Sam looked puzzledly from one to the other. There was something here that he didn’t understand.
“Well, what do you say, Craig?” asked Mr. York. “Going to come along and be company for me for a day or two?”
“Thank you, yes, sir, if you’re quite sure——”
“Absolutely certain, old man! Now, where’s your bag? And how about dressing? Not necessary, is it, Mr. Langham? A couple of blankets wrapped around him will do the trick, eh? All right! I’ll bring the car up to the steps.”
[CHAPTER XVII]
“GREYSIDES”
Sam opened his eyes sleepily and blinked about him. Near at hand a wide-open window, hung with blue-and-white chintz that swayed gently in the entering breeze, admitted a flood of sunlight. Beyond the window was a white bureau. The paper on the walls was grey with a tiny stripe made up of blue rosebuds. Sam closed his eyes again and wondered where he was. Then, stirring under the bedclothes, he experienced a dull, jarring ache in one knee, and suddenly recollection came to him and he opened his eyes more widely and stared around him.
Last night the room had been shadowed and dim, with only a little lamp on the white reading-stand beside the bed, and he had gone to sleep almost as soon as Mr. York and Steve had helped him between the cool, soft sheets. Now, in the early morning light, the room looked much larger, and so bright and cheerful that it was a pleasure to just lie there and look about.
There were three windows on two sides of the spacious room, and through each of them, below the shade, Sam could see blue sky between the green branches of trees. On the reading-stand, beside the small lamp with its pale-blue shade, lay two magazines and a book and a glass tray that held a pitcher of water, a drinking-glass, and matches. The bed was enamelled white and over the footboard lay a dainty cream-white puff with blue poppies sprawling over it. Grey rag rugs with blue borders were spread here and there on the polished floor. Two wicker chairs, prettily cushioned in the prevailing colours, flanked a red brick fireplace in the middle of the further wall, and a straight-backed white-enamelled chair was half hidden under Sam’s clothes. A table between two of the windows held his old-fashioned valise.