The day after this meeting of the Club Miss Virginia Warren took a cold from having her room overheated. “I am really worried about myself,” she said after her niece had spent most of the day trying to make her comfortable.
“But the doctor says it is only a cold, and that your heart is in no danger,” said Ruth Warren; “to be sure, a cold is uncomfortable enough to make one wretched,” she added. “Let me open that farther window; a little fresh air will make you feel better.”
“O, no, no!” cried Miss Virginia, drawing her thick white shawl closer around herself at the thought. “Don’t excite me so, Ruth. There’s no telling what may happen. My heart seems very feeble,” she went on, after trying for a half-moment to count the pulse-beats in her own wrist. “I am more and more certain that I must have a nurse to watch my pulse and look out every moment for draughts. Yes, I really must ask you now to see about a nurse,” added Miss Virginia, clasping one large hand over the other wrist to keep track of her heart-beats.
Ruth Warren consulted the doctor.
“Your aunt doesn’t need a nurse any more than you or I need one,” he said, gruffly. “Better have one, though, and I will order her to open the windows every hour of the day. We will give your aunt a little training, and it may do her good.”
As a result of this conversation, and of a plan which she found she could carry out, Ruth Warren called a few days later at Mrs. Danforth’s.
“Mrs. Danforth isn’t very well to-day, miss, and she asks will you come up to her room, please,” said Cummings; so Ruth Warren followed the stiff-backed maid up the polished stairs. From the top of the stairs she saw, just ahead, a room all furnished in white, which she knew must be Elsa’s. “What an unpretty room for a child!” she said to herself.
Mrs. Danforth had on a beautiful white dressing-gown with long lace ruffles hanging from the sleeves, and she was leaning back in a blue velvet chair. “She does not look so ill as unhappy,” Ruth Warren thought to herself.
Not wishing to take any more time than was necessary, Ruth Warren began at once to give the reason for her call: