In the morning Nan was better, and although for days she was in a very
precarious state, and had to be kept as quiet as possible, yet Miss
Danesbury's great dread that fever would set in had passed away. The
doctor said, however, that Nan had barely escaped real injury to her
brain, and that it would be many a day before she would romp again, and
play freely and noisily with the other children. Nan had chosen her own
nurse, and with the imperiousness of all babies--to say nothing of sick
babies--she had her way. From morning till night Annie remained with
her, and when the doctor saw how Annie alone could soothe and satisfy
the child he would not allow it to be otherwise. At first Nan would lie
with her hand in Annie's, and her little cry of "Sing, Annie," going on
from lime to time; but as she grew better Annie would sit with her by
the open window, with her head pillowed on her breast, and her arm round
the little slender form, and Nan would smile and look adoringly at
Annie, who would often return her gaze with intense sadness, and an
indescribable something in her face which caused the little one to
stroke her cheek tenderly, and say in her sweet baby voice--
"Poor Annie; poor tibby Annie!"
They made a pretty picture as they sat there. Annie, with her charming
gypsy face, her wild, luxuriant, curly hair, all the sauciness and
unrest in her soothed by the magic of the little child's presence; and
the little child herself, with her faint wild-rose colour, her dark deep
eyes, clear as summer pools, and her sunshiny golden hair. But pretty
as the picture was Hester loathed it, for Hester thought during these
wretched days that her heart would break.
Not that Nan turned away from Hetty; she petted her and kissed her and
sometimes put an arm round Hetty and an arm round Annie, as though, if
she could, she would draw them together; but anyone could see that her
heart of hearts was given to Annie, and that Hester ranked second in her
love. Hester would not for worlds express any of her bitter feelings
before Annie; nay, as the doctor and Miss Danesbury both declared that,
however culpable Annie might have been in causing the accident, she had
saved little Nan's life by her wonderful skill in soothing her to sleep
on the first night of her illness, Hester had felt obliged to grumble
something which might have been taken for "thanks."
Annie, in reply to this grumble, had bestowed upon Hester one of her
quickest, brightest glances, for she fathomed the true state of Hester's
heart toward her well enough.
These were very bad days for poor Hester, and but for the avidity with
which she threw herself into her studies she could scarcely have borne
them.
By slow degrees Nan got better; she was allowed to come downstairs and
to sit in Annie's arms in the garden, and then Mrs Willis interfered,
and said that Annie must go back to her studies, and only devote her
usual play-hours and half-holidays to Nan's service.
This mandate, however, produced woe and tribulation. The spoilt child
screamed and beat her little hands, and worked herself up into such a
pitch of excitement that that night she found her way in her sleep to
Annie's room, and Annie had to quiet her by taking her into her bed. In
the morning the doctor had to be sent for, and he instantly prescribed a
day or two more of Annie's company for the child.
Mrs Willis felt dreadfully puzzled. She had undertaken the charge of
the little one: her father was already far away, so it was impossible
now to make any change of plans; the child was ill--had been injured by
an accident caused by Annie's carelessness and by Hester's want of
self-control. But weak and ill as Nan still was, Mrs Willis felt that
an undue amount of spoiling was good for no one. She thought it highly
unjust to Annie to keep her from her school employments at this most
important period of the year. If Annie did not reach a certain degree
of excellence in her school marks she could not be promoted in her
class. Mrs Willis did not expect the wild and heedless girl to carry
off any special prizes; but her abilities were quite up to the average,
and she always hoped to rouse sufficient ambition in her to enable her
to acquire a good and sound education. Mrs Willis knew how necessary
this was for poor Annie's future, and, after giving the doctor an
assurance that Nan's whims and pleasures should be attended to for the
next two or three days, she determined at the end of that time to assert
her own authority with the child, and to insist on Annie working hard at
her lessons, and returning to her usual school-room life.
On the morning of the third day Mrs Willis made inquiries, heard that
Nan had spent an excellent night, eaten a hearty breakfast, and was
altogether looking blooming. When the girls assembled in the
school-room for their lessons, Annie brought her little charge down to
the large play-room, where they established themselves cosily, and Annie
began to instruct little Nan in the mysteries of--
"Tic, tac, too,
The little horse has lost his shoe."
Nan was entering into the spirit of the game, was imagining herself a
little horse, and was holding out her small foot to be shod, when Mrs
Willis entered the room.
"Come with me, Nan," she said; "I have got something to show you."
Nan got up instantly, held out one hand to Mrs Willis and the other to
Annie, and said, in her confident baby tones--
"Me tum; Annie tumming too."
