Part 5 (2/2)

Callandar in his amused absorption had forgotten that he was going to Mrs. Sykes at all, when he was recalled to a sense of duty by a sharp hail from the corner house of a street he had just pa.s.sed. Looking back, he saw, half-way down the road, a tall, red woman leaning over a gate, who, upon attracting his attention, began waving her arms frantically, after the manner of an old-fas.h.i.+oned signalman inviting a train to ”Come on.” Callandar's step quickened in spite of himself and he forgot his idle musings.

”Land sakes! I thought you'd never get here!” exclaimed the red woman fervently. ”I suppose that imp of a boy didn't direct you right. Lucky I knew you as soon as you pa.s.sed the corner. Mark Morrison may be as useless as they make 'em, but he's got a fine gift for description. Come right in. I'm dreadful anxious about Ann. It don't seem like measles, and she's had chicken-pox twice, and if she's sickening for anything worse I want to know it. I ain't one of them optimists that won't believe they're sick till they're dead. Callandar's your name, Mark says--any chance of your being a cousin to Dr. Callandar of Montreal that cured Mrs. Sowerby?”

”No, I am not that Dr. Callandar's cousin.”

”I told Mark 'twasn't likely--or you wouldn't be here. Not if he'd any family feeling. I'm a great believer in a man making his own stepping-stones anyway,” she went on with a friendly smile; ”we ought to rise up on ourselves, like the poet says, and not on our cousins.”

”A n.o.ble sentiment,” said Callandar gravely, as he followed her up the walk, across a veranda so clean that one hesitated to step on it, and into a small hall, bare and spotless, where he was invited to hang up his hat.

”You're younger than I expected,” went on Mrs. Sykes kindly. ”I hope you ain't entirely dependent on your practice in Coombe?”

The amazed doctor was understood to murmur something about ”private means.”

”That's good. You'd starve if you hadn't. Coombe's a terrible healthy place and poor Doc. Simmonds didn't pay a call a week. I just felt like some one ought to warn you. I despise folks who hold back from telling things because they ain't quite pleasant. Know the worst, I always say; it's better in the end. Of course, as Mark says, your being a Presbyterian will make considerable diff'rence. Some folks thought Doc.

Simmonds was pretty nigh an infiddle!”

Too overcome by his feelings to answer, Callandar followed her up the narrow stair and into a clean bright room with green-tinted walls and yellow matting on the floor.

Mrs. Sykes waved a deprecatory hand, at once exhibiting and apologising for so much splendour.

”This is the spare-room,” she explained. ”And there,” pointing to the high, old-fas.h.i.+oned bed, ”is Ann.”

Callandar crossed the immaculate matting gingerly, taking Ann on faith, as it were, for, from the door, no; Ann was visible, only a very small dent in the big whiteness of the bed.

”Ann! Here's the doctor!”

A small black head and a pair of frightened black eyes appeared for a moment as if by conjuration, and instantly vanished.

”Ann!” said Mrs. Sykes more sternly.

There was a squirming somewhere under the bedclothes, but nothing happened.

”Great Scott!” exclaimed the doctor, ”you've got the child in a feather-bed!”

Mrs. Sykes beamed complacently.

”Yes, I have. It may seem like taking a lot of trouble for nothing, but you never can tell. I ain't one of them that never prepares for anything. Jest as soon as Ann gets sick I move her right into the spare-room and put her into the best feathers. Then if she should be took sudden I wouldn't have anything to regret. The minister and the doctor can come in here any hour and find things as I could wish....

Ann! what do you mean by wiggling down like that? Ann--come up at once!

The doctor wants to see your tongue.”

This time the note of command was effective. The black head came to the surface, again followed by the frightened eyes and plump little cheeks stained with feverish red.

”Some cool water, if you please,” ordered the doctor in his best professional manner. Mrs. Sykes opened her lips to ask why, but something caused her to shut them without asking.

When she had left the room, Callandar leaned suddenly over and lifted Ann bodily out of the dent and placed her firmly upon a pillow. It was a very plump pillow, evidently filled with the ”best feathers,” but compared with the bed it was as a rock in an ocean.

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