Part 8 (1/2)
”Yes, I saw him,” she replied, her voice rather fainter than usual, while some of the fine colour died out of her cheeks
”His is aand unusual case,” went on Mr Wallis ”He is one of our very rich men now, and the funny part of it is that he declares he owes all his prosperity to the loss of his limb, which, but for a mistake of the doctor's, he need not have lost at all”
”What do youat hihastly white that he asked her anxiously if she felt ill
”No, no, it is nothing, thank you, but I want to hear about that ; and won't you tell aze upon him, that it seemed to hih she laughed in such a cheery, lighthearted way as a rule
”Reginald Baxter He is English, and cao His people are very aristocratic, but poor as church mice, and they were so terribly upset at his disaster they practically cast him off; but he seems to have no false pride himself and no unnecessary notions of his own i of finance----”
”What is that?” de Nealie with a close scrutiny, and he had his fists clenched tightly as if he were e upon the innocent Mr Wallis for the pain he was giving her in talking about the one-arift forit increase I should not wonder if you develop a cleverness in that way yourself when you are a little older,” said Mr Wallis, as a keen student of human nature and had already a the future of the seven
”Perhaps I shall,” answered Don stolidly ”Anyhow I don't o without things until I get a lot of money saved, and Mr Runciman used to say that money made money, and if a man could save one hundred pounds the next hundred would save itself”
”Well done, Mr Runci to expound the art ofstill further when there came a sudden interruption fro else, please? You haveon so about that one-armed man She never can bear to talk about them, and you didn't see that she did not like it,” he said in a shrill and very aggrieved tone
”Miss Plu anything to pain you Please forgive me!” said Mr Wallis in a shocked tone, for Nealie's face was covered with her handkerchief, and by the heave of her shoulders it was easy to see that she was crying bitterly
”Oh, it is nothing, quite nothing, and I am very silly!” she said nervously ”But somehow I never can bear to see men who have lost their limbs It is so sad and hopeless, because, of course, they can never be the sahed in a cheerful inald Baxter a very sad man if you knew him As I said before, he looks upon the loss of his arm as his entrance into freedom, and it would be hard to find a happier o in and find some tea, and think no more about such matters”
Tea was such a merry function that no one hadwith Nealie, although she was so very quiet that Rupert asked her once if she did not feel well
”Oh yes, I am quite well, thank you; only perhaps a little tired,” she replied, s at him in a rather wistful fashi+on; and then, as Sylvia claiot about it, and there was so much to see and to hear, with so many details of to-morrow's journey to discuss, that it is not wonderful he did not even reme, when they were back at the hotel, the younger ones had gone to bed, and Mr Wallis had gone away after bidding theht, Nealie said abruptly: ”There is soht to know, Rupert, that I have always hated to tell you”
”Then don't tell it,” put in Sylvia lazily ”I think that half theto do unpleasant things, such as going to bed when you want to sit up, and in having to get up by candlelight on a darkin winter when you would far rather take your breakfast in bed”
”What is it? A trouble of so Nealie's low spirits at teati where the trouble came in
”Yes,” said Nealie shortly, and then hesitated as if not sure where to begin
”Well, you can enjoy it together, if itto bed, for it seee to spoil such a beautiful day as this has been with even a hint of anything unpleasant,”
said Sylvia, getting out of her easy chair in a great hurry Then she said in quite a pathetic tone, as she kissed Rupert: ”I wonder e shall have easy chairs to sit in again; don't you?”
”I don't see that itmyself,” he replied briefly; and then he turned to Nealie, asking in a tone of grave concern, as Sylvia hurried away to bed: ”Is it anything about Father, Nealie?”
”Yes,” she said faintly ”That is to say, it is about the trouble that came before Ducky was born; you remember it?”
”I never knew more about it than that he made a mistake, some medical blunder, for which he would have to live more or less under a cloud for the reht it was all that any of us knew, and Aunt Judith hated to have it ressive now, for he was quite abnorrace, which had indirectly cost his ed the family into poverty, and bereft them of their father also
”Mrs Puffin told me all about it one day soon after Aunt Judith was taken ill,” said Nealie, her voice quivering noith emotion, for it was terrible to her to have to talk of this thing which had thrown such a shadow over their lives
”How did she know?” de how hateful it was that a servant should know more about their private skeleton than they knew themselves