It was all so matter-of-fact and quiet and natural that Elliott didn’t know what to make of it. She managed to gasp, “I hope Sidney isn’t very sick.”
“He thinks not,” said Laura, “but of course Mother wants to see for herself. She is telephoning Mrs. Blair now about the Ladies’ Aid. They were to have met here this week. Mother thinks perhaps she can arrange an exchange of dates, though I tell her if Sid’s as he says he is, they might just as well come.”
Elliott, who had been all ready to put her arms around Laura’s neck and kiss and comfort her, felt the least little bit taken aback. It seemed that no comfort was needed. But it was a relief, too. Laura couldn’t sit there, so cool and calm and natural-looking, sewing and talking about crab-apple juice and Ladies’ Aid, if there were anything radically wrong.
Then Aunt Jessica came into the room and said that Mrs. Blair would like the Ladies’ Aid, herself, that week; she had been wishing she could have them; and didn’t Elliott feel the need of something to eat to supplement her scanty dinner?
That put to rout the girl’s last fears. She smiled quite naturally and said without any stricture in her throat: “Honestly, I’m not hungry. And I am going to put a clean collar in your blouse.”
“What should I do without my girls!” smiled Mother Jess.
It was after supper that the telegram came, but even then there was no panic. These Camerons didn’t do any of the things Elliott had once or twice seen people do in her Aunt Margaret’s household. No one ran around futilely, doing nothing; no one had hysterics; no one even cried.
Mother Jess’s face went very white when Father Bob came back from the telephone 218 and said, “Sidney isn’t so well.”
“Have they sent for us?”