“Ha, ha,” laughed Mr. Evringham, “yes, that's it. He found her well.”
Eloise and her mother gazed at him in astonishment. Mrs. Forbes's face was immovable. A sense of humor was not included in her mental equipment, and she considered the whole affair lamentable and unseemly in the extreme.
“Grandpa,” said Jewel, looking at him with gentle reproach, “you're not laughing at Dr. Ballard, are you? He's the kindest man. I love him, next to you, best of anybody in Bel-Air”—then thinking this declaration might hurt her aunt and cousin, she added, “because I know him the best, you know. He tried to deceive me about the medicine, but it was only because he didn't know that there isn't any righteous deceiving. He meant to do me good.”
Mrs. Evringham looked curiously from the child to her father-in-law. As she herself said later, she had never felt so “out of it” in her life. As the subject concerned Dr. Ballard, she wished to understand clearly what circumstance could possibly have induced Mr. Evringham to laugh repeatedly.
“I was passing your door this afternoon,” said Eloise, addressing Jewel, “and I heard you talking. I knew there was no one with you, and I feared you were very ill.”
The little girl was always pleased when her beautiful cousin looked at her.
“I guess I was reading. Of course I was in a hurry to get well, so as soon as the fever was gone and I felt comfortable, I began to read out loud from 'Science and Health' to Anna Belle. She's a Christian Scientist, too.”
The faces of Mrs. Evringham and Eloise were studies as they gazed at the speaker.
Mr. Evringham glanced at them maliciously under his heavy brows as Sarah brought in the second course.
“Is Anna Belle your doll?” asked Eloise, for the moment sufficiently interested almost to lose her self-consciousness.