Part 12 (1/2)
”I love Winifred very much,” said Jack slowly, ”but then you're my own sister, and of course a person couldn't love another person as much as his own sister. Oh, Betty, you didn't really think I could, did you?”
Jack was beginning to look troubled, and Betty, very much ashamed of herself, hastened to rea.s.sure him.
”No, no, of course I didn't, not really, you know,” she said, giving her brother a hearty kiss. ”I was silly, that's all, but it's all right now.
Isn't it lovely having mother so much better? Miss Clark says she can begin to sit up in a few days, and such nice things have happened.
Nearly all mother's pupils have written kind notes, and most of them have sent checks paying up to the end of the term. I don't think mother wanted to take the checks at first, but Mrs. Hamilton talked to her, and she says she's going to try not to mind so much about accepting favors any more. I think there is only just one other thing in the world that could make me happier than I am to-day.”
”What's that?” Jack inquired.
”To have you able to walk,” said Betty softly. She turned her head away as she spoke, so that her brother should not see the expression in her eyes.
Jack gave a little start, and drew a long, deep breath.
”But, Betty,” he said almost in a whisper, ”that's something that couldn't ever possibly happen, you know. Oh, Betty, dear, please don't talk about it, because you see it's impossible.”
Suddenly Betty laid her face down beside her brother's on the pillow, with a sob.
”Very, very wonderful things do happen sometimes,” she whispered, ”things that are almost as wonderful as fairy stories. If you ever could be made to walk, Jack, wouldn't you be the very happiest boy in the whole world?”
”Of course I should,” said Jack with decision, ”if it only could happen, but then you know, it couldn't.”
Betty said no more, but hugged Jack tight, and kissed him a great many times, and then she went away to the kitchen to help Miss Clark get dinner.
CHAPTER VIII
THE DOCTOR'S VERDICT
Miss Clark's prediction proved correct, and in a few days Mrs. Randall was able to sit up, and to be helped into the sunny little parlor, where she sat by Jack's sofa, looking happier and more at rest than the children had ever seen her look before. After that she improved so rapidly that even Dr. Bell was surprised, and declared he had never seen a woman with a finer const.i.tution. At the end of another week Miss Clark went away to another case, and Mrs. Flynn, the good-natured Irishwoman who did the Randalls' was.h.i.+ng, was engaged to come in by the day. So the bright spring days came and went, and when the sun was brightest and the air warmest, Jack's pale face would often look a little wistful, but nothing more was said about drives in the park, and Betty, still waiting patiently for leave to reveal her secret, began to wonder if after all Mrs. Hamilton had been mistaken, or Dr. Bell had changed his mind.
One Sat.u.r.day morning in May, Winifred appeared shortly after breakfast, looking pleased and excited, and bringing an invitation for Betty.
”It's from Lulu Bell,” she explained, when Betty, quite thrilled at the prospect, had brought the visitor into the parlor to tell the news to her mother and Jack. ”Lulu asked Gertie Rossiter and me to lunch with her and go to the circus to-day, but Gertie has the measles, so Lulu telephoned, and asked me to bring Betty instead. Mother says she hopes you'll let Betty go, Mrs. Randall, because she's sure Mrs. Bell would like to have her very much.”
Mrs. Randall looked pleased.
”I am sure Betty would enjoy it,” she said; ”you would like to go, wouldn't you, dear?”
Betty hesitated, and glanced a little uneasily at Jack.
”I should like it,” she said. ”I've never been to the circus and it must be lovely, but--but----”
”Oh, Betty, you must go!” cried Jack eagerly. ”It'll be so nice, and you can tell me all about it when you come home.”
The time had been, and not so long before either, when Mrs. Randall would have been inclined to regard this invitation as an attempt at patronage, but she had been learning more than one lesson in these days of her convalescence, and Mrs. Hamilton's kindly advice was beginning to bear fruit.
”Lulu says her mother doesn't want us to wear anything especially nice,”
Winifred went on, ”because we shall go around to see the animals before the circus begins, and it may be dusty. I've got a lovely new book out of the library; it's called 'Dorothy Dainty,' and I'm going to bring it up for Jack to read this afternoon. I know he'll like it.”