The appeal of her eyes caused the broker to stir undecidedly. "I never did have any use for doctors," he thought, after the manner of many who, nevertheless, are eager to fly to the brotherhood for help at the first suggestion of pain. Moreover, the humor of the situation was beginning to dawn upon him, and he admired the fine temper and self-control with which the young physician pulled himself together and rose.
"_I_ am glad you are well, Jewel, very," he said; "but the next time I am called to prescribe for a little Christian Scientist I shall put the pellets on her tongue." He smiled as he took up his case and said good-by.
Mr. Evringham followed him down the stairs, heroically resisting the impulse to laugh. Only one remark he allowed himself as he bade the doctor good-by.
"You"re quite right, Ballard, in your theory. Jewel has been here only three days, but I could have told you that in doing anything whatever for her, it is always absolutely necessary to consider the personal equation."
CHAPTER XIII
IN THE LIBRARY
As Mr. Evringham turned from the closed door he met his daughter-in-law coming out into the hall.
"I"ve been watching for Dr. Ballard," she said with annoyance. "I don"t see why I didn"t hear him come down." At this juncture she paused, surprised to observe that her father-in-law was laughing. She attributed this unusual ebullition to ridicule of herself.
"I only wanted to ask if Julia"s illness is infectious," she went on with dignity. "Eloise and I are naturally very anxious. We should like to do anything for her we can, if it is quite safe."
"Madam, don"t, I pray, for all our sakes, run any risk," returned Mr.
Evringham, his lips still twitching as he bowed mockingly.
"It would be very foolish," answered Mrs. Evringham, unabashed. "You wouldn"t care to have more invalids on your hands. It has been all I could do to keep Eloise away from the sick room to-day."
"Is it possible!" commented Mr. Evringham, smoothing his mustache.
"Not only possible but true, and I wished to go to headquarters and find out the exact state of the case."
Again the broker"s shoulders began to shake.
"Ballard isn"t headquarters," he replied.
Mrs. Evringham regarded him, startled. She wondered if affairs were perhaps very serious, and her father-in-law"s nerves overstrained.
She knew that he had dispensed with the afternoon ride which was so important to him.
She grew a shade paler. "I wish you would tell me, father, just what the doctor said," she begged.
Mr. Evringham raised a protesting hand. "I couldn"t think of it," he laughed. "It would give me apoplexy."
His daughter-in-law began to retreat, and the broker pa.s.sed her and went into his study, still laughing.
Mrs. Evringham stood with lips parted, looking after him. Her heart beat fast. The doctor had called twice. He had come down the stairs in dead silence just now. She knew it, for she had been listening and waiting to intercept him. She had meant to say a number of pretty things to him concerning Eloise"s anxiety about her little cousin. Her own anxiety redoubled, and she hurried to her daughter"s room and narrated her experience.
"I really think we may have to go, Eloise," she finished nervously.
"Even if it isn"t infectious, it is so dreadfully dispiriting to be in a house where there is a dangerous illness, and possibly worse. I"ve been thinking perhaps we might go in town and take lodgings for a while. No one need know it. We could even stay there through the summer. None of our friends would be in town; then in autumn we could come back here."
Eloise"s lip curled. "I doubt that," she returned. "Grandfather will be forearmed. I prophesy, mother, that you will never get our trunks up here again after you once take them out."
"Really, Eloise, you do put things most repulsively," returned Mrs.
Evringham with vexation. "Besides, how do we know what the future is going to bring forth? Father behaves to me as if he might be on the verge of brain fever himself."
"Poor little Jewel!" exclaimed the girl. "I hope she will pull through, but if she is the cause of our leaving here, I shall always love her memory."
"I don"t know whether father will even come to dinner," said Mrs.
Evringham, pursuing her own thoughts, "but I suppose we shall see Mrs.
