Sound."
The village looked tranquil and sweet as she passed it; the smoke rose
from a chimney here and there; the faint sounds came out to her like a
dream; a little motion attracted the eye now and then, where the road
was not hidden by the trees; a boatman moved about on the shore, but
slowly, musically. The rich verdure of the early summer fields crept
down to the yellow strip of sand, upon which the water splashed; two or
three spires reached up into the rosy sky; pretty cottages peeped
through the silent trees, green lawns lay with the evening shadows
stretching across them. It was hard to believe that there, in that
tranquillity, nestled sin and sickness; that there people went to law
with each other, and drove sharp bargains, and told lies. That there
indigestion and intemperance had their victims; that lust laid its cruel
wait beneath that shade, that hypocrisy there played its little part.
"I will believe only what I see," thought Missy, gliding past. "All is
lovely and serene." It was a long pull to the West Harbor. The pink had
faded from the sky and from the waters before she turned towards home.
She paddled along the shores of the little island that lies opposite
Yellowcoats, and shuts in its pretty harbor from the Sound, and watched
the changing of the sky from rose color to gray, and from gray to deep,
dark blue, and the coming out of a silver thread of moon, and of a
single star. Then one by one she saw lights glimmer in the distant
village, and one, a little brighter and sharper than the rest, that even
made for a moment a light against the sky.
"Lady Bird, Lady Bird, fly away home,
Your house is on fire, and your children will burn,"
she sang to herself as she rowed across the bay, with her back to the
place she was going to, as is the sad necessity of rowers. She neared
the shore just below Ship Point, and then, turning around her head,
stopped involuntarily to listen, as she heard the sound of a bell. It
must have been a fire, after all, she thought; for while she rowed
across the bay, she had forgotten the sudden light that made her think
of Lady Bird, and the sound of her oars had kept her from hearing the
bells which had been ringing for some time, no doubt. Her first impulse
was to spring on shore, and run up the lane towards the houses that lay
on the outskirts of the village, and hear what was the matter. Then she
reflected that she could do no good, and that her absence and the fire
together might upset her mother; so she soberly turned her boat towards
home, speculating nevertheless, upon the chances of the fire, and
wondering whose old barn or out-house had fallen victim to the heel of
its owner's pipe. She certainly had no feeling of personal interest in
the matter, further than as all Yellowcoats was of personal interest to
her.
But as she neared the steamboat landing, and came opposite a stretch of
road that was clear of trees, she could hear voices, and see people
moving along it.
A sudden feeling of fright came over her, for beyond the steamboat
landing were but two houses, their own, and Mr. Andrews'. She pulled
with all her strength and her boat shot through the water, but it seemed
to her she crept, and that she had time to go through scenes of
misfortune and trouble enough to turn her gray. She could see no blaze,
but the bells down in the village were still pealing forth their call.
There was just light enough to see motion upon the road, and hear
voices, and there must have been a multitude of them to have been
audible above the dash of her quick oars.
She scarcely dared look around when she felt the keel touch the stones;
no, it was not the Andrews' house! What a sight on their own lawn!
Volumes of smoke covered the house; a score of people thronged the
place; men with lanterns were calling and shouting; piles of what looked
like furniture lay about; women were flitting here and there on the
outskirts of the crowd, she could see their light clothes through the
haze. It was all so dim, she felt more terror than if a great flame had
towered up and showed her all. Springing from the boat, she ran to the
beach gate, now lying off its hinges on the sand.
"What is it?" she said faintly to the first person she encountered. One
of the maids, hearing her voice, ran towards her from a group where she
had been standing uselessly telling her story over and over.
"What is all this, Ann?" she said, hurrying forward to meet the girl.
"O Miss Rothermel! Oh! Oh!" she cried, and bursting into tears ran off,
throwing her apron over her head. Missy's limbs shook under her. Her one
thought was, of course, her mother. She struggled forward through the
crowd, on this part of the lawn, all men.
