Valentine Wyndham had often said that no greater treasure of a nurse
could be found than the one who came to her when little Gerald was a
month old. When she saw Esther, however, she changed her mind. Esther
was superior to Annette in personal appearance, in intellect, and in a
curious unspoken intangible sympathy which brought a strange sense of
comfort to Valentine's strained and worn heart. Esther was full of
tact. She was not demonstrative, but her every look and word expressed
loving interest. Baby very soon ceased to fret for Annette. With a
child's fickleness he boldly declared that he liked "noo nurse better
than old nurse." His most loving word for Esther was "noo nurse," and
he was always contented and happy when he lay in noo nurse's arms and
listened to her stories. She had wonderful stories for him, stories
which she never dreamt of telling in his mother's presence, stories
which always led to one termination--a termination which had a
wonderful fascination for baby. They were about little fatherless boys,
who in the most unlooked for ways found their fathers. Baby revelled in
these tales.
"I'se not got a farwer, noo nursie," he would generally end
sorrowfully.
Then Esther would kiss him, and tell him to wait, and to watch for the
good fairies who were so kind to little boys.
His whooping cough soon got better, and he was able to go out. One day
Esther took him early into the Park. He was dressed all in white fur.
Esther told him he looked like Baby Bunting.
"But I haven't got a farwer to buy me a wabbit-skin," quoth baby.
That day, however, the father he did not know pressed two or three
burning kisses on his round cheek. Esther sat down on a chair near a
very worn and shabby-looking man. His back was partly to her. She said
a word and he turned round. He looked at the child. Suddenly a light
filled his sunken eyes--a beautiful light. He stretched out his arms,
and straight as an arrow from a bow, Baby Bunting found a shelter in
their close embrace.
"Kiss me," said the man.
The little lips pressed his cheek.
"I 'ove oo," said baby, in his contented voice. "Has 'oo little boys of
'oo own?"
"One little boy."
"Oo 'ove him, I pose?"
"Ay."
Three kisses were pressed on baby's face and he was returned to Esther.
"Nice man," he said patronizingly, by-and-bye. "But he gived raver hard
kisses when he crunched me up."
That evening baby told his mother that a man met him in the Park, who
kissed him and looked sad, and said he had a little boy of his own.
"And he crunched me up with kisses, mover," concluded baby.
"Was this man a friend of yours, Esther?" queried Mrs. Wyndham.
"Yes, madam, a friend of mine, and of my father's. A gentleman with a
very sorrowful story. I think it comforted him to kiss master baby."
Esther was a woman of acute observation. It seemed to her that if there
was an individual on earth to be envied it was Valentine Wyndham. What
matter though she thought herself a widow? Still she had won a love of
a quality and depth which surely must satisfy the most exacting heart.
Esther often said to herself that if she were Valentine she must surely
rest content. As to her forgetting Wyndham that could surely, surely
never be.
These were Esther's thoughts, always supposing the case to be her own;
but she had not been many weeks in the house in Park-Lane before she
began to open her eyes and to suspect that matters were otherwise with
her young mistress. Valentine, although still a wife, supposed herself
a widow. All the world thought her such. What more natural than that
she should turn her thoughts once more to love. At the time of her
supposed widowhood she was under twenty years of age. Why should she
mourn for her young husband all her days? Surely there was somebody who
considered that she ought not to mourn--somebody who came almost daily
to the house, whom Mrs. Wyndham liked to talk to. For Esther noticed
that her eyes were bright after Adrian Carr went away. She did not
guess that their brightness was generally caused by the shedding of
tears.
Esther began to feel very uncomfortable. Should she or should she not
tell Wyndham of the danger which was threatening Valentine?
There came a Sunday when Mrs. Wyndham entered her nursery with a
request.
"Nurse, my head aches dreadfully. I know you stipulated to have every
Sunday afternoon to yourself, but if you could stay at home to-day I
should be grateful."
No one could make requests more sweetly than Valentine, and Esther felt
herself coloring up with the pain of refusing.
"I am very sorry, madam," she said in a low constrained voice;
"but--but--my father will expect me. You know it was an understood
thing, madam, that I was to see him once a week. You remember my
telling you I am his only child."
"Yes, yes," said Valentine, "and I have thought of that. If you will
take care of Gerry this one afternoon I will send the page in a cab to
your home to fetch your father here." Esther changed color, from red to
white.
"I am more sorry than I can express, my dear madam, but it would make
all the difference to my father seeing me in my own little home and
here. My father is very humble in his ways, dear madam. I think,
perhaps, if you have a headache, Jane, the under housemaid, might be
trusted for once with master baby."
"Jane has already gone out," replied Valentine coldly. Then with an
effort she swallowed down her resentment. "I will be frank with you,
Esther," she said. "If it was simply a headache I could certainly take
care of my little boy, even at some inconvenience. But there is more
behind. I promised Miss Wyndham, who is now in town, to meet her this
afternoon at Mr. Carr's new church. She is most anxious to hear him
preach, and I should be sorry to disappoint her."
"You mean _you_ are anxious to hear him preach," quoth Esther, under
her breath. "And is it on that account I will leave a hungry heart to
starve?" Aloud she said: "Do you object to my taking master baby with
me, madam?"
"I do object. The child must not be out so late. Then you distinctly
refuse to accommodate me, Esther?"
"I am obliged to adhere to our arrangement, Mrs. Wyndham. I am truly
sorry."
Valentine held out her hand to her little boy.
"Come, then, Baby Bunting," she said. "Mother will play with her boy;
and poor Aunt Lilias must go to church alone."
She did not look at Esther, but went quietly away, holding the child's
hand.
"What a brute I am," soliloquized the nurse. "And yet, she, poor young
lady, how can she--how can she forget?"
Esther's home was in all its Sunday quiet when she reached it. Helps
was having his afternoon siesta in the kitchen. Cherry was spending the
day with the cousins who admired her recitations. Helps started out of
his slumbers when his daughter came in.
"Essie," he said, "I'm glad you've come. That young man upstairs is
very ill."
Esther felt her heart sinking down. She pressed her hand to her side.
"Is he worse, father?" she gasped.
"Oh, I don't know that he's worse; he's bad enough as it is, without
going in for being worse. He coughs constant, and Cherry says he don't
eat enough to keep a robin going. Esther, I wish to goodness we could
get him out of this."
"Why so, father? He doesn't hurt you. Even Cherry can't name any fault
in him."
"No, but suppose he was to die here. There'd be an inquest, maybe, and
all kinds of questions. Well, I'm not hard-hearted, but I do wish he'd
go."
Esther sank down into the nearest chair.
"You speak cruel words now and then, father," she said. "Who talks of
dying? _He_ won't die. If it comes to that, or any chance of it, I'll
come back and nurse him to life again."
"Essie, you think a sight of that young man."
"Well, I do. I'm not going to deny it. I'm going upstairs to see him
now."