my father feel less uncomfortable. "It was the most absurd place to put
a bowl of flowers," she asserted cheerfully, "on so slight a table, and
so near the book-shelves. I've always declared that an accident would
occur; now I can say, 'I told you so!' and that's such a satisfaction
to a woman, you know."
She laughed merrily, but the _pater_ still looked troubled. "It was a
great piece of carelessness on my part," he repeated mournfully, for
about the fifth time. "I stood looking over a volume I had taken from
the shelf,--that, I am thankful to know, has not been injured" (with a
hasty glance at the book still tightly clasped in his left hand),--"and
becoming interested, I presume I forgot where I was, and--and leaned too
heavily against the table. It gave way, and--this ruin is the result!
I--I--cannot express to you how I regret the accident."
"_Don't_ be troubled over it, dear friend, _please_ don't," Mrs.
Blackwood urged. "Nothing is broken but the bowl, and that may have been
cracked before,--it seems to me that one of them was; let us rather
rejoice that you were not hurt by your fall, for _that_ would indeed
have been a serious matter. Now I'm sure you want to resume looking over
that 'Abbé Marité;' isn't it quaint? and perhaps among Mr. Blackwood's
glasses we may be able to find a pair that would suit your eyes for the
nonce. I know how perfectly lost one feels without one's 'second eyes.'
Shall we make the selection? Come, Felix and Nannie,--you, too,
Max,--and help us get the right focus. Oh, please don't speak of going,
Mr. Rose."
Chatting pleasantly to divert my father's mind from the accident,
Mrs. Blackwood led us into her husband's smoking-room, where from
his collection of spectacles and eyeglasses my father made a selection
which enabled him to finish the "Abbé," and soon after that to get home
with some degree of comfort.
There were no more _contretemps_ that afternoon, I am thankful to say;
Max went home and dined with us. He was in fine spirits,--so glad to get
home again, he said,--and made even the _pater_ smile over a description
of what he calls his "adventures in the far West." With the exception
of a short visit in the study, he spent the evening with us in the
schoolroom, hearing all that has happened to us since he went away,
and playing violin and piano duets with Nannie and me.
I intended to have had a talk with Max about Chad, but there was no
opportunity on this evening; and besides, he looked so pleased when Nora
said she thought that Chad was "nice"--and she claims to be so _very_
fastidious! I can't understand it--that I concluded I'd wait until
another time to air my opinion. I noticed that Phil didn't say anything
for or against Chad: all the same, _I_ shall speak, just as soon as I
can get Max alone; for, if he doesn't know it already, he ought to be
told the sort of individual his ward is. As far as I'm personally
concerned, I'd put up with the fellow rather than trouble Max, but
I've got to think of Phil.
After Max had taken his departure, and Betty and Jack had been walked
off to bed, we four older ones sat talking for a few minutes. Phil, as
usual, sat on the edge of the schoolroom table. "Well, you three gay and
festive creatures," he said, with a comprehensive wave of his hand
toward us, "what's your true and honest opinion of the afternoon's
tea-fight, politely termed 'reception'? You needn't all speak at once,
you know."
"Thanks awfully for the information," laughed Nora, making him a very
graceful and sweeping bow. "Well, except for the unhappy _quart d'heure_
that papa gave us, I enjoyed the reception immensely. Oh, I'd _love_ to
be out in society," she said, with sparkling eyes, "and meet lots of
people, and go to balls and receptions and all those affairs every day
of my life. That's what _I_ call living,--not this stupid, humdrum
school life; and I 'll have them all, too, some day, see if I don't,"
she ended, with a toss of her head and a little conscious laugh. Nora
knows she's pretty; that's one of the things that spoil her.
Phil eyed her severely, wrinkling up his brows. "Eleanor, my love," he
remarked, with his most fatherly air, "I beg that you will bear in mind
the fable of the unwise canine who lost his piece of meat by trying to
catch its larger reflection in the stream, and endeavour to profit
thereby. No charge made for that good advice. Now, Nancy, let's hear
from you."
Nannie hesitated a little. "Why--I think I enjoyed it," she said slowly;
"yes, I did."
"What! _did_ you?" I exclaimed in surprise. "You mean to say you enjoyed
sitting on that lounge and seeing Miss Devereaux snub that unfortunate
little woman in the hideous bonnet?"
"Well, no, not that part," admitted Nannie.
"And did you enjoy the _pater's_ smashing the Doulton bowl?"
"Oh, no, of _course_ not," Nannie returned, somewhat indignantly.
"Then where did the enjoyment come in?" I persisted.
"I can't tell you why, or when, or how, but I enjoyed it," was Nannie's
reply; and then, "without rhyme or reason," as nurse says, she blushed a
vivid red.
"Do look at her!" teased Phil. "Why, Nancy, it isn't against the law to
have enjoyed yourself. What're you blushing for?"
"I'm sure I don't know," my twinnie answered, with such a look of
perplexity in her sweet, honest eyes that we had to laugh. Whereupon she
blushed rosier than ever, even to her ears and her pretty throat, and
running over to me, hid her flushed face on my shoulder. "Please stop
teasing, Fee," she whispered.
Now if anybody was teasing just then Phil was in it, and I started to
tell her so; but Phil interrupted: "One more county to be heard from,"
he declared, "and that's you, most noble Felix. Are you, like Nora,
hankering after the unattainable in the shape of daily receptions?"
"Can't say that I'm devoured with a desire that way," I confessed with a
grin. "I wouldn't go over this afternoon's experience for a farm! As
they say in the novels, my feelings can be better imagined than
described when I walked into the Blackwoods' library and saw the _pater_
standing in the midst of the shattered vase _à la_ Marius in the ruins
of Carthage. Had I but owned a genii, we'd have been whisked out of that
room and home in about two seconds. No, on calm reflection, I forswear
receptions for the future."
"Hullo!" exclaimed Phil, suddenly, "I say,--come to think of it,--how
d'you suppose the _Blackwoods_ enjoyed the orgy?"
We looked at each other. "_I_ said I enjoyed myself," asserted Nora,
with a superior and very virtuous air. "It's the least one can do when
people go to the trouble and expense of entertaining one."
Nannie sat up and looked contrite. "_Poor_ Mrs. Blackwood!" she said;
"Doulton is her favourite china, and that bowl _was_ a beauty!"
"I guess they got the worst of it," I said to Phil.
"I shouldn't wonder if they had," he answered with a nod. "Moral: Don't
give afternoon receptions. Let's be off to bed. Good-night, all."
XII.
IN THE SHADOW.
TOLD BY JACK.
Felix and I were together in his room; he was helping me with my
Latin--that vile Latin, how I despise it!--when we heard some one
calling from the hall two flights below. "Why, that sounds like Nannie's
voice!" Felix said, starting from his chair. "I wonder what's up?"
We heard plainly enough when we got in the hall, for Nannie was calling,
in a loud, frightened way, "Felix! Phil, Jack! somebody!--_anybody!_"
"All right! here we are! What's the matter?" Felix answered, making for
the steps as fast as he could go. "Oh, pshaw! I've left my cane in the
room; get it for me, Jack, and catch up to me on the stairs."
I dashed into Fee's room, snatched up the cane, and was out again in
time to hear Nannie say, excitedly: "Tell nurse to come right down to
the study, Felix, and send Jack flying for Dr. Archard; papa is _very_
ill, I am afraid. Oh, be quick, _quick!_"
"Great Scott!" exclaimed Fee. I knew by his voice that he was awfully
frightened. Then suddenly he slid down in a sitting position on one of
the steps. I thought he must have stumbled; but before I could say
anything, or even get to him, he called out, "All right, Nan! nurse will
be there in a minute," adding impatiently to me: "What are you gaping
at? Get on your hat--it's on the hat rack--and rush for Dr. Archard as
fast as you can. Tell him father's very ill, and to come at _once_. Step
lively, Jack!"
"But nurse--" I hesitated. "Shall I tell her first?"
"Do as you've been told," Fee said sharply. "I'll see to that; do you
suppose I'm _utterly_ useless? _Start!_" He gave me a little push on the
shoulder as he spoke, and I tell you I just flew down those steps and
out into the street.
I ran every step of the way, and caught Dr. Archard just as he was
stepping into his carriage to go somewhere. He looked very serious when
he heard my message. "I'm not surprised," he said; "I've been expecting
a break-down in that quarter for some time." Then he made me jump into
the carriage with him, and we drove rapidly round to the house.
There we found everybody very much excited. The study door stood open,
and from the hall I could see papa lying on the lounge, with his eyes
closed, and looking very white. Nurse was rubbing his feet, Nannie his
hands, and Miss Marston stood by his head fanning him.
[Illustration: "I COULD SEE PAPA LYING ON THE LOUNGE."]
Felix and Phil were not around, but I tell you the younger children
were; nurse and Miss Marston not being there to keep them upstairs, they
had all collected in the hall, and refused flatly to go to the nursery.