"Keep back now, keep back. We don't want no women here," cried a man,
pushing her away, without looking at her. They were working stoutly at
something, she didn't know what. The crowd were being pushed back. The
smoke was suffocating, the ground uncertain; ladders and furniture
seemed under her feet at every step. She could not speak, she did not
recognize the man who pushed her back, nor could she, through the smoke,
see any face clearly enough to know it. She heard a good many oaths, and
knew that the crowd were very much in the way, and that the men at work
were swearing at those who hindered them. Still she struggled to get
nearer. Every moment she seemed to grow weaker, and every moment the
horror of failing to get to her mother, seemed to grow stronger. At last
she saw what they were trying to do, to get a rope stretched round the
house, to keep back the crowd, perhaps from danger, perhaps from
plunder. She heard above the noise, Mr. Andrews' voice in command; the
crowd seemed to obey him. A line was stretched across the lawn, some
thirty feet from the house, and the idle people were pressed back behind
it. Missy by a desperate effort writhed through the crowd, and caught at
the rope, and held by that, though pushed and swayed up and down, and
almost crushed between her taller and more powerful neighbors. Mr.
Andrews, passing along inside the cleared space, was calling out some
orders to the men. He passed within a foot or two of where she stood,
and she found voice enough to call to him and make him hear.
"Where are you?" he said, hurriedly, coming towards her through the
darkness.
"Let me come to where you are," she gasped, stretching out one hand to
him, but keeping the other fast closed over the rope.
"Let Miss Rothermel pass there; fall back, won't you, quick."
They obeyed him, falling back, and in a moment Missy stood free inside
the rope, holding desperately to the hand Mr. Andrews had stretched out
to her.
"Mamma--" she said, brokenly, "tell me if she is hurt."
"She is safe--all right--I took her, at the first alarm, to my house.
You'd better get to her as quickly as you can. Come with me, I will get
you through the crowd; it is less on this side of the house."
He hurried her forward; she stumbled and nearly fell over a roll of
carpet, and seemed to be walking over an expanse of books and
table-covers and candlesticks.
"Don't worry about any of these things," he said, "they'll all be safe,
now the crowd are all behind the rope."
"I don't worry about anything," she said, "but mamma."
"You can be easy about her; there, I can't be spared here, I think you
can get on now. Tell her the fire is all out, and there is nothing to
worry about. I will see to everything. Ho, there, let Miss Rothermel
through, will you?"
She crawled under the rope, and the people made way for her very
promptly. It was so dark, she could not recognize any of them, but she
heard several familiar voices, and offers of assistance. She was soon
out of the press, and then ran fleetly through the gate and out into the
road, and then through the gate of the Andrews' cottage, and in a moment
more was kneeling by her mother's side. Mrs. Varian, at the sight of
her, broke down completely, and sobbed upon her shoulder. She had been
perfectly calm through all the excitement, but the relief of seeing
Missy was more than she could bear. No one had known where she was, and
there had been unspoken terror in the mother's mind. A few hurried
explanations were all that she could give. An alarm of fire had reached
her in her room, about twilight, and an oppressive odor of smoke and
burning wood. She had heard cries and exclamations of fright from the
servants, and Goneril, in all haste, had run for Mr. Andrews. In a
moment he was on the spot, and no words could express her gratitude for
his consideration, and her admiration for his energy. Before anything
else was done save to send the alarm to the village (which was the work
of an instant, as a horse was saddled at the door), he had insisted
upon bringing her here; she had walked down the stairs, but the smoke
and the excitement had overcome her, and he had lifted her in his arms,
and carried her out of her house into his own. After a little time
Goneril had appeared, leading Miss Varian, and bringing a reassuring
message from Mr. Andrews. The people from the village, she said, had got
there in an incredible time. All Yellowcoats, certainly, had gone in at
that gate, Miss Varian said, coming into the room at that moment,
guiding herself by the door-posts and wainscoting in the unfamiliar
place. Certainly she should alter her opinion of the extent of the
population after this. And every man, woman and child in all the town
swarmed round the place ten minutes after the alarm was given, and were
there yet, though the fire had been out for almost half an hour.
"And," she went on, addressing Missy, "if it hadn't been for this
neighbor of ours, that you have been pleased to snub so mightily, I
think we shouldn't have had a roof over our heads, nor a stitch of
clothing but what we have upon our backs. Such a crowd of incapables as
you have in your employ. Such wringing of hands, such moaning, such
flying about with no purpose. And even Peters lost his head completely.
If Mr. Andrews and Goneril hadn't set them to work, and kept them at it
till the others came, there would have been no help for us. Mr. Andrews
insisted upon my coming away, ordered me, in fact. But I forgave him
before I had got out the gate, though I was pretty mad at first."
