Tatterdemalion | Page 5

her. Doctor, indeed! If Augustine fussed any more she would send her away and do for herself! And the parrot, leaving his cage, which he could always do, perched just behind her and said: " Hullo! Kiss me, too!"
That afternoon in the wards every one noticed what a beautiful colour she had. "L'ange anglaise aux cheveux gris " had never been more popular. One poilu, holding up his envelope, remarked to his neighbour: "Elle verse des gouttes d'ciel, notr' 'tite gran' me." To them, grateful even for those mysterious joys " cats' cradles," francs were the true drops from heaven.
She had not meant to give them all to-day, but it seemed dreadful when she saw how pleased they were, to leave any out, and so the whole ninety-seven had their franc each. The three over would buy Augustine a little brooch to make up to the silly child for her fright in the morning. The buying of this brooch took a long time at the jeweller's in the Rue des Remains, and she had only just fixed on an amethyst before feeling deadly ill with a dreadful pain through her lungs. She went out with her tiny package quickly, not wanting any fuss, and began to mount toward home. There were only three hundred yards to go, and with each step she said to herself: "Nonsense! What would the Queen think of you? Remember the poor soldiers with only one leg! You have got both your legs! And the poor men who walk from the battlefield with bullets through the lungs. What is your pain to theirs? Nonsense! " But the pain, like none she had ever felt a pain which seemed to have sharp double edges like a knife kept passing through and through her, her legs had no strength at all, and seemed to move simply because her will said: "If you don't, I'll leave you behind. So there! " She felt as if perspiration were flowing down, yet her face was as dry as a dead leaf when she put up her hand to it. Her brain stammered, seemed to fly loose, came to sudden standstills. Her eyes searched painfully each grey-shuttered window for her own house, though she knew quite well that she had not reached it yet. From sheer pain she stood still, a wry little smile on her lips, thinking how poor Polly would say: " Keep smiling! " Then she moved on, holding out her hand, either because she thought God would put His into it, or only to pull on some imaginary rope to help her. So, foot by foot, she crept till she reached her door. A most peculiar floating sensation had come over her. The pain ceased, and as if she had passed through no doors, mounted no stairs she was up in her room, lying on her sofa, with strange images about her, painfully conscious that she was not in proper control of her thoughts, and that Augustine must be thinking her ridiculous. Making a great effort, she said:
"I forbid you to send for a doctor, Augustine. I shall be all right in a day or two, if I eat plenty of francs. And you must put on this little brooch I bought it for you from an angel in the street. Put my fur coat on Polly he's shivering; dry your mouth, there's a good girl. Tell my son he mustn't think of leaving the poor War Office; I shall come and see him after the war. It will be over to-morrow, and then we will all go and have tea together in a wood. Granny will come to you, my darlings."
And when the terrified girl had rushed out she thought: ' There now, she's gone to get God; and I mustn't disturb Him with all He has to see to. I shall get up and do for myself." When they came back with the doctor they found her half-dressed, trying to feed a perch in the empty cage with a spoon, and saying: " Kiss Granny, Polly. God is coming. Kiss Granny! " while the parrot sat away over on the mantelpiece, with his head on one side, deeply interested.
When she had been properly undressed and made to lie down on the sofa, for she insisted that she would not go to bed and they dared not oppose her, the doctor made his diagnosis. It was double pneumonia, of that sudden sort which declares for life or death in forty-eight hours. At her age a desperate case. Her children must be wired to at once. She had sunk back, seemingly unconscious; and Augustine, approaching the drawer where she knew the letters were kept, slipped out the lavender sachet and gave it to the doctor. When he had