“But why didn’t you telephone me?”
“Well, I started to, but the nurse wouldn’t let me. She wanted to do it herself, and I was afraid she would frighten you, so I concluded it was better to wait a little and come myself.”
“But what was the accident? You are hurt. I know you are hurt!”
“No truly, mother dear, I’m all right now, only a little shaken up. I was riding in an automobile with Murray Van Rensselaer, and a big truck came around a corner and ran into us and upset us!”
The mother’s cheeks were flushed and her eyes bright with anxiety.
“You were riding with Murray Van Rensselaer? But where is Murray now? Was he hurt, too? Did they take him to the hospital?”
“Why no, I think not, that is—I don’t know. The nurse thought he was all right. They said he was very impatient to know how I was, but when I came down they couldn’t find him—”
“Oh!” said the mother indignantly, “he probably had some social engagement. One of his mother’s dinners. I could see the cars arriving tonight, and the flowers, and things from the caterer’s—!”
“Don’t, mother!” The girl sprang away from her, “don’t! He may have been hurt. He didn’t seem like that. Perhaps he went away to a doctor himself.”
“Well, I hope he did. For the sake of our old regard for him when he was a boy, I sincerely hope he had some good reason for deserting you after he had gotten you smashed up in an accident. How on earth did you come to be riding with him? I thought you would never condescend to do that after the way he has treated you all these years.”