"Oh, well, it isn't so bad! She is getting better!"
"Maggie!!" half-smothered, came from behind, and I turned to see Thyrza on the verge of tears, fighting to control herself.
"'No worse,' Maggie—Hardly 'better' yet," I said gravely.
"I can't think why Nellie didn't send the telegram to me," said Maggie.
"She wished, of course, to avoid startling you," I said.
The children were asking—"Is mother nearly well?" And as Maggie chose to give a particularly hopeful response, I did not interfere.
"I would rather have nothing said to Elfie," I observed, when a few remarks had passed.
"Don't you mean to tell her what we have heard?" demanded Nona.
"I am not sure," I said. "Perhaps, by-and-by; but it must depend on how Elfie is."
"Mother never likes Elfie to be coddled," asserted Maggie with promptitude. She has that notion at her fingers' ends.