Part 28 (1/2)

”Grandmother is so disappointed she wants to cry all the time,” went on Jane, her lip quivering.

”You promised!” Christopher's tone was growing threatening. ”Hurry up.

There isn't much time.”

”I don't care,” said Jane defiantly.

”Jane Baker! Do you mean to say you are going to break your promise?”

This was attacking Jane's vulnerable spot, for she prided herself upon always keeping her word. She sat up in bed.

”But if it's a wrong promise?” she a.s.serted weakly.

”It's the same promise as when you made it,” announced Christopher with calm conviction, and he approached the bed with the small box in his hand.

Grandmother completed her afternoon toilet in something of a hurry, for she thought she heard sounds in Jane's room.

”What is it?” she asked a little anxiously, appearing in the doorway just as Christopher opened the door from within.

”Nothing,” he answered. ”I was just helping Janey get-get fixed.”

Grandmother glanced at Jane, lying flat on her pillow, her face turned away.

”Don't you feel as well, Janey?” she asked tenderly, crossing to the bedside quickly.

Jane shook her head without speaking. She was white about the lips but her face looked red and blotched. Grandmother lifted one of the little hands; it felt hot and feverish. Huldah entered just then with a daintily arrayed supper tray but Jane pushed it aside with a shudder.

”I am afraid it is measles,” grandmother said in a low tone aside to Huldah. ”She is sick again and see how flushed and broken out her face looks. We'd best send Kit away somewhere.”

”He can go down to the farmhouse,” replied Huldah promptly. ”Joshua will see to him. I'm going to stay up here nights until the child's better.

Where could the precious lamb have caught the measles? I don't know of a case for miles around.”

Mrs. Baker spent an anxious night for Jane tossed and moaned in her sleep in a distressful way. Several messages had been sent to the doctor and grandmother had also sent Jo Perkins into Hammersmith with a note to Mrs. Hartwell-Jones, to tell her of the sudden illness and to warn Letty against coming out to Sunnycrest for fear of contagion. Such a dreary home-coming it promised to be for the returned travelers!

Christopher was decidedly taken aback by his banishment. He had not counted on anything of that sort and remonstrated vigorously.

”If it is measles, I don't see the use in sending me away now,” he argued. ”I guess the harm's already done.”

But grandmother was determined to take no risks and sent Christopher off with a hand-bag.

Toward morning Jane became quieter and grandmother fell into an exhausted sleep. When Jane woke, she tiptoed softly into the bath-room, went through her morning bath and got back into bed again without disturbing her grandmother. The blotchy flush had entirely left her face and she looked and acted perfectly well. Indeed, she appeared quite like her usual self, except for a certain look of unhappiness which even the thought of her mother's coming could not banish from her chubby face.

Grandmother was surprised to see this sudden change for the better, when she finally awoke, and she sent Jo Perkins speeding again into the village with a telegram to grandfather. But she decided to take no chances until Dr. Greene had come and p.r.o.nounced the danger of measles really past, so Christopher was still held in quarantine at the farmhouse at the foot of the hill.

The doctor was late and took his departure only just before the arrival of the travelers. He had been puzzled by Jane's symptoms.

”There were evidences of an upset stomach,” he said, ”but not enough to have caused fever and a breaking out.”