CHAPTER XXXV
NURSE ROSEMARY HAS HER REWARD The Rosary | ||
35. CHAPTER XXXV
NURSE ROSEMARY HAS HER REWARD
"MR. DALMAIN," said Nurse Rosemary, with patient insistence, " I really do want you to sit down, and give your mind to the tea-table. How can you remember where each thing is placed, if you keep jumping up, and moving your chair into different positions? And last time you pounded the table to attract my attention, which was already anxiously fixed upon you, you nearly knocked over your own tea, and sent floods of mine into the saucer. If you cannot behave better, I shall ask Margery for a pinafore, and sit you up on a high chair!"
Garth stretched his legs in front of him, and his arms over his head; and lay back in his chair, laughing joyously.
"Then I should have to say: `Please, Nurse, may I get down?' What a cheeky little thing you are becoming! And you used to be quite oppressively polite. I suppose you would answer: 'If you say your grace nicely, Master Garth, you may.' Do you know the story of 'Tommy, you should say Your Grace'? "
"You have told it to me twice in the last forty-eight hours," said Nurse Rosemary, patiently.
"Oh, what a pity! I felt so like telling it now. If you had really been the sort of sympathetic person Sir Deryck described, you would have said: ' No; and I should so love to hear it!'"
"No; and I should so love to hear it!" said Nurse Rosemary.
"Too late! That sort of thing, to have any value should be spontaneous. It need not be true; but it must be spontaneous. But, talking of a high chair, — when you say those chaffy things in a voice like Jane's, and just as Jane would have said them — oh, my wig! — Do you know, that is the duchess's only original little swear. All the rest are quotations. And when she says: 'My wig!' we all try not to look at it. It is usually slightly awry. The toucan tweaks it. He is so very loving, dear bird!"
"Now hand me the buttered toast," said Nurse Rosemary; "and don't tell me any more naughty stories about the duchess. No! That is the thin bread-and-butter. I told you you would lose your bearings. The toast is in a warm plate on your right. Now let us make believe I am Miss Champion, and hand it to me, as nicely as you will be handing it to her, this time to-morrow."
"It is easy to make believe you are Jane, with that voice," said Garth; "and yet — I don't know. I have never really associated you with her. One little sentence of old Rob's made all the difference to me. He said you had fluffy floss-silk sort of hair. No one could ever imagine Jane with fluffy floss-silk sort of hair! And I believe that one sentence saved the situation. Otherwise, your voice would have driven me mad, those first days. As it was, I used to wonder sometimes if I could possibly bear it. You understand why, now; don't you? And yet, in a way, it is not like hers. Hers is deeper; and she often speaks with a delicious kind of drawl, and uses heaps of slang; and you are such a very proper little person; and possess
"Why?"
"I should be so awfully afraid lest you should not like one another. You see, you have really, in a way, been more to me than any one else in the world; and she — well, she is my world," said Garth, simply. "And I should be so afraid lest she should not fully appreciate you; and you should not quite understand her. She has a sort of way of standing and looking people up and down, and women hate it; especially pretty fluffy little women. They feel she spots all the things that come off."
"Nothing of mine comes off," murmured Nurse Rosemary, "excepting my patient, when he will not stay on his chair."
"Once," continued Garth, with the gleeful enjoyment in his voice which always presaged a story in which Jane figured; "there was a fearfully silly little woman staying at Overdene, when a lot of us were there. We never could make out why she was included in one of the duchess's `best parties,' except that the dear duchess vastly enjoyed taking her off, and telling stories about her; and we could not appreciate the cleverness of the impersonation, unless we had seen the original. She was rather pretty, in a fussy, curling-tongs, wax-doll sort of way; but she never could let her appearance alone, or allow people to forget it. Almost every sentence she spoke, drew attention to it. We got very sick of it, and asked Jane to make her shut up. But Jane said: 'It doesn't hurt you, boys; and it pleases her. Let her be.' Jane
"Why?"
"Oh, I don't know! I can't explain why. If you knew her, you would not need to ask. Cake, Miss Gray? "
"Thank you. Right, this time."
"There! That is exactly as Jane would have said: 'Right, this time.' Is it not strange that after having for weeks thought your voice so like hers, to-morrow I shall be thinking her voice so like yours?"
