"Now, my son, I am going to take my old place as nurse to-day. You aren't very strong yet, and I want you to lie down again here on the sofa, and if you can spare a little of this lunch—I don't approve of candy between meals, you know—I'll move the table away, pull up this low chair, and tell you all the news."
Suiting the action to the word, Bess tucked the afghan round Fred's feet, drew a willow chair up to the place of the despised table, and sat down close to the child, who once more reached out for her hand.
For an hour she sat there chatting to the boy, telling him of the scrapes his friends had been in, of the pranks they had played, until she began to see traces of the old merry Fred, as the look of sorrow gave place to a smile, and then to a hearty laugh, while she described Rob's recent attempts to climb a picket fence too hastily, and his being caught by his shoe and hung head downward, from which position he was ignominiously rescued by a passing Irishman.
In the mean time, Bess was glad that her little friend could not see her expression, as she sat looking at the worn, sad face, and the great vacant eyes, that used to have such bright mischief dancing in them. But she forced herself to talk on, as easily as she could, more than rewarded by the pleasure in Fred's face, and his tight grip of her hand.
At length a step was heard on the stairs, and Mrs. Allen, daintily dressed and looking provokingly fresh and unruffled, Bess thought, came into the room.
"Why, Bessie, when did you come? How stupid of Mary not to tell me you were here!"
"I told her I came to see Fred, and not to disturb you," said Bess, as Mrs. Allen swept to the sofa and bent over her son.
"I am quite jealous of Fred, for you have hardly been here all the time he was away," she said. "But he needs you now badly enough, poor boy!" putting a delicately embroidered handkerchief to her eyes. "Isn't it hard to see him in this condition?"
Again the burning flush rolled up to Fred's hair, and the hand that was tightly clasping Bessie's grew suddenly cold. Bess gently kissed him before she answered,—
"You ought to know of my sympathy for Fred, Mrs. Allen. No words can express it. But I am glad to have him here again. We were having such a good talk, just like old times."