* * * * *
For ten days I haven't been allowed to write, not even to Michael, and
even now I may only do so for a 'very little while.'
After my headache I remember nothing till I found myself in bed and Ross
making up the fire, still in his old dinner jacket. He looked a giant
in the dim light, and I called out to him,--
'Why am I in bed if it's dinner time?'
'It isn't, it's eleven o'clock at night.'
'Then why are you here, Ross?'
'You weren't very well, fainted or something naughty, and I'm just going
to change and stay with you for a bit.'
'But I don't want any one to sit up with me.'
'Sorry,' said the giant firmly.
'No, but I mean that I don't need any one.'
'The doctor's the best judge of that, Meg.'
'Ross, am _I_ ever the best judge of anything?
'Not to talk till you're better,' he replied.
I said, 'Oh, I shan't be better till I've talked.' So he said I might
'a very little while then.'
'Have I got the bug?' I asked.
'Yes, a minute one, so Nannie mustn't come because of the Gidger; it's
nothing to be alarmed about.'
'I'm not a bit alarmed about the bug, only it always frightens me to
faint. You won't leave me when I feel like fainting, will you?' I
asked, feeling very like it at the moment. Even an iceberg seems a
standby when you're going to faint. Then I began to shake and shiver
and felt as if I were slipping down a slope, till Ross held me in his
arms to stop me sliding down so fast. When I was a little better I
said,--
'Oh, don't be angry with me any more.' He was so ridiculous then and
teased me, said I must be much worse than the doctor thought, to mind
about any one being angry with me.
'But I do mind,' I said.
He was very sweet to me. I can't think how big things can be so gentle.
'Of course, I'm not "angry" with you, darling, only I feel I have so
badly bungled things, if you felt it was necessary to go to the hospital
without telling me.'
'But, Ross, if you had been here, you wouldn't have let me go.'
'Well, of course I wouldn't when you catch the 'flu every time you meet
the bug. Michael----'
'Oh, don't let Michael be angry with me either, I can't bear it.'
'Oh, Meg, I'm sure your temperature must have gone up miles, I shall
have to send the S.P. for the doctor, if you go on being "meek." Has
Michael ever been angry with you, you little goose?'
'No, except about the being taken care of side of things.'
'Well, don't you see, one must take care of something smaller than
oneself. I can't explain, little 'un, only it's in one's blood, and
your going to the hospital like that----'
'Hurt you?'
'Well, darling, if you make me say it, yes, a little bit.'
'I wish that I were dead and buried.'
'The bug always makes a chap feel like that, Meg.'
'It isn't the bug,' I answered, and cried against his sleeve. 'Oh,
could you stop feeling hurt?'
'It depends how good you're to be in future,' said the giant, grinning.
'Will you do all the things I want you to, the next few days? Will you
be a doormat just for once and let me trample on you because you've got
the bug?'
'Yes,' I said meekly.
'Oh, my angel,' exclaimed my brother in great amazement, 'I do feel
frightfully worried about you, I'm perfectly certain you'll be dead in
the morning.'
So the list includes a nurse, no letters till I'm told I may, 'a willing
spirit' as to letting the doctor decide when I am to get up, and
millions of etcs. When I tell you that I took the whole lot 'lying
down,' you will know to what deeps that bug has brought me. So I am a
doormat, and Ross tramples on me.
One day Toby came to see me when I was feeling extra specially ill.
Ross sent for him, I found out afterwards. And when he went away and
Ross came back into my room he said,--
'Oh, Meg, you look heaps better, your eyes are shining so,--why,
darling!' For the tears and smiles were all mixed up. But I couldn't
tell him why just then, only Toby said he thought the stork might fly
into my house again some day if I were careful.
*CHAPTER XXVIII*
The garden has been a place of sweet delights the last ten days. The
pear-trees are veiled in bloom, the pink almonds fully out, and the
gorse a golden glory. I think my dear Dame Nature comes every night and
makes some scent for me. I do not see her though, because I have to go
to sleep so early since I became a doormat. But when I am carried down
into the garden in the morning the air is warm and sweet, and I lie out
under the fir-tree all day long, gradually getting stronger and thinking
lovely secret things.
On Tuesday it was so funny and yet pathetic. Sam went before his M.O.
and Ross for his last and final Board. He got home first and was tired
but radiant, because he had been passed and might expect his orders any
day. He was standing by my chair talking to me when the gate clicked
and Sam came in, and Ross hailed him as a man and brother.
'Well, what luck, Sam?'
'Oh, all right, sir, passed all right.'
'What priceless luck, Sam; did they pull your knee about a lot?'
'Did a bit, sir,' said Sam, looking very fagged I thought.
'Hurt at all?'
'Hardly at all, sir.'
'If it hurt _at all_ they oughtn't to have passed you,' said Ross, the
officer, careful for his men. 'I shall send you back and say that you've
been humbugging.'
'I don't think you will send me back,' grinned the Hickley Woods.
'What?' snapped the King's Regulations.
'I'm sure you won't,' said the Hickley Woods again.
'Why not?' demanded the King's Regulations furiously.
'Because you've done the same yourself, Master Ross.' And Sam went into
the house quickly, leaving his master gasping,--
'Oh, what a chap!'
* * * * *
And everything is packed, and there is only just the telegram to wait
for.
* * * * *
And it has come and he is to go to-night.
* * * * *
And now it is to-night, and he has gone. Oh, it was hard that I was
made to go to bed early as usual. It is sometimes very difficult to be
a doormat. So he came to say 'good-bye' to me when I had gone to bed.
'Oh, Meg, isn't it just too rotten to miss daddy?' And I agreed it was.
'You will keep the nurse a few more days, darling, won't you? Just till
Monday, anyway. I shall feel that much happier about you, if you will.'
So I said I would. I wanted him to go away 'that much happier,' though
I would much rather have been alone.
'Feeling pretty well, to-night, little 'un?'
'Yes, pretty well. Ross, darling, I have loathed having you.'
'I know,' he said. 'It's been the most wretched five months I ever
remember, and this cottage is appalling. I suppose you couldn't see
your way to move into a red-brick villa. Oh, here's your watch, it came
to-day.'
'Oh, thank you, I'd forgotten all about it.'
'You'll be able to count the hours now till daddy comes, Meg.'
'Yes,' and I thought that I could also count the minutes till my brother
went. I looked at my watch and found it wasn't my old silver thing, but
a little gold wrist one set with pearls, and he 'hoped I liked it,' and
I said I did. And then he asked,--
'Have I taken care of you nicely for Michael, little 'un?'