"I wonder if I ought not to go and see if I can be of use," said Missy,
irresolutely, rising up.
But the start and flutter in her mother's hand made her sit down again.
"It's my advice to you to stay where you are," said her aunt. "We are a
lot of imbeciles, all of us. We are better out of the way. It isn't very
pleasant to think of the linen closet emptied upon the lawn, and all
Yellowcoats tramping over it, but it's better than being suffocated in
the smoke, or crushed to death in the crowd."
Missy gave her mother a reassuring pressure of the hand, and did not
move again. They were indeed a company of useless beings. It was a
strange experience to her to be sitting still and thinking the
destruction of her household goods a light misfortune. That linen
closet, from which the unaccounted-for absence of a pillow-case, would
have given her hours of annoyance; the book-cases, where order reigned
and where dust never was allowed; the precious china on the dining-room
shelves, only moved by her own hands--for all these she had not a
thought of anxiety, as she felt her mother's hand in hers. The relief
from the fears of that quarter of an hour, while she was making her way
through the crowd, had had the effect of making these losses quite
unfelt. Subdued, and nervously exhausted too, she sat beside her mother,
while the noises gradually subsided on the grounds adjoining. The house
was but a stone's throw from the road, and from the Varians' gate, and
Miss Varian, with keen ear, sitting on the piazza outside, interpreted
the sounds to those within.
"Now the women are beginning to go home," she said. "The children are
fretting and sleepy; there, that one got a slap. Now the teams, hitched
to the trees outside, are unhitched and going away. I wonder how much
plunder is being stowed away in the bottom of the wagons. I feel as if
my bureau drawers were going off in lots to suit pilferers. There now,
the boys and men are beginning to straggle off in pairs. You may be sure
there isn't anything to see, if _they_ are going. Talk of the curiosity
of women. Men and boys hang on long after _their_ legs give out. Ah! now
we're beginning to get toward the end of the entertainment, I should
think. I hear Mr. Andrews calling out to the men to clear the grounds,
and see that the gates are shut; ah, bang goes the front gate. Well, I
should think the poor man might be tired by this time. I should think he
might come in and leave things in charge of some of those men who have
been working with him."
The clock in the parlor struck ten, and then half-past. Eliza, who had
been watching the children, and making up some beds above, now came down
and begged Mrs. Varian to come up and go to bed, but she refused. The
other servants, who had been over at the fire, possibly helping a
little, now came in, bringing a message from Mr. Andrews, that he begged
they would all go to bed; and that everything was safe and they must
feel no anxiety. It might be some time before he could get away. Missy
persuaded her aunt and her mother to go up. Eliza conducted Miss Varian
to a small "spare" room. Missy felt a shudder as she put down her candle
on the dressing-table of the room where she had seen Mrs. Andrews die.
She hoped her mother did not know it.
While she was arranging her for the night, she had time to observe the
room. It was very much changed since she had last been in it; the
pictures were taken from the walls, the position of the furniture
altered, she was not sure but that it was other furniture. Certainly the
sofa and footstool and large chair were gone. Mr. Andrews himself
occupied the small room on the other side of the house that he had had
from the first. This room, the largest and best in the house, had been
kept as a sort of day nursery for the children through the winter. Missy
had often thought of it as calculated to keep alive the memory of their
mother, but now it seemed, as if with purpose, that had been avoided,
and as if the whole past of the room was to be wiped out.
It could be no chance that had worked such a change. There were holes
still in the wall where a bracket had been taken down. A new clock was
on the mantelpiece; there was literally not a thing left the same, not
even the carpet on the floor. It gave her a feeling of resentment; but
this was not the moment to feel resentment. So she went softly down the
stairs, telling her mother to try to sleep, and she would wait up, and
see if she could do anything more than thank Mr. Andrews when he came
in. This was no more than civil; but strangely, Missy did not feel
civil, as she sat counting the minutes in the parlor below. She felt as
if it were odious to be there, odious to feel that he was working for
them, that she must be grateful to him. All her past prejudices, which
had been dying out in the silence of the last few months, and under the
knowledge of his steady kindness to his children, came back as she went
up into that room, which, to her vivid imagination, must always bring
back the most painful scene she had ever witnessed. She had never
expected to enter this house again, at least while its present tenants
occupied it, and here she was, and certain to stay here for one night
and day at least. She had had none of these feelings as she sat during
the evening silently thankful beside her mother; all this tumult of
resentment had come since she had gone up-stairs. The memory of the
beautiful young creature, whose dreadful death she had witnessed, came
back to her with strange power; and the thought that she had been
banished from her children's minds made her almost vindictive. How can I
speak to him? how have I ever spoken to him? she thought, as her eyes
wandered around the room, searching for some trace of her. But it was
thoroughly a man's apartment, "bachelor quarters" indeed. Not a picture
of the woman whose beauty would have graced a palace; not a token that
she had ever been under this roof, that she had died here less than a
year ago. The nurse had come into the room as Missy sat waiting, and,
seeming to divine her thought, said, while she put straight chairs and
books:
"Isn't it strange, Miss Rothermel, that there isn't any picture of Mrs.
