[CHAPTER XVI]
The Course
of Events
THAT Pattie should be counted able to nurse Dot, when she—Mrs. Cragg— was not able, aroused Mrs. Cragg's jealous temper to an unpleasant extent. She knew herself to be incapable, and she would not have undertaken the nursing, had she been asked to do so. But now that she had not been asked, now that she had been ousted in favour of another, she regarded herself as a deeply injured individual; and she was angry with Pattie.
This made Pattie's work harder than it would otherwise have been. She did not see much of Mrs. Cragg, for almost her whole time, from morning till evening, was spent with Dot; and when not engaged in the sick-room she was usually, by the doctor's orders, either walking or resting. Still, encounters were inevitable; and if anything were wanted, if any doubt or question arose, Mrs. Cragg immediately sided against Pattie. Even the thought of what might be good for Dot could not make headway against her temper.
Happily for Pattie, the new nurse was a sensible kind-hearted woman; and an appeal to her would always settle matters as might be desirable for the child. But Pattie could not rouse her unnecessarily from well-earned sleep, and that was the time when difficulties occurred.
Cragg was very unhappy during these days of suspense. Dot was his darling, his treasure, the light of his home; and the thought of losing her was terrible to him.
He blamed himself sorely for the accident, because he had sent Dot out of the room without taking precautions to ensure that she would be looked after. She was so clever and wide-awake a child, that they were all rather apt to think she could take care of herself; and she had done so dozens of times before. Now that the result had been an accident, dangerous to life, Cragg could not forgive his own carelessness.
Pattie knew nothing of this till a week after the fall, when she came across him, alone, with his head down on the table, crying like a child. She had left the sick-room in charge of the nurse, and was going to have her supper before retiring for the night.
"But you must not mind," she urged. "It was only what we all do. Dot goes about so often alone. We never think anything of it. You could not guess that she would fall."