“Have I been asleep?” he asked, looking at his watch. “Only ten minutes since I looked last? Well, now I am all right.”
“You will be when you have eaten this,” said Lord Fordham.
Johnny obeyed, and ate with relish.
“There!” said he; “now I am ready for anything.”
“Don’t get up yet. I’ll go and order a horse for you.”
When Lord Fordham came back from doing so, he found his patient really fast asleep, and with a little colour coming into the pale cheeks. He stole back, bade that the pony should wait, went on writing his letter, and waited till one hour, two, three hours had passed, and at last the sleeper woke, greatly disgusted, willing to accept the bath which Lord Fordham advised him to take, and which made him quite himself again.
“You’ll let me go now,” he said. “I can walk as well as ever.”
“You will be of more use now, if you ride,” said Lord Fordham. “There, I hear our luncheon coming in. You must eat while the pony is coming round.”
“If it won’t lose time—thank you,” said Johnny, recovered enough now to know how hungry he was, “But I ought not to have stayed away. My aunt has no one but me.”
“And you can really help her?” said Lord Fordham, with some experience of his brother’s uselessness.