Teddy’s hands were tangled together; his words fell over one another with excitement. “Oh, tell me about the running. Did they follow you? And was it from the Lord Mayor’s house that you ran? And did they nearly catch you?”
Glancing above her spectacles disapprovingly, Mrs. Sheerug was recalled to the tender years of her audience. As though blaming the little boy for having listened, she said severely: “A silly old woman like myself says many things that you mustn’t remember, Teddy.”
On the morning of the fourth day she arrived at a new diagnosis of his puzzling malady. He knew she had directly she entered: her gray hair was combed back from her forehead and was quite orderly; she had abandoned her plum-colored dressing-gown. She halted at the foot of the bed and surveyed him.
“You rather like me?”
“Very much.”
“And you didn’t at first?”
He was too polite to acquiesce.
“And you don’t want to leave me?”
He looked confused. “Not unless you want—— Not until I’m well.”
A little gurgling laugh escaped her; it seemed to have been forced up under high pressure.