“Seems to have something to hide at his house.”
“Oh, that’s because of the trouble—his father you know,” she also whispered. The cheesecloth had already been cut in convenient duster sizes so that it was no trouble to wind a few of the spotless pieces around Nicky’s wounded hand.
Settled once more, upon Barbara’s assurance that they would go straight back to Billows and get Vicky just as soon as the cut was dressed, again Dudley turned his car towards the homestead and office of Dr. Hale.
CHAPTER VII
NICKY AND VICKY
Nicky wasn’t a bit afraid of Dr. Hale. He scarcely flinched as the deep cut was washed and dressed, Barbara acting as nurse and Dora acting foolishly.
She couldn’t see why Barbara had to bother with those “young uns,” and she didn’t see, anyhow, why Barbara had to leave the party “on account of a boy’s cut hand.”
Because Dudley was present, although he was too well-bred to show his amusement, for Dora did “take on” as no maid would be expected to do, out of her place and all that, yet Barbara could not safely ask her to desist. Such rashness, Barbara feared, might precipitate something worse, as Dora was always “free with her tongue.”
Quiet and dignified, Dr. Hale took care of his little patient and what Dora lacked in giving the home the stamp of order, surely he, personally, supplied with his courtliness.
Dudley was keenly interested in the laboratory equipment, as Barbara told him to look things over while he waited, and he expressed the wish of coming in with Glenn some day, to see how things worked.
Finally the wound was all fixed up, and Dr. Hale asked Nicky how it felt.