Andrews anywhere about the house? I should think their father would be
afraid of the children forgetting all about her. I often talk to them
about her, but I don't know much to say, because none of us ever saw
her; and Mr. Andrews never talks about her to them, and I am sure Jay
doesn't remember her at all. There was once a little box that Jay
dragged out of a closet in the attic, and in the evening after he found
it, he was playing with it in the parlor by his father, and Gabby caught
sight of it, and cried, 'That's my mamma's box; give it to me, Jay.'
They had a little quarrel for it, and Gabby got it, and then Jay forgot
all about it, and went to play with something else. But," went on Eliza,
lowering her voice, "that evening I saw Mr. Andrews, after the children
had gone to bed, empty all Gabrielle's things out of the box, and carry
it up stairs, and put it away in a locked-up closet in the hall."
"Probably he wanted to punish her for taking it away from Jay," said
Missy, insincerely, feeling all the time that it was not the thing for
her to be allowing Eliza to tell her this.
"No," said Eliza, "for he brought her home a beautiful new box the next
evening, and he wouldn't have done that if he had wished to punish her,
I think."
"Eliza, don't you think you'd better see if the fire is good in the
kitchen? Mr. Andrews might want a cup of coffee made, or something
cooked to eat. He must be very tired."
Eliza meekly received her dismissal, and went into the kitchen. At
half-past eleven o'clock Missy heard the gate open, and went forward to
meet Mr. Andrews at the door.
"You are very tired," she said, falteringly.
"I believe I am," he returned, following her into the parlor. She was
shocked when she saw him fully in the light of the lamp. He looked tired
indeed, and begrimed with smoke, his coat torn, his arm tied up in a
rude fashion, as if it had been hurt.
"Sit down," she said, hurriedly pulling out a chair. He stumbled into
it.
"I really didn't know how tired I was," he said, laying back his head.
"Can't I get you some coffee, or some wine? You ought to take something
at once, I think."
"I'd like a glass of wine," he said, rather faintly. "Here's the key.
You'll find it in the sideboard."
But when he attempted to get the hand that wasn't bandaged into his
pocket, he stopped, with a gesture of pain.
"Confound it!" he said; "it's a strain, I suppose;" and then he grew
rather white.
"Let me get it," said Missy, hurriedly.
"The inside pocket of my coat--left side," he said. She fumbled in the
pocket, rather agitatedly, feeling very sorry that he was so suffering,
but not sorry enough to make her forget that it was very awkward for her
to be bending over him and searching in his inside pocket for a key. At
last she found it, and ran and fetched the wine. He seemed a little
better when he drank it.
"What is the matter with your arm?" she said, standing by him to take
back the glass.
"A ladder fell on it," he said.
"And you sent for the doctor, did you?"
"The doctor, no! What time has there been to be sending off for
doctors?" he returned, rather impatiently, turning himself in the chair,
but with a groan. Missy ran out of the room, and in two minutes somebody
was on the way to the village for the doctor. Eliza came back into the
room with her.
"Can't you get on the sofa? and we'll make you easier," said Missy,
standing by him.
But he shook his head. "I think I'll rest a little here," he said, "and
then get to my room."
"I know; I've sent for the doctor, but I am afraid it will be some time
before he comes. I thought I might be doing something for your hand
that's strained; I am afraid to meddle with your arm. Do you think your
shoulder's out of place, or anything like that?"
"No, I hardly think it is," he said. "It's more likely nothing but a
bruise; but it hurts like--thunder!"
This last came from an attempt to get out of his chair. Missy shook up
the pillows of the sofa.
