He came for them at six o'clock and took them out to dinner with him,
ordering the dishes so carefully and with such sweet regard for their
youthful appetites--but after all, they could not eat, for the shadow
of the operation was settling upon them. Yet how much better it was to
be here in the big city within reach of father's kindly hand than to be
away off in the manse quivering with the anxiety of what they did not
know and could not guess, with only telegraph wires to link them each
to each?
It seemed MacCammon would never be done with that sickening apple
pie, but after an endless time they were really tripping softly,
breathlessly, along the hall of the hospital in the wake of the
"rubber-soled nurse," as Rosalie naughtily christened her. And there
was father sitting alone in a white room, his eyes bandaged closely. He
knew they were there before they spoke, and held out his hands to them,
warmly impulsive. And they sat on the arms of his chair and petted the
opposite sides of his head, and talked quietly and sensibly, as if the
operation were nothing at all.
But almost immediately the door opened again, and a man-- Yes, a
minister-- That blessed bishop, of course--MacCammon glared at him-- How
long the fellow was holding Doris' hand!-- Right before her father--and
Doris was letting him!-- Well, couldn't he see that Rosalie was there,
too--and a stranger?
"Your father said you would be here, so I stayed to speak to you."
"Yes, and I came, too, Bishop," said Rosalie brightly. "You must not
overlook me."
MacCammon blessed her for the words. For the bishop dropped Doris' hand
hurriedly and turned to her-- What in the world could the church be
thinking of, to have bishops as young as that?
"I do not believe he's as old as I am, and I am not old at all,"
thought MacCammon resentfully. "And they call him a father in the
church. What are we coming to, anyhow?"
Doris was back at her father's side now, where she belonged, and
MacCammon was being introduced to the bishop. They sized each other up
very frankly.
"I'll bet he resents me as much as I do him, that's some satisfaction,"
MacCammon thought with boyish relish. "And I brought her up, too, all
that long way--that will cut."
They did not stay very long--a gentle movement of the rubber-soled
one's eyebrow hurried their departure.
The bishop could not accept MacCammon's invitation to come with them
in the car, because he had his own little runabout. But wouldn't Miss
Doris come with him for a run through the park, and along the lake
front? MacCammon held his breath. Would she?
Doris put out her hand, quietly but cordially. "I know you will excuse
me to-night, Bishop. I do not feel like talking, or--anything--just
like going home quietly with Rosalie to think."
Never had MacCammon loved her as he did at that moment. The bishop
walked down with her to the car and opened the back door for the girls.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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