Half an hour later Mrs. Cupp came out of the principal’s suite of rooms with a troubled face, and telephoned for Dr. Larry, the school physician.
CHAPTER XXVIII
BEAUTIFUL BEULAH
Nan did not know very much about it. She had a dreamy remembrance of the first day or two of her sojourn in what the girls called “the sick bay.” She remembered Dr. Larry’s kind face leaning above her; and she realized that he was there a great deal at first.
The fact was, the physician made a hard fight to ward off the threatened attack of pneumonia that he feared. Nan had been in a receptive state for sudden illness when she slipped into the icy water that morning—worried in mind, and having eaten little for several meals. Then was added to this the mental shock of Linda’s accusation.
Her mind wandered, and Dr. Prescott and Mrs. Cupp heard a great deal about a “black ghost” and a “boy in black” who were trying to get Linda Riggs’ necklace away from Nan. This troubled the girl greatly in her first delirium.
Then she wandered to Scotland and took up the burden of her parents’ financial troubles. She tried to get them home on the boat, but they had no tickets, and the captain would not trust them for their passage. These and many other imaginary troubles helped to confuse the poor girl’s mind.
But finally the delirium settled into one thing. Nan wanted Beulah!
At first the principal thought she meant her. Dr. Prescott knew, of course, that her girls called her in affection “Dr. Beulah.” She came to the bedside as often as Nan cried out the name. But soon it was apparent that the principal’s kind and beautiful face did not assuage Nan’s longing.
The girl talked intimately to “Beautiful Beulah” about “Momsey” and “Papa Sherwood.” “If we were only back, all together again, in the little dwelling in amity,” weakly cried the sick girl. “Oh, Beulah! I haven’t been nice to you. I’ve been ashamed of you! I was afraid of what the girls would say, and that Mrs. Cupp would think I was a baby.”