Part 17 (2/2)
”Quick! quick! some camphor! cologne! rum! anything! she's going to faint!” cried Sarah Brown, clasping her hands, and jumping straight up and down, without offering to get either herself.
”No, I'm not,” said Florence, with considerable more energy than is generally shown by fainting persons; ”but it did hurt terribly! Now pull off my stocking, please, and see if I've made a fuss about nothing. I shall be provoked if it isn't black and blue!”
”I know just how you feel,” said Marion, as she carefully pulled off the stocking; ”it is a perfect satisfaction when one is hurt to have something to show for it; but mercy! I never saw such a looking foot; you'll be laid up for a week!”
And there certainly seemed every reason to think Marion's prediction likely to prove true, for the edge of the box had made a deep, red groove across the instep, and the whole of the upper part of the foot was rapidly turning black and blue.
”Bring the wash-basin full of water, and some towels, and bathe her foot very gently. I'll get some arnica and a roll of linen mother always has me bring in case I get hurt. What a lucky thing I happened to have it!
Sarah, hand me a tumbler half full of water, and I'll put some arnica in it; it won't do for her to have it on clear.”
”Marion is right in her element,” remarked Florence; ”there's nothing she likes better than fussing over _wounds_.”
”Yes, particularly when they're of such a dangerous nature as this one,”
laughed Marion, as she knelt down to apply the arnica.
After some time had been spent in sympathy and bathing, the injured foot was nicely bound up, and laid tenderly on the bed, but what to do for a stocking and shoe was the next question, for the foot was so much swollen that Florence could not possibly get on her own.
”I tell you what I'll do,” said Sarah Brown, who, now that there seemed no danger that Florence would faint, had become as cool as it was possible for her to be; ”I'll just steal into Miss Stiffy's room, and get a pair of stockings out of her drawer, and a slipper too; she's got about forty pairs of creepers, and she won't miss 'em for a little while.”
”But suppose you should get caught?” exclaimed Florence; ”then it would all come out, and we had better have told in the first place.”
”Not a bit of it! If we did it would spoil all our fun with Marion's box, for of course she intends to give us a treat.”
”Of course,” replied Marion; ”but why don't you go down into the laundry, and get Biddy to give you a pair? There are some there, I know, and she'll never tell of us.”
”Why, don't you see, Miss Stiefbach knows exactly how many pairs she puts into the wash, and if they didn't all come up she'd know it; but she won't miss 'em if I take them out of the drawer.”
”Well, if you really aren't afraid to risk it; and do be quick about it; don't make a bit of noise, for if Miss Stiefbach should catch you you'd never hear the last of it, and I should be to blame,” said Florence.
Sarah hurried along the entry until she reached Miss Stiefbach's room, which was directly over the private study, and then it occurred to her that Miss Christine might be in there; so she spoke and called her by name. Marion and Grace, who stood at the other door, exchanged glances with Florence, who was still on the bed, and all three looked like detected culprits. Sarah spoke again; but receiving no answer gently pushed the door open. She nodded her head to the girls to let them know that the coast was clear, and stealthily entered the room. Marion and Grace heard her as she crossed the room; then followed a moment of terrible silence; then they heard the creaking of the bureau-drawer as she slowly opened it.
”Oh!” whispered Marion, ”if she _should_ pull it out too far, and the whole thing come down on the floor with a bang! Miss Stiefbach would certainly hear it, and know some one was in there.”
”Hus.h.!.+” answered Grace, ”don't suggest anything go horrible! There, she's shutting it; so far so good; now for the slippers,--they're in the closet.”
”I know it, and that closet-door creaks awfully!”
The closet-door did ”creak awfully” and no mistake, and it seemed to the two girls, listening in almost breathless silence, that the noise was loud enough to be heard all over the house. In a moment they heard Sarah fumbling over the slippers, of which Miss Stiefbach always kept several pairs on hand, as she never wore anything else in the house. They felt comparatively safe now, for no sound was heard from below, except once in a while a laugh from the girls in the library, and Miss Stiefbach would not probably leave her study until supper time. They were just about to turn back into the room to go to Florence, when they heard the study-door open, and Miss Stiefbach's voice from below, saying, ”In one moment, I am going upstairs to my room.”
What if she had heard the noise and was coming up to ascertain the cause! Marion rushed along the entry, reaching her teacher's room just as Sarah was carefully closing and latching the closet-door.
”O Sarah, hurry! hurry! she's coming upstairs; she's at the foot of the stairs! Give me that slipper, and hide the stockings under your ap.r.o.n.
Run for your life! No, no, it's no use, she'll meet us; we must face it out; don't look conscious.”
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