'Have I taken care of you nicely for Michael, little 'un?'
I said he had.
'Oh, Meg, I do wish daddy had come. Why does Aunt Constance go and get the 'flu again, just when I wanted her to be here to look after you.'
'I don't know, but I shall be all right, Ross.'
'Why, Jonathan, you're like the old woman that used to amuse you in the village, there's 'Only the Almighty' left to do it.'
And I smiled, but my lips quivered, too, and I clenched my hands. So then he sat down on my bed and said,—
'You needn't be ashamed to if you want to. I know you've got "views" about it, and didn't when you said good-bye to Michael, but a person that has had a bug is not considered to be eternally disgraced if she does.'
So I did, and clung to him a little while, and then he remarked that it was an awful thing to have a sister who had got a bug, so that no one would come and stay with her. Then he kissed me and whispered,—
'I'm not perfectly positive that you aren't safest of all with Him, darling.'
PART III