Beyond was the figure of a young girl lying on the ground
It proved to be kind Mr. O’Rourke on his way to the seminary with the weekly supply of eggs and butter, and with his help Geraldine was carried to the wagon and made comfortable on the straw. Half an hour later, just as the girls were flocking out of the study hall, they were amazed to see no less a personage than Geraldine Barrington being helped into the school by a farmer and her hated roommate, Matilda Perkins, but the girls of Linden Hall were to hear of something much more surprising before the fortnight was over.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
A DREAM THAT CAME TRUE
The resident nurse took charge of the case and Geraldine’s ankle, which had been badly sprained, was carefully bandaged. When the pain had subsided, the girl fell into a light slumber and the nurse slipped away. Half an hour later Matilda stole into the room. She placed her exquisite spray of arbutus in a vase near Geraldine’s bed, then she tiptoed over to her own side, and began to pack her belongings. Though she was very quiet, Geraldine, who was only drowsing, opened her eyes and the first thing that she saw was the arbutus. She well knew who had placed it there. The screen was in front of her bed so that she could not see Matilda, but she heard her tiptoeing about. She wondered what she could be doing. She was soon to learn, for in another moment she saw the prairie girl going toward the door carrying all of her belongings. For the first time in her pampered life, Geraldine realized how selfish she had been.
“Miss Perkins,” she heard herself saying. “Please don’t move to-day.”
In surprise Matilda placed her suit-case on the floor and went to the bedside. “But I thought that you wanted to leave the school because I was your roommate. I am only a farmer’s daughter and of course you would not care to associate with me.”
“Yes, I do,” Geraldine declared, and there was a strange ring of sincerity in her voice. “I want to associate with you more than with any one else in the school.”
“Then I will stay a few days longer,” Matilda said quietly, “but when you are well perhaps you will feel as you did before. Just tell me so, won’t you, and I will gladly move.”
Turning back, she unpacked her suit-case and rehung the plaid shawl and beaver cap in the closet. Geraldine was amazed that any one could be so unselfish, but a sudden twinge in her ankle kept her from replying.
That afternoon another girl in the school became ill and the nurse was obliged to spend nearly all of the time in the infirmary, and so Matilda asked permission to take care of Geraldine. “I love to play nurse,” she said. “Mother was ill a long time and so I know just how, and since I am not to begin my classes until the spring examinations are over, I shall be glad to have something to do.”