"See," she said, "you'll be more comfortable here; let Eliza help you."
He submitted, and got to the sofa. "Now, before you lie down, let us get
your coat off," she said. She felt as if he were Jay, and must be
coaxed. But getting the coat off was not an easy matter; in fact, it was
an impossible matter.
"It's torn a good deal," she said; "you wouldn't care if I got the
scissors and cut it a little?"
"Cut it into slivers!" he said, concisely. He was evidently feeling
concisely, poor man!
Eliza flew for the scissors; in a moment Missy's pretty fingers had done
the work, and the poor mutilated coat fell to the floor, a sacrifice to
neighborly devotion. "Now run and get me a pail of boiling water, and
some flannels--quick. In the meantime, Mr. Andrews, turn your hand a
little; I want to get at the button of your sleeve. Oh, dear! don't move
it; I see. Here go the scissors again. I'll mend the sleeve for you, I
promise; it's the least that I can do. There! _now_ it's all right. Now
let me get this towel under your wrist. Ah! I know it hurt; but it had
to be done. Now here's the hot water. Eliza, kneel here by Mr. Andrews;
and as fast as I hand you the flannel, put it on his wrist--see, just
there."
Missy withdrew, and gave her place to Eliza; but the first touch of her
hands to the flannel which she was to wring out made her jump so, she
felt sure she never could do justice to them.
"You'd better let me wring out the flannels, Miss Rothermel, and you put
them on," said Eliza. "My hands are used to hot water." So Missy went
back to her place, and knelt beside her patient, taking the steaming
flannels from Eliza's hand, and putting them on his wrist. Before she
put each one on, she held it up against her cheek, to see that it was
not too hot. She was as gentle and as tender and as coaxing as if she
were taking care of little Jay. It is a question how much sentiment a
man in severe pain is capable of feeling. But certainly it ought to have
been a solace to any one to be tended by such a sweet little nurse as
this. Who would think that she could spit fire, or snub her neighbors,
or "boss" it, even over servants?
Missy was a born nurse. She was quick-witted, nimble-fingered,
sure-footed, and she was coaxing and tender when people were "down." She
was absolutely sweet when any one was cornered or prostrate, and
couldn't do any way but hers.
The hot cloths, which had stung him a little at first, soon began to
relieve the pain in his wrist.
"There, now, I told you it would. You were so good to let us do it. Do
bear it a little longer, please."
Missy's eyes had wandered to the clock many times, and her ears had been
strained to catch the sound of the doctor's steps outside. But it was
now an hour since the messenger had gone, and it was very certain he
could not have been at home. When he might come, how many miles away he
was at this moment, it was impossible to guess. She knew very well that
the other arm was the real trouble; and she knew, too, that leaving it
for so many hours unattended to might make it a bad business. Her
experience never had gone beyond sprains and bruises, but she had the
courage of genius; she would have tackled a compound fracture if it had
come in her way.
"That tiresome doctor," she said, sweetly. "I wonder when he'll get
here. See, I've muffled up the wrist in this hot bandage. Now suppose we
try if we can't do something for this arm over here. I'll be ever so
gentle. Now see, I didn't hurt you much before."
Mr. Andrews' face contracted with pain as she touched his wounded arm,
even in the lightest manner. In fact, he was bearing as much pain as he
thought he could, without having it touched. But it wasn't in nature to
resist her, and he turned a little on his side, and the scissors flew up
his sleeve and laid bare the bruised, discolored arm.
"You see," she said, softly getting a piece of oil-silk under it, "if it
is only bruised this will help it, and if it's broken or out of joint or
anything, it will not do any harm. It doesn't hurt you when I touch it
here, does it?" she went on, watching his face keenly as she passed her
hand lightly over his shoulder.
"It hurts everywhere," he answered groaning, but he did not wince
particularly.
"I don't believe there's any dislocation," she said cheerfully, though
not too cheerfully, for she knew better than to do that, when any one
was suffering. "I don't believe there's any dislocation, and if there
isn't, I'll soon relieve you, if you'll let me try." Eliza came back
with more hot water, and again for a patient half hour the wringing of
flannels and the application of them went on. At the end of that time,
Missy began to think there was something besides sprain and bruise, for
the patient was growing pale, and the pain was manifestly not abating.
