WAITING.
In the dreadful days that followed, Grace Wolfe hardly left the sick
girl's side. The doctor came, and pronounced the trouble a brain fever,
brought on by fear and worry. A trained nurse came and took charge.
Lobelia submitted to her care, but her one conscious instinct was that
of clinging to Grace. Whether, as seemed most probable, she took her for
Peggy, or whether she simply felt and craved the magnetism of the wild
girl's touch and presence, they could not tell; but she was never quiet
save when Grace's hand was resting on her. Her aunt came, her sole
living relative; and seeing her, poor Lobelia was explained. Prim,
fussy, and forbidding, her rich dress showing the same utter
tastelessness that marked that of her niece, Miss Parkins was not the
woman one would have chosen to be the mother of a girl like Lobelia. She
looked at the sick girl, and said it was very unfortunate; she was
always having illnesses, and had given them no end of anxiety.
"She has had everything that money could buy!" she said, over and over.
"It has never seemed to make any difference; her mother was the same
sort of person, unreasonable, always wanting what she couldn't have. My
brother had a great deal of trouble with her, and Lobelia is like her. I
have tried to do my duty by her. Do you think she will get well,
doctor?"
"Yes, I do think she will get well!" replied Doctor Hendon, glaring at
her in a way that made Miss Russell feel alarm for her safety. "I think
she will get well if she stays here, and has care and tenderness and
sympathetic treatment. You are her sister?" He turned upon Grace, who
sat beside the bed, passing her light hand over the sick girl's forehead
with smooth, regular strokes.
"No," said Miss Russell. "This is one of the pupils, Miss Wolfe.
She--was in the room when this attack came on, and Lobelia has clung to
her from the first in a singular manner. I did not dare to remove her,
and so, as you see, she has simply stayed here, helping the nurse."
"I see!" said the doctor. "I suppose she was--hum! stay close by her!"
this was to Grace. "You have a touch, I see. Probably you have been kind
to her,--poor, forlorn, miserable little creature as ever I saw in my
life!" The last words were hurried out as if they were one, in a gruff,
not to say savage whisper.
Grace looked up at him. "I am the cause of her illness," she said,
quietly. "I have never been kind to her, or taken any notice of her. I
have come through her room, using it for a passage when I was breaking
bounds, and have frightened her--to death."
The doctor looked at her under his bushy eyebrows. "That may all be so!"
he said. "All the same, you may now have the chance of saving her life.
Stay by her, that's all I have to say to you."
"And what have you to say to me, doctor?" asked Miss Parkins. "I have a
great responsibility. Lobelia will inherit a large fortune if she lives.
She has had everything that money--"
"You can go home!" said Doctor Hendon, with a sudden movement suggestive
of biting. "Go home, and stay there--I--mean, have things ready for her
when she is ready for a change. Good morning! Ya-ouw!" this last was a
manner of snarl with which he favoured Miss Parkins as he trotted out of
the room. The lady stared after him. "Is he a little touched?" she
asked. "He doesn't seem quite sane."
Miss Russell assured her that Doctor Hendon was eminently sane, and got
her out of the room as soon as possible.
Grace remained, and hour by hour kept her watch at the sick girl's
pillow, laying her magic touch on the burning brow, singing the soft
songs that seemed more than anything else to soothe the sufferer. So
sitting, hour by hour, day after day, the old life seemed to slip away
from Grace Wolfe. She felt it going, felt the change coming on spirit
and thought, but made no effort to hinder the change. All the
restlessness, the wild longing for freedom, the beating her head against
the friendly bars,--where was it now? She was content to sit here,
watching with the nurse the changes that came over the face of their
patient. They talked together in low voices which soothed rather than
disturbed; one asking, the other relating, the woman of experience and
the eager girl exchanged thoughts and confidences. Many times in the day
the girls came to the door, Peggy and the Owls, and now and then an
anxious, frightened freshman. Peggy had longed to assist in the nursing,
but she had too heavy a hand, and hers was not the gift. Gertrude
Merryweather had it, and she sometimes took Grace's place, and sent her
down for a breath of fresh air and a run with Bertha or Peggy on the
lawn. Grace went obediently, for she knew she must keep up her strength;
but she was always back again at the first possible instant, and her
thoughts never seemed to go with her, but stayed at her post.
"My dear," said Miss Russell once, "I cannot let you wear yourself out.
Let Gertrude watch to-night while Miss Carter rests!" But Grace only
said, "I'd give my life if I could, Miss Russell. She's going to get
well if my life can do it!" and Miss Russell, looking into the blue eyes
and meeting the spirit of resolution that shone there, could only kiss
the girl's cheek and pass on.
