Which of course caused Blair to suppose it might be a child from one of the cottages come to ask for help of some sort; as they did come sometimes. He thought Hall might have been called to her, but he went down at once; without his coat, and his invalid-room slippers on.
Naturally, when he saw the young lady, it took him aback.
"I beg your pardon, sir; I hope you will not deem me an intruder. I have just arrived here."
Blair stared almost as much as the cook had done. The face was so pleasant, the voice so refined, that he inwardly called himself a fool for showing himself to her in that trim. For once, speech failed him; a thing Blair had never done at mathematics, I can tell you; he had not the smallest notion who she was or what she wanted. And the silence seemed to frighten her.
"Am I too late?" she asked, her face growing white. "Has the--the worse happened?"
"Happened to what?" questioned Blair, for he never once thought of the sick fellow above, and was all at sea. "Pardon me, young lady, but I do not know what you are speaking of."
"Of my brother, Edward Sanker. Oh, sir! is he dead?"
"Miss Sanker! Truly I beg your pardon for my stupidity. He is out of danger; is getting well."
She sat down for a minute on the old stone bench beyond the door, roughed with the crowd of boys" names cut in it. Her lips were trembling just a little, and the soft brown eyes had tears in them; but the face was breaking into a happy smile.
"Oh, Dr. Frost, thank you, thank you! Somehow I never thought of him as dead until this moment, and it startled me."
Fancy her taking him for Frost! Blair was a good-looking fellow under thirty, slender and well made. The Doctor stood out an old guy of fifty, with a stern face and black knee-breeches.
"My mother had your letter, sir, but she was not able to come. My father is very ill, needing her attention every moment; she strove to see on which side her duty lay--to stay with him, or to come to Edward; and she thought it must lie in remaining with papa. So she sent me. I left Wales last night."
"Is Mr. Sanker"s a fever, too?" asked Blair, in wonder.
"No, an accident. He was hurt in the mine."
It was odd that it should be so; the two illnesses occurring at the same time! Mr. Sanker, it appeared, fell from the shaft; his leg was broken, and there were other injuries. At first they were afraid for him.
Blair fell into a dilemma. He wouldn"t have minded Mrs. Sanker; but he did not know much about young ladies, not being accustomed to them. She got up from the bench.
"Mamma bade me say to you, Dr. Frost----"
"I beg your pardon," interrupted Blair again. "I am not Dr. Frost; the Doctor went to London this morning. My name is Blair--one of the masters. Will you walk in?"
He shut her into the parlour on his way to call Hall, and to put on his boots and coat. Seeing me, he turned into the schoolroom.
"Ludlow, are not the Sankers connections of yours?"
"Not of mine. Of Mrs. Todhetley"s."
"It"s all the same. You go in and talk to her. I don"t know what on earth to do. She has come to be with Sanker, but she won"t like to stay here with only you and me. If the Doctor were at home it would be different."
"She seems an uncommon nice girl, Mr. Blair."
"Good gracious!" went on Blair in his dilemma. "The Doctor told me he had written to Wales some time ago; but he supposed Mrs. Sanker could not make it convenient to come; and yesterday he wrote again, saying there was no necessity for it, as Sanker was out of danger. I don"t know what on earth to do with her," repeated Blair, who had a habit of getting hopelessly bewildered on occasions. "Hall! Where"s Mrs. Hall?"
As he went calling out down the flagged pa.s.sage, a boy came whistling to the door, carrying a carpet-bag: Miss Sanker"s luggage. The coach she had had to take on leaving the rail put her down half-a-mile away, and she walked up in the sun, leaving her bag to be brought after her.
It seemed that we were going in for mistakes. When I went to her, and began to say who I was, she mistook me for Tod. It made me laugh.
"Tod is a great, strong fellow, as tall as Mr. Blair, Miss Sanker. I am only Johnny Ludlow."
"Edward has told me all about you both," she said, taking my hand, and looking into my face with her sweet eyes. "Tod"s proud and overbearing, though generous; but you have ever been pleasant with him. I am afraid I shall begin to call you "Johnny" at once."
"No one ever calls me anything else; except the masters here."
"You must have heard of me--Mary?"
"But you are not Mary?"
"Yes, I am."
That she was telling truth any fellow might see, and yet at first I hardly believed her. Sanker had told us his sister Mary was beautiful as an angel. _Her_ face had no beauty in it, so to say; it was only kind, nice, and loving. People called Mrs. Parrifer a beautiful woman; perhaps I had taken my notions of beauty from her; she had a Roman nose, and great big eyes that rolled about, had a gruff voice, and a lovely peach-and-white complexion (but people said it was paint), and looked three parts a fool. Mary Sanker was just the opposite to all this, and her cheeks were dimpled. But still she had not what people call beauty.
"May I go up and see Edward?"
"I should think so. Mr. Blair, I suppose, will be back directly. He is looking very ill: you will not be frightened at him?"
"After picturing him in my mind as dead, he will not frighten me, however ill he may look."
"I should say the young lady had better take off her bonnet afore going in. Young Mr. Sanker haven"t seen bonnets of late, and might be scared."
The interruption came from Hall; we turned, and saw her standing there.
She spoke resentfully, as if Miss Sanker had offended her; and no doubt she had, by coming when the house was not in company order, and had nothing better to send in for dinner but cold mutton and half a rhubarb pie. Hall would have to get the mutton hashed now, which she would never have done for me and Blair.
"Yes, if you please; I should much like to take my bonnet off," said Miss Sanker, going up to Hall with a smile. "I think you must be Mrs.
Hall. My brother has talked of you."
Hall took her to a room, and presently she came forth all fresh and nice, the travel dust gone, and her bright brown hair smooth and glossy.
Her grey dress was soft, one that would not disturb a sick-room; it had a bit of white lace at the throat and wrists, and a little pearl brooch in front. She was twenty-one last birthday, but did not look as much.
Blair had been in to prepare Sanker, and his great eyes (only great since his illness) were staring for her with a wild expectation. You never saw brother and sister less alike; the one so nice, the other ugly enough to frighten the crows. Sanker had my hand clasped tight in his, when she stooped to kiss him. I don"t think he knew it; but I could not get away. In that moment I saw how fond they were of each other.
"Could not the mother come, Mary?"
"No, papa is--is not well," she said, for of course she would not tell him yet of any accident. "Papa wanted her there, and you wanted her here; she thought her duty lay at home, and she was not afraid but that G.o.d would raise up friends to take care of you."
"What is the matter with him?"
"Some complicated illness or other," Mary Sanker answered, in careless tones. "He was a little better when I came away. You have been very ill, Edward."
He held up his wasted hand as proof, with a half smile; but it fell again.
"I don"t believe I should have pulled through it all, Mary, but for Blair."
"That"s the gentleman I saw. The one without a coat. Has he nursed you?"
Sanker motioned with his white lips. "Right well, too. He, and Hall, and Johnny here. Old Hall is as good as gold when any of us are ill."