"Thank you!" She said this very earnestly, and looked him in the eyes with a smile which was worth a faggot of promises.
"But you don't expect me to be deaf and dumb all the time?" said Alan.
"No, of course not! I have been told that you ought to be kept as cheerful as possible, and I mean to do what I can to make you so. Do you like to be read to!"
"Yes, very much."
"Then I will read to you as long as you please, and write your letters, and—if there were any game——"
"Ah, now, if by good luck you knew chess?"
"I do know chess. I played my father nearly every evening at Angleford."
"What a charming discovery! And that reminds me of something. Is there any reason why I should not write to Mr. Larmer? He has some belongings of mine, for one thing, which I should like him to send me, including a set of chess-men."
"No reason at all. But you ought not to write or talk of business, if you can help it, until you are quite strong."
"Well, then, I won't. I will ask him to send what I want in a cab; and then, when I am declared capable of managing my own affairs, I will go into town and see him. But the fact is, that I really feel as well as ever I did in my life!"