Part 20 (1/2)

be up 't this hour!”

”Off to bed with you, you rascal!” roared the doctor.

”I'll not go,” I protested.

”Off with you!”

”Not I.”

”Catch un, doctor!” cried my sister.

”An you can, zur!” I taunted.

If he could? Ecod! He s.n.a.t.c.hed at me, quick as a cat; but I dodged his hand, laughed in his face and put the table between us. With an agility beyond compare--with a flow of spirits like a gale of wind--he vaulted the broad board. The great, grave fellow appeared of a sudden to my startled vision in midair--his arms and legs at sixes and sevens--his coat-tails flapping like a loose sail--his mouth wide open in a demoniacal whoop--and I dropped to the floor but in the bare nick of time to elude him. Uproarious pursuit ensued: it made my sister limp and pain-stricken and powerless with laughter; it brought our two maids from the kitchen and kept them hysterically screaming in the doorway, the lamp at a fearsome angle; it tumbled the furniture about with rollicking disregard, led the doctor a staggering, scrambling, leaping course in the midst of upturned tables and chairs, and, at last, ran the gasping quarry to earth under the sofa. I was taken out by the heels, shouldered, carried aloft and flung sprawling on my bed--while the whole house rang again with peal upon peal of hearty laughter.

”Oh, zur,” I groaned, ”I never knowed you was so jolly!”

”Not so?”

”On my word, zur!”

He sighed.

”I fancied you was never but sad.”

”Ah, well,” said he, ”the Labrador, Davy, is evidently working a cure.”

”G.o.d be thanked for that!” said I, devoutly.

He rumpled my hair and went out. And I bade him send my sister with the candle; and while I lay waiting in the dark a glow of content came upon me--because of this: that whereas I had before felt woefully inadequate to my sister's protection, however boastfully I had undertaken it, I was now sure that in our new partners.h.i.+p her welfare and peace of heart were to be accomplished. Then she came in and sat with me while I got ready for bed. She had me say my prayers at her knee, as a matter of course, but this night hinted that an additional pet.i.tion for the doctor's well-doing and happiness might not be out of place. She chided me, after that, for the temper I had shown against Jagger and for the oath I had flung at his head, as I knew she would--but did not chide me heartily, because, as she said, she was for the moment too gratefully happy to remember my short-comings against me. I thanked her, then, for this indulgence, and told her that she might go to bed, for I was safely and comfortably bestowed, as she could see, and ready for sleep; but she would not go, and there sat, with the candle in her hand, her face flushed and her great blue eyes soulfully glowing, while she continued to chatter in an incoherent and strangely irrelevant fas.h.i.+on: so that, astonished into broad wakefulness by this extraordinary behaviour, I sat bolt upright in bed, determined to discover the cause.

”Bessie Roth,” said I, severely, ”what's come upon you?”

”I'm not knowin', Davy,” she answered, softly, looking away.

”'Tis somewhat awful, then,” said I, in alarm, ”for you're not lookin'

me in the eye.”

She looked then in her lap--and did not raise her eyes, though I waited: which was very strange.

”You isn't sick, is you?”

”No-o,” she answered, doubtfully.

”Oh, you _mustn't_ get sick,” I protested. ”'Twould _never_ do. I'd fair die--if _you_ got sick!”

”'Tisn't sickness; 'tis--I'm not knowin' what.”

”Ah, come,” I pleaded; ”what is it, dear?”