“Frightened and fell maybe——”
“Queer she didn’t take the car.”
“Is she dead?”
Lila pushed ahead, thrusting the girls right and left from her path. I couldn’t see her face, but her shoulders kept pumping up and down as if she were smothering. You know she’s more sensitive than I am, and I felt badly enough.
Mrs. Howard took her hand and said, “Miss Reed wishes to see you both and leave a message.”
Of course such a speech would make anybody think she was dying. I rubbed my sleeve across my eyes and shut my teeth together and swallowed once, for the other girls around were gazing after us. Lila walked on with her head up. I couldn’t see anything but the line of her cheek, and that looked sort of cold and stony. We followed on over the thick rugs into the second reception room. There sitting in a big chair, leaning back against a cushion kind of limp and pale but not dead at all—there was Martha.
“Did you get the money?” she asked.
Lila didn’t answer. She just dropped on her knees and hid her face against Martha’s dress.
“It was a centerpiece I thought Mother would like. I chose it in the shop-window there at the corner while I was waiting. Maybe it will get there almost in time if it is mailed to-morrow, but the doctor says I must go to the infirmary for a day or two. If you would please send it away for me in the morning—if you have the money to buy it, Lila,—I’m sorry.”
The doctor walked in alert and brusque as usual but gentle too.