“And you never can play football again if you don’t have it broken and reset?”
“No.”
“Well, then, the outlook is decidedly merry. The idea of your objecting to the inconveniences of three or four weeks, when it means a lifetime of comfort and convenience afterwards.”
“Whew! I never looked at it in just that light before, but I more than half believe you’re right.”
“Of course I’m right,” said Patty, stoutly. “You’ve got to look at things in their true proportion. And the proportion of a few weeks in the hospital against a good arm for the rest of your life is very small, I can tell you. Especially as you will have the best possible skill and care, and every comfort and luxury that can be procured. Suppose you were poor, and had to go to some free hospital, and have inexperienced doctors practising on you! Why, you might have to have your arm broken and set a dozen times before they got it right.”
“Well, there is something in that, and I begin to believe my case is merrier than it might be. At any rate, Miss Grig, you’ve cheered me up a lot, and I’m duly grateful. I leave home to-morrow for the merry, merry hospital, so I can only hope that when next we meet I can raise my arm and shake hands with you a little more gracefully than this.”
Roger put out his stiff arm with an awkward gesture, but with such a pleasant smile that Patty shook hands heartily and said: “I hope you will; and until then promise me that you’ll be as merry as a Grig would be under similar circumstances.”
“I’ll promise to try,” said Roger, and then Elise carried the girls all off to the Casino.
Though not so elaborately furnished as the Farrington home, the Casino was perfect in its own way. On the first floor, which they entered by a door from the main hall of the Farrington house, was a large tennis court, and in the apartment next to that a squash court. It seemed strange to see these courts in-doors, but Elise told the girls that after they had tried them, she felt sure they would like them quite as well as out-of-door courts.
“At any rate,” she said, “they are the best possible substitute.”