Forbes. I do hope she has some sense about using disinfectants. It"s outrageous for her to come near the dining-room when she is taking care of that child. Of course they"ll have a nurse at once. Forbes doesn"t like going out of her beaten track."
"I can"t forget that poor little voice rambling on so monotonously this afternoon," said Eloise. "I strained my ears to listen, but I could make out only that she said something about "love" and then about "righteousness." What a word for that little mouth."
"I"ve seen smaller," remarked Mrs. Evringham.
When finally they entered the dining-room punctually at the appointed hour,--even Mrs. Evringham dared take no liberties with that,--the host was there and greeted them as usual. Mrs. Forbes came in and took her position near him. Her employer gave her a side glance. His fears for Jewel allayed, his regard for his housekeeper"s opinions had returned in full force.
He wished to ask for the little girl, to ask what she was doing now, and what she would like sent up for dinner, but he had not the courage. The aghast countenance which Mrs. Forbes had exhibited at the moment when the enormity of Jewel"s conduct transpired remained in his memory. The housekeeper"s appearance at present was noncommittal. Mrs. Evringham sent her piercing and questioning glances in vain.
The silence in the usually silent room had not had time to become noticeable when the portiere was pushed aside and Jewel, arrayed in the dotted dress and carefully bearing the tall vase of nodding roses, entered the room.
Mrs. Evringham uttered a little cry and dropped her spoon. Eloise stared wild-eyed. The housekeeper flushed.
"Good evening," said the child, glancing about as she approached, and sighing with relief as she set the heavy vase on the edge of the table.
"I had to come down so carefully not to spill, grandpa, that it made me a little late. Mrs. Forbes said you brought me the roses under false--false pretends, so I thought perhaps you would like them on the table."
The housekeeper, hurrying forward, seized the vase from its precarious position and placed it in the centre of the board. "I didn"t tell you you might come downstairs," she said, as she b.u.t.toned the middle b.u.t.ton of Jewel"s dress.
The little girl looked up in innocent surprise. "You said I might dress me, so why should anybody have to bring up my dinner?" she asked.
Mrs. Forbes"s countenance looked so lowering that Mr. Evringham hastened to speak in his brusque and final fashion. "She is here now. Might as well let her stay."
Jewel jumped into her chair and turned toward him with an apologetic smile. "I couldn"t make my hair look very nice," she said, with the lift of her shoulders which he had come to connect with her confidential moments. Remembering the feverish child of the morning, he looked at her in silent wonder. The appearance of her flaxen head he could see was in contrast to the trim and well-cared-for look it had worn when she arrived.
"Poor little thing!" he thought. "She looks motherless--motherless."
Involuntarily he cast a glance of impatience at his other guests. The expression of blank amazement on their faces stirred him to amus.e.m.e.nt.
"If you are afraid of infection, Madge, don"t hesitate to retire to your room," he said. "Your dinner will be sent to you."
"What does this mean!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mrs. Evringham. "Why is Dr. Ballard coming twice a day to see that child?"
"To cure her, of course," returned the broker, his lips breaking into smiles. "Why do doctors generally visit patients?"
"Then when he came the second time he found her well?"
"Ha, ha," laughed Mr. Evringham, "yes, that"s it. He found her well."
Eloise and her mother gazed at him in astonishment. Mrs. Forbes"s face was immovable. A sense of humor was not included in her mental equipment, and she considered the whole affair lamentable and unseemly in the extreme.
"Grandpa," said Jewel, looking at him with gentle reproach, "you"re not laughing at Dr. Ballard, are you? He"s the _kindest_ man. I love him, next to you, best of anybody in Bel-Air"--then thinking this declaration might hurt her aunt and cousin, she added, "because I know him the best, you know. He tried to deceive me about the medicine, but it was only because he didn"t know that there isn"t any righteous deceiving. He meant to do me good."
Mrs. Evringham looked curiously from the child to her father-in-law. As she herself said later, she had never felt so "out of it" in her life.