Part 49 (1/2)

Then a wonderful thing happened; for Betty looked at the packet, then she smiled, then she raised it to her lips and kissed it, then she put it under her pillow. Finally she said, ”Oh, I am sleepy! Oh, I am tired!”

CHAPTER XXIII

RESTORATION

Notwithstanding the fact that the lost packet was restored, Betty's life hung in the balance for at least another twenty-four hours. During that time she tossed and sighed and groaned. The fever ran high, and her little voice kept on saying, ”Oh, that I could find the packet!”

It was in this emergency that Miss Symes came to the rescue. She called Sylvia and Hester to her, and desired Hester to stand at one side of Betty's little, narrow, white bed, and Sylvia to place herself at the other.

Betty did not seem even to know her sisters. Her eyes were gla.s.sy, her cheeks deeply flushed, and there was a look of intense restlessness and great pain in her face. ”Oh, that I might find the packet!” she murmured.

”Do what your heart prompts you, Sylvia,” said Miss Symes.

Sylvia immediately pushed her hand under Betty's pillow, and, taking up the lost packet, took one of the girl's little, feverish hands and closed her fingers round the brown-paper parcel.

”It is found, Bettina! it is found!” said Sylvia. ”Here it is. You need not fret any more.”

”What! what!” said Betty. Into her eyes there crept a new expression, into her voice a new note. ”Oh, I can't believe it!” she exclaimed.

But here Hetty threw in a word of affection and entreaty. ”Why, Bettina,” she said, ”it is in your hand. Feel it, darling! feel it! We got it back for you, just as we said we would. Feel it, Bettina! feel it!”

Betty felt. Her fingers were half-numbed; but she was able to perceive the difference between the brown paper and the thick, strong cord, and again the difference between the thick cord and the sealing-wax. ”How many seals are there?” she asked in a breathless, eager voice, turning and looking full at her sisters.

”Eight in all,” said Sylvia, speaking rapidly: ”two in front, two at each side, and two, again, fastening down the naps at the back.”

”I knew there were eight,” said Betty. ”Let me feel them.”

Sylvia conducted Betty's fingers over the unbroken seals.

”Count for me, darling, silly Sylvia!” said Betty.

Sylvia began to count: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

”It is my lost packet!” said Betty with a cry.

”It is, Betty! it is!”

”And is any one going to take it from me?”

”No one, Betty, ever again.”

”Let me hold it in my hand,” said Betty.

Sister Helen came up with a restorative; and when Betty had taken the nouris.h.i.+ng contents of the little, white china cup, she again made use of that extraordinary expression, ”Oh, I am so sleepy! Oh, I am tired!”

Still holding the packet in her hand, Betty dropped off into slumber; and when she came to herself the doctors said that the crisis was past.

Betty Vivian recovered very slowly, during which time the rules of the school were altogether relaxed, not only in her favor, but also in favor of the twins, Sylvia and Hetty. They were allowed to spend some hours every day with Betty, and although they spoke very little, they were able to comfort their sister immensely. At last Betty was well enough to leave her bed and creep to any easy-chair, where she would sit, feeling more dead than alive; and, by slow degrees, the girls of the school whom she loved best came to see her and comfort her and fuss over her.