Mrs Willis said nothing, but, holding the little hand, and accompanied
by Annie, she went out of the play-room, across the stone hall, and
through the baize doors until she reached her own delightful private
sitting-room.
There were heaps of pretty things about, and Nan gazed round her with
the appreciative glance of a pleased connoisseur.
"Pitty 'oom," she said approvingly. "Nan likes this 'oom. Me'll stay
here, and so will Annie."
Here she uttered a sudden cry of rapture--on the floor, with its leaves
temptingly open, lay a gayly-painted picture-book, and curled up in a
soft fluffy ball by its side was a white Persian kitten asleep.
Mrs Willis whispered something to Annie, who ran out of the room, and
Nan knelt down in a perfect rapture of worship by the kitten's side.
"Pitty tibby pussy!" she exclaimed several times, and she rubbed it so
persistently the wrong way that the kitten shivered and stood up, arched
its beck very high, yawned, turned round three times, and lay down
again. Alas! "tibby pussy" was not allowed to have any continuous
slumber. Nan dragged the Persian by its tail into her lap, and when it
resisted this indignity, and with two or three light bounds disappeared
out of the room, she stretched out her little hands and began to cry for
it.
"Turn back, puss, puss--turn back, poor tibby puss--Nan loves 'oo.
Annie, go fetch puss for Nan." Then for the first time she discovered
that Annie was absent, and that she was alone, with the exception of
Mrs Willis, who sat busily writing at a distant table.
Mrs Willis counted for nothing at all with Nan--she did not consider
her of the smallest importance, and after giving her a quick glance of
some disdain she began to trot round the room on a voyage of discovery.
Any moment Annie would come back--Annie had, indeed, probably gone to
fetch the kitten, and would quickly return with it. She walked slowly
round and round, keeping well away from that part of the room where Mrs
Willis sat. Presently she found a very choice little china jug, which
she carefully subtracted with her small fingers from a cabinet, which
contained many valuable treasures. She sat down on the floor exactly
beneath the cabinet, and began to play with her jug. She went through
in eager pantomime a little game which Annie had invented for her, and
imagined that she was a little milkmaid, and that the jug was full of
sweet new milk; she called out to an imaginary set of purchasers, "Want
any milk?" and then she floured some by way of drops of milk into the
palm of her little hand, which she drank up in the name of her customers
with considerable gusto. Presently, knocking the little jug with some
vehemence on the floor she deprived it with one neat blow of its handle
and spout. Mrs Willis was busily writing, and did not look up. Nan
was not in the least disconcerted; she said aloud--
"Poor tibby zug b'oke," and then she left the fragments on the floor,
and started off on a fresh voyage of discovery. This time she dragged
down a large photographic album on to a cushion, and, kneeling by it,
began to look through the pictures, flapping the pages together with a
loud noise, and laughing merrily as she did so. She was now much nearer
to Mrs Willis, who was attracted by the sound, and looking up hastened
to the rescue of one of her most precious collections of photographs.
"Nan, dear," she said, "shut up that book at once. Nan mustn't touch.
Shut the book, darling, and go and sit on the floor, and look at your
nice-coloured pictures."
Nan, still holding a chubby hand between the leaves of the album, gave
Mrs Willis a full defiant glance, and said--
"Me won't."
"Come, Nan," said the head-mistress.
"Me want Annie," said Nan, still kneeling by the album, and, bending her
head over the photographs, she turned the page and burst into a peal of
laughter.
"Pitty bow vow," she said, pointing to a photograph of a retriever; "oh,
pitty bow woo, Nan loves 'oo."
Mrs Willis stooped down and lifted the little girl into her arms.
"Nan, dear," she said, "it is naughty to disobey. Sit down by your
picture-book, and be a good girl."
"Me won't," said Nan again, and here she raised her small dimpled hand
and gave Mrs Willis a smart slap on her cheek.
"Naughty lady, me don't like 'oo; go 'way. Nan want Annie--Nan do want
Annie. Me don't love 'oo, naughty lady; go 'way."
Mrs Willis took Nan on her knee. She felt that the little will must be
bent to hers, but the task was no easy one. The child scarcely knew
her, she was still weak and excitable, and she presently burst into
storms of tears, and sobbed and sobbed as though her little heart would
break, her one cry being for "Annie, Annie, Annie." When Annie did join
her in the play hour, the little cheeks were flushed, the white brow
ached, and the child's small hands were hot and feverish. Mrs Willis
felt terribly puzzled.