“Then, Pauline, my dear, you shall have a ride to-morrow morning.”
Pauline scarcely replied. She did not negative the idea of the ride, but neither did she accept it with any enthusiasm.
There was a wild moment when the entire family were reassembled. All the girls surrounded Pauline, and kissed her and hugged her as though she had come back from the dead.
“You quite forget,” said Penelope, “that I was nearly drownded, too. I was very nearly shutting up of my eyes, and closing of my lips, and stretching myself out and lying drownded and still on the top of the waves. I was in as big a danger as Pauline, every bit.”
“But you didn’t get ill afterwards, as Paulie did,” said the other girls.
They kissed Pen, for, being their sister, they had to love her after a fashion; but their real adoration and deepest sympathy were centred round Pauline.
Meanwhile Pen, who never cared to find herself neglected, ran off to discover nurse.
“Well,” she said when she saw that worthy, “here I am. I’m not pale now. I am rosy. The seaside suits me. The salty waves and the sands, they all agrees with me. How are you, nursey?”
“Very well,” replied nurse, “and glad to see you again.”
“And how is Marjorie? Kiss me, Marjorie.”