For fear of the noise they might raise, Nora couldn't very well make
them obey; but after the doctor came, she and Betty half coaxed, half
drove them into the drawing-room, and tried to keep them there. It was
hard work to do this, though, for every now and then Paul or Alan, or
even Kathie--_she_ ought to have known better--would sneak out "to see
what was going on." Then Betty'd fly out too, and as quietly as possible
catch and haul back the runaway. I think both Nora and Betty would like
to have had me come in there too,--Nora said as much,--but I pretended I
didn't hear; _I_ didn't want to be shut up, and anyway, as I thought,
somebody ought to be on hand to run errands in case anything was needed.
So I just stayed where I was.
"Oh, I am so _thankful_ you have come!" Nannie exclaimed, as the doctor
walked in. But, except for a nod, he didn't notice her; he laid his
fingers on papa's pulse, then in a minute or so knelt down and put his
ear to papa's chest. I was watching him so intently that I didn't know
Phil had come in until I heard Nora--she was standing in the hall and
holding the drawing-room doors shut--say, in a low tone, "Hush! don't
make a noise; papa is ill. Dr. Archard's here--in the study."
"What's the matter?" Phil asked, opening his eyes in a startled sort of
way, and looking very serious.
"Why, he complained to Nannie of feeling queer, and then suddenly
fainted away; and since then he has gone from one fainting fit into
another. Isn't it strange? I don't think he has ever done such a thing
as faint in his life before."
"He's been working like a slave over that beastly old Fetich," Phil said
irritably, "as if he was _bound_ to get it finished."
I knew he was cross because he was scared about papa, and sorry for him;
but Nora didn't seem to guess that,--she doesn't see through things like
that as Nannie does,--and now she just put up her eyebrows as if
surprised, and said, "Why, isn't that what you all wanted,--to have the
Fetich finished?"
Phil got red in the face, and he made a step nearer the drawing-room
door. "That was a mean speech, Nora," he said in a low, angry voice.
_I_ think it was mean, too; but perhaps it was because she felt badly
about papa that Nora spoke so,--as nurse says, different people have
different ways of showing their feelings,--for she put out her hand and
commenced, quickly, "I didn't mean to hurt--"
But while she was speaking, Nannie came out of the study. "Oh, Phil,"
she said, as soon as she saw him, "come right in here, won't you? the
doctor says we must get papa to bed as quickly as possible, and you can
help us."
Phil flung his books on the hat-rack table, and followed her into the
room at once, and they shut the study door.
It opened again, though, in a minute or two, and out came Miss Marston,
just in time to catch Alan as he rushed along the hall, away from Betty,
who was in hot pursuit. "What are _you_ doing down here?" demanded Miss
Marston, severely.
"They're all here," Alan paused to explain, rather defiantly, whereupon
Betty pounced on him.
Miss Marston held a hot-water bottle in her hand; she was on her way to
the kitchen, but she stopped to speak to the children,--for at the sound
of her voice Nora had opened the drawing-room doors, and Kathie, Paul,
and Mädel had tumbled out into the hall in a body. "This will never do,"
Miss Marston said, "racing about the halls while your father is so ill!
Can't you find something for them to do, Nora? Take them to the nursery,
or the schoolroom, and give each--"
I didn't wait to hear the rest. I was afraid she'd see me, and remember
that old Latin, so I scooted up the back stairs as hard as I could go;
you see she wouldn't have taken into account that I was waiting down
there in case I was wanted for an errand.
It was as I got up near Fee's room that I began to wonder where he was,
and why he hadn't been downstairs with the rest of us; he must have
wanted to know how papa was, I thought. I looked in the schoolroom, but
he wasn't there,--the place had a deserted appearance! Then I ran down
again and peeped into his room, and just think! there, flat on the
floor, with his feet barely inside the doorway, lay Felix!
I was so astonished and so scared--it's a serious matter for Fee to
fall, you know (he hasn't really been himself, I mean not as strong,
since that day in the schoolroom, when Alan upset him)--that when I
cried out, "Oh, _Fee!_ did you fall? have you hurt yourself?" and knelt
down by him, I hardly knew what I was saying or doing.
[Illustration: "'OH, _FEE!_ DID YOU FALL? HAVE YOU HURT YOURSELF?'"]
"Shut the door," Felix said; he spoke slowly, as if he were very tired.
His face looked badly, too,--pale, and with black rings under his eyes
away below his glasses. And there was something in the way he lay
there--a limpness and helplessness--that somehow frightened me, and made
me feel right away as if I ought to call nurse or somebody. But I know
Fee likes to have people do as he tells them, so first I shut the door
tight, then I came back and knelt down by him again. "Hadn't I better
help you up, Fee?" I asked, "or shall I call"--I was going to say
"Nannie or Phil," but remembered they were helping papa, and ended up
with "somebody?"
