England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Short stories, English
Old Duffham nearly closed his eyelids as he glanced at the speaker. "I
don't think it necessary," he said; "no surgeon can do more than I can.
However, it may be satisfactory to Major Layne that we should be on the
safe side, so I'll send."
When the child was ready, Mary got into the fly, which had waited, and
Mr. Duffham put him to lie on her lap.
"I hope, Miss Layne, I may be allowed to call to-morrow and see how
he gets on," said Sir Geoffry, at the same time. And she did not feel
that it was possible for her to say No. Mr. Duffham mounted beside the
driver; to get a sniff, he said, of the evening air.
"How he is changed! He has suffered as I have," murmured Mary Layne
to herself, as her tears fell on Baby Arthur, asleep now. "I am very
thankful that he has no suspicion."
The child had said, "Don't tell grandmamma;" but to keep it from Mrs.
Layne was simply impossible. With the first stopping of the fly at the
door, out came the old lady; she had been marvelling what had become of
them, and was wanting her tea. Mr. Duffham took her in again, and said a
few words, making light of it, before he lifted out Baby Arthur.
A skilful surgeon was at the house the next day, in conjunction with Mr.
Duffham. The arm and its full use would be saved, he said; its cure
effected; but the child and those about him must have patience, for it
might be rather a long job. Arthur said he should like to write to his
papa in India, and tell him that it was his own fault for running away
from Aunt Mary; he could write letters in big text hand. The surgeon
smiled, and told him he must wait until he could use both arms again.
The doctors had not left the house many minutes when Sir Geoffry
Chavasse called, having walked over from the Grange. Miss Layne sent
her mother to receive him, and disappeared herself. The old lady, her
perceptions a little dulled with time and age, and perhaps also her
memory, felt somewhat impressed and flattered at the visit. To her it
almost seemed the honour that it used to be: that one painful episode of
the past seemed to be as much forgotten at the moment as though it had
never had place. She took Sir Geoffry upstairs.
Arthur was lying close to the window, in the strong light of the fine
morning. It was the first clear view Sir Geoffry had obtained of him.
The garden-parlour at the Grange faced the east, so that the room on the
previous evening, being turned from the setting sun, had been shady at
the best, and the sofa was at the far end of it. As Sir Geoffry gazed at
the child now, the face struck him as being like somebody's; he could
not tell whose. The dark blue eyes especially, turned up in all their
eager brightness to his, seemed quite familiar.
"He says I must not write to papa until I get well," said Arthur, who
had begun to look on Sir Geoffry as an old acquaintance.
"Who does?" asked the baronet.
"The gentleman who came with Mr. Duffham."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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