More about Pixie | Page 4

flight in order to recall Sarah Wedderburn's cousin to her
remembrance.
"And what did she do?" she queried weakly. "Don't tell me anything
gruesome, please, aunt, because I feel so low-spirited this morning that
I can't bear anything depressing!"
"I should be very sorry to depress you, my dear. Nothing is farther from
my wishes, and if she had been careful nothing need have happened.
Her sister told me it was all her own fault for not being sufficiently
wrapped up. I'll tell you the whole story another day when there is more
time, for now I must go out to do my housekeeping. These meals will
be the death of me! The cloth is never off the table. I quite expect Mary
will give notice at the end of the month, and goodness knows what we
shall do then, for it seems impossible to get hold of respectable girls.
The milk-bill has just come in for the month. Ruinous! Ruinous! Now,
my love, you must really cheer up and try to look more like yourself.
Perhaps I shall find you on the sofa when I come back. Tell nurse not to
use my best cushions; your own pillows will do perfectly well."

She bustled out of the room, and Sylvia stared into space with a doleful
face.
"It's all very well to ask me to be cheerful, when she tells me in the
same breath that I am ruining her, and her beloved furniture. I'm sure I
didn't want to be ill! If dad were at home he would never reproach me."
The tears were very near falling once more, but just at that moment
there came the sound of a manly footstep, and in walked the doctor,
large, stout, beaming, a very incarnation of health and good spirits.
"Well, and so nurse tells me you think of going to the seaside to-day!
You are getting tired of yourself, and want a change--eh? I don't
wonder at that. You think you would enjoy having a little peep at the
world again? Let me feel your pulse and see if I can allow it."
The pulse was quite satisfactory, so nurse and doctor promptly set to
work to spread blankets on the couch, draw forward screens to prevent
possibility of draught, and bank up pillows to allow a glimpse of the
road beneath. Then Sylvia clasped her arms tightly round the nurse's
neck, the doctor raised her feet, there was a moment's dizzy confusion,
while her eyes swam and her ears hummed, and there she lay on the
sofa, as at the end of a long and arduous journey, while her attendants
wrapped her up in blankets and eiderdowns, and looked anxiously to
see how she had borne the exertion. The little face was very white, but
bright with pleasure and excitement, and the offer of smelling salts and
cordials was laughed aside with good-natured contempt.
"No, no--I'm all right--just a little breathless after that whirl through
space. How funny the room looks! I've looked at it broadways so long
that I can't recognise it from this point of view. Is that the water-bed?
What a strange-looking thing! just like a lot of hot bottles joined
together. It is comfortable over here! I'd like to stay all day. Oh, oh, oh!
here's the butcher's cart! How lovely it is to see the world again!"
The jovial-looking doctor shrugged his shoulders as he took his
departure. The poor child must have been in sad straits indeed if she
found the sight of a butcher's cart so exciting! He would have enjoyed
sitting beside her and listening to her rhapsodies, but was obliged to

hurry off to other patients, while Whitey seated herself beside the
couch, and began hemming strips of muslin to be made into those
starched cap-strings which were tied so jauntily beneath her chin.
"Oh, Whitey," cried Sylvia, "I feel better already! It all looks so bright,
and cheerful, and alive! I'm simply dying to go out for a drive, and to
see the people walking about. I used to think this such a dull little road,
but now it seems quite gay and fashionable. I've seen three
perambulators already, to say nothing of the butcher's cart! I wish the
Number Seven lady would go out for a walk, and let me see her autumn
clothes. She wears all the colours of the rainbow, and looks like a
walking kaleidoscope... Whitey! Oh, Whitey!"
The weak voice rose to a squeal of excitement, and the nurse bent
forward curiously to discover the reason of so much agitation. To the
ordinary eye, however, there was nothing to be seen, for Sylvia's
outstretched hand pointed to a semi-detached villa in no way
distinguished from the rest of the row.
"It's taken!" she cried--"Number Three