But Felix only said, "How's father? Tell me about him."
He listened to all I could tell about papa; then, when I had finished,
he threw his arms wide apart on the floor with a groan, and rolled his
head impatiently from side to side. I just _longed_ to do something for
him,--dear old Fee!
"Don't you want to get up?" I asked again, in as coaxing a way as I
could. "I could help you, you know, Fee; the floor is so hard for
your back."
Then he told me. "Jack," he said, in a tired, hopeless voice that made a
lump fly into my throat, "I'm in a pretty bad fix, I'm afraid; my poor
old back and my legs have given out. I got a very queer feeling that
time I sat down so suddenly on the steps, and after you'd gone 'twas all
I could do to brace up and drag myself to this floor to call nurse. Then
I crawled in here, and barely got inside the door when I collapsed. My
legs gave way entirely, and down I tumbled just where you see me now."
He threw his arms out again, and twisted one of his hands in the fringe
of the rug on which he was lying; then presently he went on: "Do you
know why I'm still lying here? do you know why, Jack? because"--his
voice shook so he had to stop for a minute--"because, from my waist
down, I can't move my body at all. Unless somebody helps me, I'll
have to lie here all night; _I'm perfectly helpless_!"
I'd been swallowing and swallowing while Fee was talking, but now I
couldn't stand it any longer; I felt awfully unhappy, and I just _had_
to let the tears come. "It's that fall that's done it," I said, trying
to wipe away the tears that came rushing down,--it's so _girlie_ to
cry!--"the day Alan upset you in the schoolroom! Oh, Fee, _do_ let me
call somebody to help you! Phil's downstairs, you know; oh, and the
doctor,--please, _please_ let me ask _him_ to come up! Oh, mayn't I?"
Felix put out his hand and patted my knee in a way that reminded me of
Nannie; he doesn't usually do those things. "Don't cry, Jackie-boy," he
said very gently, "and don't blame Alan,--I don't believe he touched me
that day; I believe now that that was an attack similar to this, only
not so severe. What'll the _next_ one be!" His voice began shaking
again, but he went right on: "Now I want you to help me keep this thing
quiet,--I was hoping you'd be the one to find me,--so that Nannie and
the others won't have it to add to their anxiety while the _pater_ is
ill. I'm afraid he's in a bad way; I don't like the doctor's sounding
his heart,--that looks as if he suspected trouble there. He has been
working like a slave ever since--oh, what _beasts_ we were to get up
that Fetich joke! Poor old _pater_!" Felix folded his arms across his
eyes and lay perfectly quiet; I _think_ I saw a tear run down the side
of his face to his ear, but I won't be sure. That just brought that
horrid lump right back into my throat, but I was determined I wouldn't
break down again; so I got up, and taking a pillow from the bed, brought
it over to slip under Fee's head,--the floor was _so_ hard you know.
This roused him. "You're not very big, Rosebud, but perhaps you can help
me to get to bed," he said, trying to speak as if nothing had happened.
"I may feel better after I'm there; who knows but this attack may wear
off in a day or two, as the other did."
He spoke so cheerfully that I began to feel better, too, and I flew
around and did just as he told me. First I pulled his bed right close up
to where Fee lay,--it's very light,--then I made a rope of his worsted
afghan, and passing it round the farthest bedpost, gave the ends to him;
then, as he pulled himself up, I pushed him with all my might, and by
and by he got on the bed. It was awfully hard to do, though, for the bed
was on casters, and would slip away from us; but after a good while we
succeeded.
"There, I feel a little better already!" he said, after I'd got him
undressed. "That floor _was_ hard, and I was there some time; yes, I do
feel a little better." He took hold of the railing at the head of the
bed and pulled himself a little higher on the pillows.
"Perhaps you'll be all right again in a few days, same as the last
time," I suggested.
Fee's face brightened up. "That's so,--perhaps I shall," he said. "Why,
Jack, you're almost as good a comforter as Nannie!" Then he took my hand
as if he were going to shake hands, and holding it tight, went on with,
"Now, Jack, I want you to promise me that you'll not speak about this
attack of mine to _anybody_. As you say, I'll possibly--probably--be all
over it in a few days, and there's too much sickness and trouble in the
house already, without my adding to it. Promise me, Jack!" He gave my
hand a little shake as he spoke.