Lobelia was very ill, and a shadow hung over the whole school. Lessons
went on as usual, but the girls spoke low in their recitations, and
there was an unconscious hurry in both teachers and pupils, all anxious
to get through, to ask and hear the last tidings from the sickroom. In
those days, too, teachers and pupils learned to know each other as never
before. The grave women who cared so much--so strangely much, it often
seemed--whether a lesson were well or ill learned, who made such a fuss
about trifles, and set such hard tasks, and made such unreasonable
rules, behold! they were just as anxious and troubled as if Lobelia had
been one of their own number, instead of the most insignificant
freshman in the whole school. Miss Boyle was not simply a mathematical
machine, Rose Barclay found out. She really cared about them, cared
enough to call them into her room, and want to hear all about that last
walk, when Peggy had killed the rattlesnake,--oh, how brave Peggy had
been,--and how poor Lobelia had seen it, too, and with her inborn terror
of snakes had perhaps got the first panic that, after brooding and
brooding, and being added to the terror by nights, had ended in this.
Miss Pugsley was gone. Her departure had hardly been noticed, was
well-nigh forgotten by this time; but Colney Hatch found Miss Mink
sniffing mouse-like sniffs in a corner, and wept with her, and offered
her a live bat that she had just caught, by way of consolation. But
their tears were for Grace, for they hardly knew Lobelia save by sight.
As for Miss Russell and Emily Cortlandt, they were the life and stay of
the school in these days. Steadfast and cheerful, always hopeful,
bringing forward every favourable symptom and sharing it with the whole
school; not a girl of all the seventy-odd who did not feel their
sympathy and friendship like strong hands ready to take theirs and
uphold them.
One day, when things were at the worst, Peggy found Viola in her room,
crying on the divan.
"What is the matter?" she asked, rather briefly. Viola's troubles seemed
microscopic in this time of heart-wringing anxiety.
Viola raised her head, and her eyes were red with weeping.
"They say she's going to die, Peggy!" she said.
"Nonsense!" said Peggy, gruffly. "Who says so?"
"Oh, all the girls. They say Doctor Hendon shook his head when he went
out this morning; you know that's a very bad sign. Oh, Peggy, I wish I
had been good to the poor little thing. You have always been good to
her. I don't believe you suffered as much as I did from her clothes, but
I wish I had been good to her all the same. Peggy, if she gets well, I'm
going to do over her hats for her, and try to make her look different.
Peggy, where are you going? Don't leave me! Lobelia is going to die, and
I feel so frightened."
"I don't believe she is going to die," said Peggy. "I am going to the
study to see Miss Russell; come with me if you like, V."
Viola crept along beside her, cowering in Peggy's shadow as they passed
the door of the sick-room. Peggy paused to listen. From within came the
sound of soft singing, and the faint rustle of a wood fire. What was
Grace singing? one of the quaint French songs that she loved,--
"Trois anges sont venus ce soir,
M'apportaient de bien belles choses;
L'un d'eux avaient un encensoir,
Le deuxieme un chapelet de roses.
Et le troisieme avait en main
Une robe toute fleurie,
De perles, d'or et de jasmin,
Comme en a Madame Marie.
Noel! Noel!
Nous venons du ciel,
T'apporter ce que tu desires;
Car le bon Dieu,
Au fond du ciel bleu,
A chagrin lorsque tu soupires!"
The two girls crept softly past, Viola wiping the tears from her eyes.
They went down to the study, and, knocking gently, were bidden to enter.
Miss Russell and Miss Cortlandt were sitting together, and at their feet
sat the Snowy and the Fluffy Owls, curled up on two hassocks. Peggy
looked in timidly.
"Come in, Peggy!" said Miss Russell's cheerful voice. "Who is that with
you? Oh, Viola? come in, my dear! Do you want anything?"
"No, Miss Russell," said Peggy. "I--I just wanted to come in, that was
all."
"So did we!" said the Fluffy. "We just came, and we feel so much better.
Sit down here, Peggy."
She patted the floor beside her, and Peggy and Viola sat down. Peggy
heaved a sigh of relief. "I thought you would let us come," she said.
"It's so dreadful not to be able to do anything, isn't it, Miss Russell?
If we could help in any way, or feel that we were doing anything at
all, it wouldn't be so bad. I came by the door just now, and Grace was
singing, and it all sounded so quiet and peaceful. You think it is all
going well, don't you, Miss Russell? You don't think she is worse
to-day, do you, Miss Russell?"
Miss Russell put back Peggy's hair, which had fallen into her eyes as
she looked up eagerly. "Dear," she said, "I was just telling Gertrude
and Bertha how it is. Doctor Hendon thinks there will be a change
to-day; he thinks the crisis is coming. It is a time of great danger,
but he has good hope, and we must have it, too. And, girls, you are all
longing to help; now, you can help us to-day. You can help very much
indeed. The house must be kept absolutely quiet this afternoon. The
girls are in their rooms now; but if you could get them off for a walk,
some of them, and send the rest to the gymnasium, you would be doing us
all a service. Miss Cortlandt is going to the gymnasium, and she will
give them a drill, or let them dance, if they like--you don't think they
feel like dancing? No more do I! I shall not leave Lobelia's room
myself till the change comes; I am going back there now, as soon as the
doctor comes. Ah! there he is now! Remember, dear girls, quiet; and for
the rest, hope and patience--and trust!"
She kissed them each in turn, quietly and gravely, and was gone. Turning
to Emily Cortlandt, they saw that her eyes were full of tears; yet she
spoke cheerfully. "Miss Russell is so wise, girls!" she said. "I am sure
you will do all you can--it is an anxious time. One thing she forgot to
say,--I wouldn't let the other girls know, if you can help it, how grave
the danger is. Some of them are nervous, and might have hysterics, or
even be ill. Viola, my child, you look very pale. Don't you feel well?"
