“Sure to,” said Priscilla, “unless you give in that your ankle is quite well.”
“But I can’t walk.”
“That won’t matter in the least. She’ll say you can. Aunt Juliet is tremendously determined. Poor Rose—I told you she is the under housemaid, didn’t I? She is any way. Poor Rose once got a swelled face on account of a tooth that she wouldn’t have out. Aunt Juliet kept at her, reading little bits out of books and kind of praying, in passages and pantries and places, wherever she met Rose. That went on for more than a week. Then Rose got Dr. O’Hara to haul the tooth and the swelling went down. Aunt Juliet said it was Christian Science cured her. And of course it may have been. You never can tell really what it is that cures people.”
“I wonder,” said Frank, “if I could manage to get down to the boat to-morrow. You said something about a boat, didn’t you, Priscilla? Is it far?”
“I’ll work that all right for you. As it just happens, luckily enough there’s an old bath-chair in a corner of the hay-loft. I came across it last hols when I was looking for a bicycle pump I lost. I was rather disappointed at the time, not thinking that the old chair would be any use, whereas I wanted the pump. Now it turns out to be exactly what we want, which shows that well directed labour is never really wasted. The front-wheel is a bit groggy, but I daresay it’ll hold all right as far as the quay. I’ll go round after dinner to-night and fish it out. I can wheel you quite easily, for it’s all down hill.”
Frank had not intended when he left England to go about the country in a bath-chair with a groggy front-wheel. For a moment he hesitated. A wild fear struck him of what the Uppingham captain—that dangerous bat whose innings his brilliant catch had cut short—might say and think if he saw the vehicle. But the Uppingham captain was not likely to be in Rosnacree. Christian Science was a more threatening danger. He pictured to himself the stare of amazement on the countenance of Mr. Dupré and the sniggering face of young Latimer who collected beetles and hated washing. But Mr. Dupré, Latimer and the members of the house eleven, were, no doubt, far off.
Miss Lentaigne was very near at hand. He accepted Priscilla’s offer.
“Right,” she said. “I’ll settle the chair, if I have to tie it together with my hair ribbon. It’s nice to think of that old chair coming in useful in the end. It must have been in the loft for ages and ages. Sylvia Courtney told me that her mother says anything will come in useful if you only keep it long enough; but I don’t know whether that’s true. I don’t think it can be, quite, for I tried it once with a used up exercise-book and it didn’t seem to be the slightest good even after years and years, though it got most frightfully tattered. Still it may be true. You never can tell about things of that sort, and Sylvia Courtney says her mother is extremely wise; so she may be quite right.
“Christian Science,” said Frank bitterly, “wouldn’t be of any use if you kept it for centuries. What’s the use of saying a thing isn’t swelled when it is?”