"I wonder too, Ted darling," she whispered. "The doctor says your youth
and constitution saved you. I wonder if that explains all?"
"Perhaps there _was_ something to help--your love and care," I smiled.
"Even something beyond that, Ted dear. You see, Prospero had no chance,
the doctor said, because of his drinking and drug-taking."
"It must have been a shock to 'mother.'" I don't know why I hadn't
thought of her before, or why I thought of her now. Helen laughed one of
her "questing laughs," the happy kind that only I was privileged to
hear.
"Poor mother! She telegraphed for Miss Hershey to come and chaperon me
and went herself to Asheville until Christmas. To have a real invalid in
the house was the last straw!"
"But Leonidas!" I cried. "The poor hound is shut up in my rooms."
"No, he isn't, Ted. Dad went for him. He is asleep in front of the fire
downstairs."
"So you are in Miss Hershey's hands?"
"Yes, but she is wonderfully tame, Ted, now she knows about you."
"What a marvellous forty-eight hours it has been!" I said. "We set forth
after the questing beast in the morning--and before two suns, find love
and life and death, all very near one another and each of them lurking
in the most unlikely places."
"I think, Ted, that that is always the way one finds them--love, and
life, and death are very near together--everywhere just as we have read
of them in Mallory."
She went to the window and looked out.
"The snow is getting deep, Ted--you wouldn't know Myrtle Boulevard."
"Yes, I should," I answered. "It is the way leading down to Camelot."
She smiled, and the snow-light shone on her face, making her beauty
luminous.
"It's Thanksgiving Day, Ted--did you know it?"
"Then I've been here--"
"Ten days." She came back to my side.
"Thanksgiving," I heard her murmur to herself--"dear God! I'm thankful."
"And you have nursed me all this time?"
"No, dear. You have a trained nurse to look after you--it was too
serious to take any chances. I'm only the girl who loves you," and she
tucked a violet over my left ear, laughing with the old ring of mischief
in her voice. "Now you've talked enough and must go to sleep. I'll come
back soon and bring you your Thanksgiving dinner--some delicious jellied
bouillion. No--not another word," and she was gone, closing the door
after her.
Naturally I could not sleep. In the first place, I argued with myself,
my head not only feels queer but it aches abominably; in the second
place, enough has happened to give insomnia to all the seven sleepers of
Ephesus. The latter thought pleased me, and I laughed all by myself. My
mind began to stroll about again in a waking dream, partly caused by my
weakness and partly by the delirium which had ceased only a few hours
ago. Why had Prospero tried to kill me? It seemed a motiveless thing to
do, particularly as he had chosen to involve himself. Must have been
insane, I concluded. He was fairly skilful about it, too--how did they
know I hadn't killed _him_? There we both were, and no one to say who
put the poison in the dish. This worried me. Suppose they ask me awkward
questions at the inquest? I must talk to Helen about that. Helen! I
hardly dared think about her--her love was the most wonderful thing in
the world--why had she given it to me? How had I deserved it? It was a
miracle one couldn't analyse....
"Ted, dear, it's time to take your medicine." I almost sat up, I was so
surprised. I had slept, after all--most soundly. Furthermore, I felt
refreshed and stronger. There stood Helen in the door, with a
buxom-looking young woman in nurse's uniform beside her, carrying a
glass on a tray.
"This is your nurse, Miss Conover, Ted."
"How do you do?" I said to this person, who began to bang my pillows
about in a most business-like way, as much as to imply she was not in
the habit of putting up with any nonsense from her patients.
"Quite well, thank you," and she presented a spoonful of medicine.
"What's in it?" I asked. "I'm a chemist, and I don't like to take
unknown compounds."
"You aren't a biological chemist, are you?"
"No."
"Then you'd better follow your doctor's orders."