Part 34 (2/2)
”I wouldn't allow such a thing,” said Bernie, firmly. ”It would mean a scandal.”
”I--I can't stay here _alone_, for a whole _week_. I'll die.”
”Then I'll join you myself,” her brother offered.
Myra Nell looked alarmed. ”Oh, not _you_! I want some one to nurse me when I fall ill.”
”What makes you think you'll catch it? Were you exposed?”
”Exposed! Heavens! I can feel the disease coming on this very minute.
The place is full of germs; I can spear 'em with a hat-pin.” She shuddered and managed to counterfeit a tear.
”I've an idea,” said Norvin. ”I'll get that trained nurse who saved you when you fell off the horse.”
”Vittoria? She might do. But, Norvin, the horse threw me.” She warned him with a grimace which Bernie did not see. ”He's a frightful beast.”
”I can't afford a trained nurse,” Dreux objected, ”and you don't need one, anyhow.”
”All right for you, Bernie; if you don't care any more for my life than that, I'll sicken and die. When a girl's relatives turn against her it's time she was out of the way.”
”Oh, all right,” said her brother, angrily. ”It's ruinous, but I suppose you must have it your way.”
Myra Nell shook her head gloomily. ”No--not if you are going to feel like that. Of course, if she were here she could cut off my hair when I take to my bed; she could bathe my face with lime-water when my beauty goes; she could listen to my ravings and understand, for she is a--woman. But no, I'm not worth it. Perhaps I can get along all right, and, anyhow, I'll have to teach school or--or be a nun if I'm all pock-marks.”
”Good Lord!” Bernie wiped his brow with a trembling hand. ”D'you think that'll happen, Norvin?”
”It's bound to,” the girl predicted, indifferently. ”But what's the odds?” Suddenly a new thought dilated her eyes with real horror. ”Oh!”
she cried. ”_Oh!_ I just happened to remember. I'm to be Queen of the Carnival! Now, I'll be scarred and hideous, even if I happen to recover; but I won't recover. You shall have my royal robe, Bunny.
Keep it always. And Norvin shall have my hair.”
”Here! I--don't want your hair,” Blake a.s.serted, nervously. ”I mean not without--”
”It is all I have to give.”
”You may not catch the smallpox, after all.”
”We'll--have Miss Fabrizi b-by all means,” Bernie chattered.
”You stay here and talk to her while I go,” Norvin suggested, quickly.
”And, Myra Nell, I'll fetch you a lot of chocolates. I'll fetch you anything, if you'll only cheer up.”
”Remember, It's against my wishes,” the girl said. ”But she's not at the hospital now; she's living in the Italian quarter.” She gave him the street, and number, and he made off in all haste.
On his way he had time to think more collectedly of the girl he had just left. Her prank had shocked him into a keen realization of his feeling for her, and he began to understand the large part she played in his life. Many things inclined him to believe that her regard for him was really deeper than her careless levity indicated, and it seemed now that they had been destined for each other.
It was dusk when he reached his destination. A nondescript Italian girl ushered him up a dark stairway and into an old-fas.h.i.+oned drawing-room with high ceiling, and long windows which opened out upon a rusty overhanging iron balcony. The room ran through to a court in the rear, after the style of so many of these foreign-built houses. It had once been the home of luxury and elegance, but had long since fallen into a state of shabby decay. He was still lost in thoughts of the important step which he contemplated when he heard the rustle of a woman's garment behind him and rose as a tall figure entered the room.
”Miss Fabrizi?” he inquired. ”I came to find you--”
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