"Oh no, you will not," said Nurse Rosemary. "When she is with you, you will have no thoughts for other people."
"Indeed, but I shall!" cried Garth. "And, dear little Rosemary, I shall miss you, horribly. No one — not even she — can take your place. And, do you know," he leaned forward, and a troubled look clouded the gladness of his face; " I am beginning to feel anxious about it. She has not seen me since the accident. I am afraid it will give her a shock. Do you think she will find me much changed?"
Jane looked at the sightless face, turned so anxiously toward her. She remembered that morning in his room, when he thought himself alone with Dr. Rob; and, leaving the shelter of the wall, sat up to speak, and she saw his face for the first time. She remembered turning to the fireplace, so that Dr. Rob should not see the tears raining down her cheeks. She looked again at Garth — now growing conscious for the first time, of his disfigurement; and then, only for her sake — and an almost overwhelming tenderness gripped her heart. She glanced at the clock. She could not hold out much longer.
"Is it very bad?" said Garth; and his voice shook.
"I cannot answer for another woman," replied Nurse Rosemary; "but I should think your face, just as it is, will always be her joy."
Garth flushed; pleased and relieved, but slightly surprised. There was a quality in Nurse Rosemary's voice, for which he could not altogether account.
"But then, she will not be accustomed to my blind ways," he continued. " I am afraid I shall seem so helpless and so blundering. She has not been in Sightless Land, as you and I have been. She does not
Nurse Rosemary was receiving her reward, and she appeared to find it rather overwhelming.
As soon as she could speak, she said, gently: " Don't excite yourself over it, Mr. Dalmain. Believe me, when you have been with her for five minutes, you will find it just the same as having me. And how do you know she has not also been in Sightless Land? A nurse would do that sort of thing, because she was very keen on her profession, and on making a success of her case. The woman who loves you, would do it for love of you."
"It would be like her," said Garth; and leaned back, a look of deep contentment gathering on his face. "Oh, Jane! Jane! She is coming! She is coming!"
Nurse Rosemary looked at the clock.
"Yes; she is coming," she said; and though her voice was steady, her hands trembled. "And, as it is our last evening together under quite the same circumstances as during all these weeks, will you agree to a plan of mine? I must go upstairs now, and do some packing, and make a few arrangements. But will you dress early? I will do the same; and if you
"Why certainly," said Garth. " It makes no difference to me at what time I dress; and I am always ready for music. But, I say: I wish you were not packing, Miss Gray."
"I am not exactly packing up," replied Nurse Rosemary. " I am packing things away."
" It is all the same, if it means leaving. But you have promised not to go until she comes?"
"I will not go — until she comes."
"And you will tell her all the things she ought to know? "
"She shall know all I know, which could add to your comfort."
"And you will not leave me, until I am really — well, getting on all right?"
"I will never leave you, while you need me," said Nurse Rosemary. And again Garth detected that peculiar quality in her voice. He rose, and came towards where he heard her to be standing.
"Do you know, you are no end of a brick," he said, with emotion. Then he held out both hands towards her. "Put your hands in mine just for once, little Rosemary. I want to try to thank you."
There was a moment of hesitation. Two strong capable hands — strong and capable, though, just then, they trembled — nearly went home to his; but were withdrawn just in time. Jane's hour was not yet. This was Nurse Rosemary's moment of triumph and success. It should not be taken from her.
"This evening," she said, softly; "after the music, we will — shake hands. Now be careful, sir. You are stranded. Wait. Here is the garden-cord, just
" What has come to little Rosemary?" mused Garth, as he felt for his cane, in its corner by the window. " We could not have gone on indefinitely quite as we have been, since she came in from the post office."
He walked on; a troubled look clouding his face. Suddenly it lifted, and he stood still, and laughed. "Duffer!" he said. "Oh, what a conceited duffer! She is thinking of her 'young man.' She is going to him to-morrow; and her mind is full of him; just as mine is full of Jane. Dear, good, clever, little Rosemary! I hope he is worthy of her. No; that, he cannot be. I hope he knows he is not worthy of her. That is more to the point. I hope he will receive her as she expects. Somehow, I hate letting her go to him. Oh, hang the fellow! — as Tommy would say."
CHAPTER XXXV
NURSE ROSEMARY HAS HER REWARD The Rosary | ||