'Well, will you go and try if you can get one?' she asked.
'If you don't mind being left alone for a few hours, I'll do what I can,' I said. She was beginning to object, when Virginia appeared, leading in her mother.
'Here's my mother come to keep you company, Mrs. MacGill,' she explained. 'She wishes to hear all about your chill, from the first shiver right on to the last cough.' She placed Mrs. Pomeroy in an armchair, and fairly drove me out of the room before her, pushing me with both hands.
'Come! Run! Fly! Escape!' she cried. 'You are as white as butter with waiting on that woman's fads. I won't let you come in again under three hours. My mother's symptoms are good to last for two and a half hours, and then Mrs. MacGill can fill up the rest of the time with hers.'
Gaiety like Virginia's is infectious. I ran, yes, really ran downstairs along with her, quite forgetting my headache and weariness. I almost turned traitor to Mrs. MacGill, and was ready to laugh at her with this girl.
'She wants a pony chaise, and I'm to go down to Stoke Babbage to choose it,' I said.
'Why, that's five miles away, isn't it?' she asked. 'You're not half equal to a walk like that.'
'Anything—anything for a respite from Mrs. MacGill!' I cried.
'Well, if you are fit for it, I reckon I am,' Virginia said, and with that we set off together down the road....
III