“But I’ve the rest of the term, you know.” Gretta, until she had voiced the words, hardly realized herself how she was clinging to the comfort of those last few weeks.
“But”—her aunt’s voice was stranger than ever, and the girl looked up apprehensively—“I said, didn’t I, that I had two things to tell you, dear? I did not know the second until this morning, and then, at breakfast-time, I had a letter from your father’s partner. He is ill—your father, I mean—and Ann is not proving very competent. A nurse would be a greater luxury than we can afford just now, as things have turned out. Besides, there is not real need for one, and Miss Slater has agreed with me that, as he must have someone just now, and as Uncle Bob and I can be of no use—for we sail on Tuesday—it will be well for you to go home for a time.”
Very deep in Gretta’s nature was rooted her love for her father; she forgot her woes entirely now in this new complication. “Auntie, how ill is he?” she broke out passionately. “He’s not dying?”
“Darling, no. A very deeply seated chill; he must be kept in bed and looked after. Dr. Moore says you have more than once nursed him well through a similar attack, and he misses you. Nurse is packing your box; of course, you may be back again for a week or two but——”
“Oh, auntie, when can we start?”
“I’m going to take you now, dear. Not because there’s the least danger, but because it’s the last chance I have, before sailing, to see him again; and Miss Slater suggested that you should come, too. We don’t want to leave him an hour longer than we need to the care of Ann; and there is a train in less than an hour’s time.”
It was not in this way that Gretta had expected to leave the Cliff. No good-byes could be said, as by this time all the girls were at church, and, after a hurried rush and scramble, she found herself seated in the fly, opposite to Mrs. Fleming, with her little box by her side, waving her hand bravely to Miss Slater, who herself stood at the school entrance to see the travellers off.
“I wonder if I’ll ever be back,” she thought to herself, but she did not say it aloud. Auntie must not know how much she minded; and, in the rush at the station, the quick journey, with its hurried change at York, and the jolting drive at the other end, she lost sight for a time of the dreadful change that was coming, and thought only of her father. If the doctor’s house looked dingy as the travellers drew up outside, Gretta didn’t notice it, for Ann stood at the door with her cap all awry, but with welcome in her eyes.
“Oh, Mrs. Fleming, ma’am! And you, Miss Gretta! Oh, won’t the master be pleased! ’E was just saying ’e didn’t know ’ow ’e’d get on without you.”