Part 15 (1/2)
Another silence settled over Ward C.
”Well--” said the House Surgeon, breaking it at last and sounding a trifle nervous. ”Well--”
”I thought you said I wasn't to move or speak, or the spell would be broken?”
”That's right, excellent nurse--followed doctor's orders exactly.” He was smiling radiantly now, only no one could see. Slowly he drew her hands away from her eyes and kissed the lids. ”You can open them if you solemnly promise not to be disappointed when you see the Love-Talker has stepped into an ordinary house surgeon's uniform and looks like the--devil.” With a laugh the House Surgeon gathered her close in his arms.
”The devil was only a rebelling angel,” she murmured, contentedly.
”But I'm not rebelling. Bless those trustees! If they hadn't put us both out of the hospital we might be jogging along for the next ten years on the wholesome, easily digested diet of friends.h.i.+p, and never dreamed of the feast we were missing--like this--and this--and--”
Margaret MacLean buried her face in the uniform with a sob.
”What is it, dearest? Don't you like them?”
”I--love--them. Don't you understand? I never belonged to anybody before in all my life, so no one ever wanted to--”
The rest was unintelligible, but perfectly satisfactory to the House Surgeon. He held her even closer while she sobbed out the tears that had been intended for the edge of Bridget's bed; and when they were spent he wiped away all traces with some antiseptic gauze that happened to be in his pocket.
”I will never be foolish again and remember what lies behind to-night,”
said Margaret MacLean, knowing full well that she would be, and that often, because of the joy that would lie in remembering and comparing.
”Now tell me, did they make you go, too?”
”The President told me, very courteously, that he felt sure I would be wis.h.i.+ng to find another position elsewhere better suited to my rising abilities; and if an opportunity should come--next month, perhaps--they would not wish in any way to interfere with my leaving.”
”Ugh! I--”
”No, you don't, dearest. You couldn't expect them to want us around after the things we magnanimously refrained from saying--but so perfectly implied.”
”All right, I'll love them instead, if you want me to, only--” And she puckered her forehead into deep furrows of perplexity. ”I have kept it out of my mind all through the evening, but we might as well face it now as to-morrow morning. What is going to happen to us?”
The House Surgeon turned her about until she was again looking across the line of scattered blossoms--into the indistinguishable darkness beyond. He laughed joyously, as a man can laugh when everything lies before him and there are no regrets left behind. ”Have you forgotten so soon? We are to cross the primrose ring--right here; and follow the road--there--into faeryland after the children.”
”The beds really do look empty.”
”They certainly do.”
”And we'll find the children there?”
”Of course.”
”And I'll not have to give them up?”
”Of course not.”
”And we'll all be happy together--somewhere?”
”Yes, somewhere!”