Leonard searched through his pockets, and after turning out an a.s.sortment of letters and papers produced a small photograph for inspection. The girls b.u.mped their heads together in their eagerness to look at it. It had been taken in camp, and represented the young soldier in the act of raising a can of coffee to his lips. There was a pleased smile on the whimsical face, and a twinkle in the dark eyes. Marjorie caught her breath.
"Why, why!" she gasped. "It"s surely Private Preston!"
"That"s his name right enough. We call him Winkles, though. He"s a lieutenant now, by the way--got his commission just lately."
"But--I thought he was killed?"
"Not a bit of it! I heard from him yesterday."
"He was in the Roll of Honour," urged Marjorie, still unable to believe.
"No, he wasn"t. That was his brother Henry, who was in the same regiment--a nice chap, though nothing to Winkles."
Marjorie sat in a state of almost dazed incomprehension. A black cloud seemed suddenly to have rolled away from her, and she had not yet had time to readjust herself. As in a dream she listened to Dona"s explanation.
"He was in the Red Cross Hospital here, and we saw him when Elaine took us to the Christmas tree."
"Was it Whitecliffe? I knew he"d been in a Red Cross Hospital, but never heard which one," commented Leonard.
"He was going on to a convalescent home," continued Dona.
"He came back to the front before he was really fit," said Leonard.
"The poor chap had had influenza, but he was so afraid of being thought a shirker that he made a push to go. He was laid up with a touch of pneumonia, I remember, a week after he rejoined."
"Will he get leave again?" faltered Marjorie.
"Yes, next month, he hopes. They don"t live such a very long way from Silverwood, and he said he"d try to go over and see the Mater. She"d give him a welcome, I know."
"Rather!" agreed the girls.
"We shall be at home in August," added Dona.
Marjorie, however, said nothing. There are some joys that it is quite impossible to express to outsiders.
"I"m glad they"ve made him a lieutenant," she said to herself.
CHAPTER XXIV
The Royal George
When Leonard brought Marjorie and Dona back to The Tamarisks there was still one more golden half-hour before they need return to school. Aunt Ellinor proposed tennis, and suggested that her nephew should play his sisters while she sat and acted umpire. The game went fairly evenly, for Leonard was agile and equal to holding his own, though it was one against two. They were at "forty all" when Dona made a rather brilliant stroke. Leonard sprang across the court in a frantic effort to get the ball, missed it, slipped on the gra.s.s, and fell. The girls laughed.
"You"ve been a little too clever for once," called Dona. "That"s our game!"
"Get up, you old slacker!" said Marjorie.
But Leonard did not get up. He stayed where he was on the lawn, looking very white. Mrs. Trafford ran to him in alarm.
"What"s the matter?" she cried.
"I believe I"ve broken my ankle--I felt it snap."
The accident was so totally unexpected that for a moment everyone was staggered, then, recovering her presence of mind, Aunt Ellinor, with Marjorie and Dona"s help, applied first aid, while Hodson hurried into Whitecliffe to fetch the doctor. He was fortunately at home, and came at once. He helped to carry Leonard into the house, set the broken bone, and settled him in bed.
"You"ll have to stay where you are for a while," he a.s.sured him.
"There"ll be no walking on that foot yet. It"ll extend your leave, at any rate."
"I can"t imagine how I was such an idiot as to do it," mourned Leonard.
"I just seemed to trip, and couldn"t save myself."
"We"ll borrow you some crutches from the Red Cross when you"re well enough to use them," laughed the doctor. "You"ll be well looked after here. Miss Elaine is one of my best nurses at the hospital."
Marjorie and Dona arrived back at school late for Preparation, but were graciously forgiven by Mrs. Morrison when they explained the unfortunate reason of their delay.
"It"s ripping to have both Leonard and Larry at Whitecliffe," said Dona to Marjorie in private.
"Rather! I think I know one person who won"t altogether regret the accident."
"Leonard?"
"Yes, Leonard certainly; but somebody else too."
"I know--Elaine."
"She"ll have the time of her life nursing him."
"And he"ll have the time of his life being nursed by Elaine," laughed Dona.
It was now getting very near the end of the term, and each hostel, according to its usual custom, was beginning to devise some form of entertainment to which it could invite the rest of the school. After much consultation, St. Elgiva"s decided on charades. A cast was chosen consisting of eight girls who were considered to act best, Betty, Chrissie, and Marjorie being among the number. No parts were to be learnt, but a general outline of each charade was to be arranged beforehand, the performers filling in impromptu dialogue as they went along. To hit on a suitable word, and think out some telling scenes, now occupied the wits of each of the chosen eight. They compared notes constantly; indeed, when any happy thought occurred to one, she made haste to communicate it to the others.
An inspiration came suddenly to Marjorie during cricket, and when the game was over she rushed away to unburden herself of it. She had thought several of the performers might be in the recreation room, but she found n.o.body there except Chrissie, who sat writing at the table.
"I"ve a lovely idea, Chris!" she began. "You know that word we chose, "cough", "fee"--"coffee"; well, we"ll have the first syllable in a Red Cross Hospital, and the second in an employment bureau, and a girl can ask if there"s any fee to pay; and the whole word can be a scene in a drawing-room. Chrissie, do stop writing and listen!"
Her chum shut up her geometry textbook rather reluctantly. She was putting in extra work before the exams, and was loath to be interrupted.
She kept on drawing angles on her blotting-paper almost automatically.
"They"d be ripping if we could get the right properties," she agreed.
"Could we manage beds enough to look like a hospital? Yes, those small forms would do, I dare say. The employment bureau will be easy enough.
The drawing-room scene would be no end, if we could make it up-to-date.
I ought to be an officer home on leave, and you"re my long-lost love, and we have a dramatic meeting over the coffee cups!"
"Gorgeous! Oh, we must do it! Shall I droop tenderly into your arms?
What shall I wear?"