Viola was trembling all over. She came close to Miss Cortlandt and
nestled up to her like a little child. "I'm afraid!" she said, simply.
"I never was near where anybody died. I'm dreadfully afraid, Miss
Cortlandt."
Very gently Emily Cortlandt spoke then to the frightened child, and to
the other three girls, whose strong, sensible faces were grave enough,
but who were able to possess themselves in courage and quiet. She told
them some of her thoughts, the thoughts of a gentle Christian woman; of
the hope and love and promise that made death seem to her only the white
door that led into life, a life toward which we must all look, and for
which we must shape ourselves as we pass through this world of joy and
sorrow. She told them of young lives which had seemed cruelly cut off
here; and of how it was her thought that death had been to them not the
end, but the beginning; and of the lovely light they had shed behind
them, of gentleness and hope and love. Then she spoke more brightly, and
told them how strong, after all, life was in the young, and how one
could always hope, while even a spark remained. Doctor Hendon had good
hope, she repeated, and they must have it, too.
"And now," she said, "I must go, and you must go, too. Find the girls
quietly, and bring them to me, or take them out for one of your good
walks; and let us, whatever we do, do it cheerfully!"
Faithfully the Owls and Peggy laboured, that November afternoon. First
they soothed and comforted Viola, finishing the good work that Miss
Cortlandt had begun; and they induced her to go to the gymnasium and
take a party with her. Then they went about softly from door to door
through the corridors, not spreading any alarm, merely saying that Miss
Russell thought they would all better go out, as the afternoon was so
fine, and that they were to go quietly, as Lobelia might be asleep.
Before long, without noise or confusion, the whole school was out,
either in the gymnasium or on the road. The walkers divided into three
parties, Peggy leading the freshmen, Gertrude the juniors, while Bertha
marshalled the sophomores, who came like lambs, half proud, half shy, at
being under the leadership of the renowned Fluffy. The seniors, of
course, could be trusted to take care of themselves. They were a small
class, and somehow--as happens in every school with one class and
another--had never made themselves a power; they had gone now with the
rest to the gymnasium.
Peggy, as she walked at the head of her troop, tried to feel her cousin
Margaret's hand in hers. Always humble, and distrustful of her own
powers, she tried hard to think what Margaret would do in her place. She
would tell stories, probably, wonderful stories of heroes and great
deeds. Ah! but Peggy did not know the stories in the books; they never
stayed by her. Well, then, she must tell what she did know! She found
herself talking about her home life, the home on the great Western
ranch; of her father and brothers, and the many feats in their strong,
active life. Here, if she had only known it, were stories better than
any in Margaret's books. How Brother Jim hunted the white wolf for three
days in the mountains; how Hugh set the trap for the young grizzly, and
more wonderful, how he tamed him and made him his friend and servant;
how Father Montfort saved the three men who were snowed up in Desolation
Gulch, and brought them out one by one on his shoulders, just as their
last biscuit was gone and they had sat down to die,--on and on went the
tale, for it was a story without an end. On and on went the girls, too,
unconscious of their going, forgetting to think they were tired,
forgetting everything save the joy of listening. The shadows were
lengthening fast when Peggy, still relating, turned her face homeward,
wondering with thankfulness, as she noted the position of the sun, how
she had been able to take them so far without once hearing a groan or a
sigh of weariness. She looked around, and saw only sparkling eyes and
rosy cheeks. "A month ago," she thought, "they would have said I had
almost killed them. They really are hardening, and I'm so glad!"
"Oh, go on, Peggy!" cried Rose Barclay. "You are never going to stop
there! What became of the one with the wooden leg? We must know!"
On went the story, and on went the girls; the sun sank lower and lower,
the shadows crept longer and longer, the air grew cool and thin with
the coming night. The man with the wooden leg had chopped it up for
fuel, and Father Montfort had brought him and all the others in triumph
to the ranch, and set them down by the fire, when-- "Oh, dear me!" cried
Ethel Fair. "What a shame, girls! Here we are at the gate. I say! let's
go on a little farther, Peggy."
But Peggy was wise, and knew when to stop; besides, now that she was
near the house again, the anxiety and distress that had been lulled by
the walk and the story-telling, came back like a flood, and filled her
heart. They were crossing the lawn; what tidings would greet them at the
door? Some one was standing there now; Miss Cortlandt, was it? no, Miss
Russell herself. She was waiting for them with the news; would it be
good or bad? Peggy hung back for an instant; then she walked steadily
forward. "Quiet, girls!" was all she said. "I think Miss Russell has
something to tell us."
They were at the foot of the steps now; and Miss Russell was coming down
to meet them, running, the grave and stately woman, to meet them, like
a girl. Her hands were outstretched, her face was all aglow with joy,
the glad tears ran down her cheeks.
"It is over!" she whispered. "Softly, my dear children. Come softly in.
The crisis is over, and the child will live! Come with me, and let us
thank God together!"