"No," she answered; "that was the extraordinary part of it. Quite
suddenly I saw everything green for a second, and then everything went
out in a green flash. It was a wonderful, liquid green, like the sea
over a sand-bank. It was just a long flash, very quick and sharp, and
then I found I could see nothing at all. Everything is black now, the
black of an intense green. I thought I'd been struck by lightning.
Wasn't it silly of me?"
"My poor, brave little woman," I murmured. "Tell me, where were you
then?"
"Just where you found me, on the Chemist's Rock. I call it the
Chemist's Rock because it's shaped like a cough-lozenge. I was casting
from there; it makes a beautiful fishing-table. I looked up, and
then--well, then it happened."
"We're just coming to the house," said Myra suddenly. "We're just
going to turn on to the stable-path."
"Darling!" I cried, nearly dropping her in my excitement; "you can see
already?"
"Oh, Ronnie, I'm so sorry," she said penitently. "I only knew by
the smell of the peat stacks." I could not restrain a groan of
disappointment, and Myra stroked my face, and murmured again, "I'm
sorry, dearest."
"Will you please put me down now?" she asked. "If daddy saw you
carrying me to the house he'd have a fit, and the servants would go
into hysterics." So I put her tenderly on her feet, and she took my
arm, and we walked slowly to the house. She could see nothing, not
even in the hazy confusion of the nearly blind; yet she walked to the
house with as firm a step and as natural an air as if she had nothing
whatever the matter with her.
"You had better leave dad to me, Ron," she suggested. "We understand
each other, and I can explain to him. You would find it difficult, and
it would be painful for you both. Just tell him that I'm not feeling
very well, and he'll come straight to me. Don't tell him I want to see
him. Give me your arm to my den, dear."
I led her to her "den," a little room opening on to the verandah.
There was a writing-table in the window covered with correspondence
in neat little piles, for Myra was on all the charity committees in
the county, and the rest of the room was given up to a profusion of
fishing tackle, shooting gear, and books. Sholto followed us, every
now and then rubbing his great head against her skirt. I left her
there, and turned into the hall, where I met the General. He had
heard us return.
"You're back early, my boy," he remarked.
"Yes," I said, taking out my cigarette-case to give myself an air of
assurance which was utterly unknown to me. "Myra is not feeling very
well. She's resting for a bit."
"Not well?" he exclaimed, in surprise. "Very unusual, very unusual
indeed." And he turned straight into Myra's room without waiting for
an answer to his quiet tap on the door. With a heavy heart I went
upstairs to the old schoolroom, now given over to Mary McNiven, Myra's
old nurse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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