She gave him some more wine, and bathed his head, and fanned him, and
wished for the doctor. There was no medicine in the house with which she
was familiar. Her own beloved weapons were now out of reach, and she
could not bring herself to give opium and the horrid drugs in which this
benighted gentleman still believed. Ignatia, camomilla, moschus! Ah,
what she might have done for him, if she could have known where to lay
her hand on her tiny case of medicines. She gave him more wine; that was
the only thing left for her to do, since he would probably not submit to
letting her set his arm, which she was now convinced was broken. She
felt quite capable of doing it, or of doing anything rather than sitting
still and seeing him suffer. She privately dispatched Eliza to get
bandages, and her work-basket, and to replenish the fire in the range.
At last, at a few minutes before two o'clock, the welcome sound of the
doctor's gig driving to the gate, met her ear. She let him in, while
Eliza sat beside the patient. He looked surprised to see her, and they
both thought involuntarily of the last time they had been together in
this house.
"You are a good neighbor," he said, taking off his hat and coat in the
hall.
"We have had a good neighbor to-night in Mr. Andrews," said Missy, with
a little stiffness. "He has made himself ill in our service, and we
feel as if we could not do too much in taking care of him."
"Certainly," said the doctor, searching for his case of instruments in
his pocket. "You have had a great fire, I hear. How much damage has been
done?"
"I do not know at all. I had to stay with my mother, and Mr. Andrews is
in too much pain since he came in, to answer any questions. I am very
much afraid his arm is broken."
"Indeed," said the doctor, comfortably, shaking down the collar of his
coat, which had been somewhat disarranged in the taking off of the
superior garment. It seemed as if he were trying how long he could be
about it.
Missy fumed.
"Now," he said, following her into the room. He seated himself by the
patient in a chair which Missy had set for him when she heard the gate
open, and asked him many questions, and poked about his arm and shoulder
and seemed to try to be as long in making up his mind as he had been in
getting ready to come in.
"Well?" said Missy at last, feeling she could not bear it any longer.
Mr. Andrews' face had expressed that he was about at the end of his
patience several minutes before.
It was hoping too much, that he should tell them at once what was the
matter; but by and by it was allowed them to infer that Mr. Andrews' arm
was broken in two places; that the shoulder was all right, and that the
wrist was only sprained, and was much the better for the treatment it
had had. He praised Missy indirectly for her promptness, told her Mr.
Andrews might thank her for at least one hand--which he could
undoubtedly have the use of in a few days. Mr. Andrews' face showed he
wasn't prepared for being helpless for even a few days. The pain, great
as it was, could not prevent his disgust at this.
"And how long before my arm will be fit to use?" he said shortly.
"Better get it into the splints before we decide when we shall take it
out," said the doctor, with complacence, taking out his case of
instruments.
He enjoyed his case of instruments, and there was so little use for it
at Yellowcoats. It was on his tongue to say something discouraging about
the length of the confinement probable, but Missy gave him a warning
look, and said cheerfully, "a broken arm is nothing; I've always thought
it the nicest accident that any one could have. Besides, it is your left
arm. You won't mind the sling at all, if you do have to wear it for a
few days longer than you might think necessary. St. John broke his arm
once when he was a boy, and it was really nothing. We were surprised to
find how soon it was all well."
Missy spoke as if she knew all about it.
"Then you know how to help me with the bandages?" the doctor said.
"Oh, yes, I remember quite well."
By the time that the arm was set, and the patient helped into his room
by the doctor and Eliza, Missy had decided that Mr. Andrews bore pain
pretty well for a man, and that the doctor was even stupider than she
had thought. She also arrived at the conclusion that the whole situation
was as awkward as possible, when the door closed upon the object of her
solicitude, and she realized that she could do him no further good. It
was only then that she became aware that she was deeply interested in
the case. To do her justice, if it had been Eliza's arm she would have
suffered a pang in giving it up. She was naturally a nurse, and
naturally enthusiastic. She had made up her mind to disregard the
doctor's orders totally and give the patient homeopathic treatment,
according to her lights. But here was conventionality coming in. She
must give him up, and he was no doubt to be shut up in that room for a
day or two at least, to be stupefied with narcotics, and then dosed with
tonics. Missy clenched her little tired hands together. Why could Eliza
go in and take care of him, and she not? She could not influence him
through Eliza, or Melinda, or the waitress. She must give up
conventionality or homeopathy. It was a struggle, but conventionality
won.