She accepted the idea that she would have
to stay in bed all day long, and as she laid her head on the pillow,
relinquished the happiness of the day.
When Helen came in an hour or two later, suddenly stopped her cheerful
words, looked startled for a second and then unnaturally calm, the fact
that she was ill was put beyond a doubt. It was confirmed when the whole
household knew of it, when the song that some one was singing in the
garden stopped suddenly, and when Maria, as she brought water, slipped
past the bed with averted eyes. There was all the morning to get
through, and then all the afternoon, and at intervals she made an effort
to cross over into the ordinary world, but she found that her heat and
discomfort had put a gulf between her world and the ordinary world which
she could not bridge. At one point the door opened, and Helen came in
with a little dark man who had--it was the chief thing she noticed about
him--very hairy hands. She was drowsy and intolerably hot, and as he
seemed shy and obsequious she scarcely troubled to answer him, although
she understood that he was a doctor. At another point the door opened
and Terence came in very gently, smiling too steadily, as she realised,
for it to be natural. He sat down and talked to her, stroking her hands
until it became irksome to her to lie any more in the same position and
she turned round, and when she looked up again Helen was beside her and
Terence had gone.
Pages:
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480