"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Constance, crestfallenly. "It took me the whole afternoon to find it, but I did think it was what you wanted."
"I was sceptical of your being able to get even an approach to newsboy literature, Miss Durant," said Dr. Armstrong, "and so squandered the large sum of a dime myself. I think this is the genuine article, isn"t it?" he asked, as he handed to the boy a pamphlet labelled _Old Sleuth on the Trail_.
"Dat"s de real t"ing," jubilantly acceded Swot. "Say, oin"t de women doisies for havin" bases stole off "em? Didn"t Ise give youse de warm tip to let de doc git it?"
"You should thank him for saving you from my stupid blunder," answered the girl, artfully avoiding all possibility of personal obligation. "Would you like me to read it to you now?"
"Wouldn"t Ise, just!"
Still ignoring Dr. Armstrong, Constance took the seat at the bedside, and opening the book, launched into the wildest sea of blood-letting and crime. Yet thrillingly as it began, she was not oblivious to the fact that for some minutes the doctor stood watching her, and she was quite conscious of when he finally moved away, noiselessly as he went. Once he was gone, she was more at her ease; yet clearly her conscience troubled her a little, for in her carriage she again gave expression to some thought by remarking aloud, "It was rude, of course, but if he will behave so, it really isn"t my fault."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Constance took the seat at the bedside"]
The gory tale, in true serial style, was "continued" the next and succeeding mornings, to the enthralment of the listener and the amus.e.m.e.nt of the reader, the latter finding in her occupation as well a convenient reason for avoiding or putting a limit to the doctor"s undisguised endeavours to share, if not, indeed, to monopolise, her attention. Even serials, however, have an end, and on the morning of the sixth reading the impossibly shrewd detective successfully put out of existence, or safely incarcerated each one of the numerous scoundrels who had hitherto triumphed over the law, and Constance closed the book.
"Hully gee!" sighed Swot, contentedly. "Say, dat Old Sleut, he"s up to de limit, oin"t he? It don"t matter wot dey does, he works it so"s de hull push comes his way, don"t he?"
"He certainly was very far-seeing," Constance conceded; "but what a pity it is that he--that he wasn"t in some finer calling."
"Finer wot?"
"How much n.o.bler it would have been if, instead of taking life, he had been saving it--like Dr. Armstrong, for instance," she added, to bring her idea within the comprehension of the boy.
"Ah, dat"s de talk for religious mugs an" goils," contemptuously exclaimed the waif, "but it guv"s me de sore ear. It don"t go wid me, not one little bit."
"Aren"t you grateful to Dr. Armstrong for all he"s done for you?"
"Bet youse life," a.s.sented Swot; "but Ise oin"t goin" to be no doctor, nah! Ise goin" to git on de force, dat"s de racket Ise outer. Say, will youse read me anudder of dem stories?"
"Gladly, if I can find the right kind this time."
The boy raised his head to look about the ward. "Hey, doc," called his cracked treble.
"Hush, don"t!" protested the girl.
"W"y not?"
Before she could frame a reason, the doctor was at the bedside. "What is it?" he asked.
"Say, wese got tru wid dis story, an" Miss Constance says she"ll read me anudder, but dey"ll set de goime up on her, sure, she bein" a goil; so will youse buy de real t"ing?"
"That I will."
"Dat"s hunky." Then he appealed to Constance. "Say, will youse pay for it?" he requested.
"And why should she?" inquired Dr. Armstrong.
""Cause she"s got de dough, an Ise heard de nurse loidies talkin" "bout youse, an" dey said dat youse wuz poor."
It was the doctor"s turn to colour, and flush he did.
"Swot and I will both be very grateful, Dr. Armstrong, if you will get us another of the Old Sleuth books," spoke up Miss Durant, hastily.
"Won"t youse guv "im de price?" reiterated the urchin.
"Then we"ll expect it to-morrow morning," went on the girl; and for the first time in days she held out her hand to Dr. Armstrong, "And thank you in advance for your kindness. Good-morning."
"Rats!" she heard, as she walked away. "I didn"t tink she"d do de grand sneak like dat, doc, jus" "cause I tried to touch her for de cash."
Constance slowed one step, then resumed her former pace. "He surely--Of course he"ll understand why I hurried away," she murmured.
Blind as he might be, Dr. Armstrong was not blind to the geniality of Miss Durant"s greeting the next morning, or the warmth of her thanks for the cheap-looking dime novel. She chatted pleasantly with him some moments before beginning on the new tale; and even when she at last opened the book, there was a subtle difference in the way she did it that made it include instead of exclude him from a share in the reading. And this was equally true of the succeeding days.
The new doings of Old Sleuth did not achieve the success that the previous ones had. The invalid suddenly developed both restlessness and inattention, with such a tendency to frequent interruptions as to make reading well-nigh impossible.
"Really, Swot," Constance was driven to threaten one morning, when he had broken in on the narrative for the seventh time with questions which proved that he was giving no heed to the book, "unless you lie quieter, and don"t interrupt so often, I shall not go on reading."
"Dat goes," acceded the little fellow; yet before she had so much as finished a page he asked, "Say, did youse ever play c.r.a.ps?"
"No," she answered, with a touch of severity.
"It"s a jim dandy goime, Ise tells youse. Like me to learn youse?"
"No," replied the girl, as she closed the book.
"Goils never oin"t no good," remarked Swot, discontentedly.
Really irritated, Miss Durant rose and adjusted her boa. "Swot," she said, "you are the most ungrateful boy I ever knew, and I"m not merely not going to read any more to-day, but I have a good mind not to come to-morrow, just to punish you."
"Ah, chase youseself!" was the response. "Youse can"t pa.s.s dat gold brick on me, well, I guess!"
"What are you talking about?" indignantly asked Constance.
"Tink Ise oin"t onter youse curves? Tink Ise don"t hear wot de nurse loidies says? Gee! Ise know w"y youse so fond of comin" here."
"Why do I come here?" asked Constance, in a voice full of warning.
The tone was wasted on the boy.
""Cause youse dead gone on de doc."
"I am sorry you don"t know better than to talk like that, Swot," said the girl, quietly, "because I wanted to be good to you, and now you have put an end to my being able to be. You will have to get some one else to read to you after this. Good-bye." She pa.s.sed her hand kindly over his forehead, and turned to find that Dr. Armstrong was standing close behind her, and must have overheard more or less of what had been said. Without a word, and looking straight before her, Constance walked away.
Once out of the hospital, her conscience was not altogether easy; and though she kept away the next day, she sent her footman with the usual gift of fruits and other edibles; and this she did again on the morning following.
"Of course he didn"t mean to be so atrociously impertinent," she sighed, in truth missing what had come to be such an amusing and novel way of using up some of each twenty-four hours. "But I can"t, in self-respect, go to him any more."
These explanations were confided to her double in the mirror, as she eyed the effect of a new gown, donned for a dinner; and while she still studied the eminently satisfactory total, she was interrupted by a knock at the door, and her maid brought her a card the footman handed in.