But I hesitated; for, though now he seemed better, I couldn't get out of
my mind how _awfully_ he had looked when I first found him,--and Fee
isn't strong like the rest of us. But he shook my hand again two or
three times, saying impatiently, "Why don't you promise? There's no harm
in doing what I ask; think how worried and anxious Phil and Nannie are
about papa!"
"Yes, presently," we heard Phil's voice say at the door at that
very moment.
"Promise! _promise!_" repeated Felix, almost fiercely, and I got so
nervous--Phil was coming right into the room--that I said, "All right,
I promise," almost before I knew what I was saying. I got a frightened
sort of feeling the moment the words were out of my mouth, that made
me just wish I hadn't said them.
"Hullo! in bed? What's up?" asked Phil in surprise, as he walked up to
Fee. "I wondered where you were." Then, without waiting for an answer,
he sat down on the edge of the bed, and went on, in an excited tone of
voice, "Did you hear about the _pater_? I tell you we've had our hands
full downstairs; I'm afraid he's"--here Phil stopped and cleared his
throat--"he's pretty low down. Dr. Archard as much as admitted it when I
asked him to tell me the truth. It's that Fetich! He has been working
over it like a galley slave, because--" Phil stopped again. He and Felix
looked at each other; then, starting up, Phil walked over to the other
side of the room, and stood with his hands in his pockets, staring at
Fee's picture of the Good Shepherd which hangs on the wall there, and
which he had seen scores of times before.
"Who's going to take care of father?" Felix asked presently, and that
brought Phil back to his bedside.
"The doctor is going to send us a trained nurse this afternoon," he
said; "but in the mean while Nannie and nurse are with him. Every time
he became conscious he asked for Nannie or spoke her name, and seemed
easier when she was near him; once or twice he called her 'Margaret'!"
We were quiet for a moment or two,--that was dear mamma's name,--then
Phil began again: "The nurse that's coming is a woman, and very
efficient, I believe. Of course she'll have to have a certain amount of
rest every day, and at those times somebody will have to take her place;
so I'm going to try to be home early afternoons,--Nannie can't do
everything, you know,--and sit with the _pater_ while the nurse takes
her nap. I thought perhaps we could alternate, you and I,--you're so
splendid in a sick room; but I suppose I'll be as awkward as the
proverbial bull in the china shop. I generally get rattled when I
undertake to do anything for father, and am sure to do just what I
shouldn't; so I'm not sorry you're going to be there for a change, old
man." He threw his arm across Fee's poor helpless legs as he spoke, and
gave one of them a little squeeze.
Fee hesitated. "I'm afraid I can't begin right away," he said slowly;
"I'm not up to the mark just now, and it would be best not to depend on
me for anything for at least--a week. Then, if I can, you may be sure
I'll willingly take my part of the nursing."
"Why, you're not ill, are you?" exclaimed Phil. "You were all right
this morning when I went out. It's just to sit in the room, you know;
you could read there, I suppose, if you wanted to."
Felix coloured up at Phil's tone. "You know very well I'm not one of the
sort to shirk,--I would do anything for the _pater_," he said quickly,
"and just as soon as I can I'll take my full share in looking after and
nursing him; but, as I told you, I don't feel quite up to it just now.
I'm going to keep quiet for a few days,--a week, perhaps."
Fee was trying to speak in his usual way, but there was something in his
voice when he said that "perhaps" that made me just long to tell Phil
right out what the trouble was. As it was, maybe Phil noticed something,
for he eyed Fee sharply as he asked, rather anxiously: "Look here,
Felix, is there anything you're keeping back? Come to notice, you do
look rather white about the gills; do you feel ill, old fellow?"
I thought everything would come out then, for I knew Fee wouldn't lie
about it; and so it would, I'm pretty sure, if Paul and Alan hadn't come
bouncing into the room, and Nora behind them.
The boys flew to Fee's bedside. "Oh, Fee, _don't_ let her get us!" "Oh,
Fee, _do_ let us stay with you!" they cried at the same moment, while
Alan added saucily, "she just thinks we b'long to her!"
"They're the _rudest_ children I ever knew!" exclaimed Nora,
angrily,--just as if she knew all the children in the world! "They don't
know what the word, 'obedience' means. Come straight upstairs this
minute,--both of you!"
She made a dive for them, but the boys were too quick for her. Alan
ducked under Fee's bed, and came up on the other side with a triumphant
chuckle, while Paul rolled right over Fee's legs and landed on the
floor, where Phil grabbed him.
"Can't you behave yourselves, you young rascals?" demanded Phil,
sternly, giving Paul's arm a shake, and catching Alan by the collar.
"Just walk straight upstairs, and do as your sister tells you. Stop
your noise this minute,--do you hear me?"