The young woman came into the room breathless,
eager-eyed, and white to the lips. She drew herself up by the door, and
made a poor pathetic effort to compose herself, to frame her plea in
conventional words; but she was too agitated to remember customary
greetings.
'Tell me! Tell me!' she said faintly.
Dick sat stock still, wondering what new thing had happened, asking
himself how much Chris knew of his secret; but sympathetic little Mrs.
Haddon started up in astonishment.
'Tell you what, my dear?' Then light came to her. 'About the accident?'
'Yes, oh, yes! Is it true? They say he is dying!'
'It isn't true. He is not very badly hurt. His mother went to the
hospital with him, an' has come back. It's concussion, the doctors say,
an' nothin' serious.'
Miss Chris was plucking nervously at the bosom of her dress with her left
hand, steadying herself against the table with her right; now that she
knew there was no occasion for her great alarm, woman-like she trembled
on the verge of tears. Mrs. Haddon had resumed her seat, and for a moment
the eyes of the two women met; then, much to the boy's astonishment, Miss
Chris covered her face with her hands and darted forward and knelt by his
mother's side, and there was a repetition of the incident in which he had
figured a few hours earlier. Mrs. Haddon clasped Christina to her tender
breast, and spoke little soothing speeches over the fair head, whilst
Chris wept a little, and laughed a little, and clung tightly to her
friend.
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