“I really can’t help it, dearest! When I feel this way I am not able to recline upon a bed, or to think of sleep.”
“That’s why you’d better sit up all night—and have that boy sit up, too, to get what you need, or to read to you and keep you from worryin’ over yourself,” advised Mr. Alexander.
“Algy, dear boy, will you pull the bag of medicines from under the seat. Get me the aromatic ammonia, like a good child,” weakly requested Mrs. Alexander.
The others of the group, all but Dodo and her father, appeared concerned over Mrs. Alexander’s sudden indisposition, and Mr. Dalken offered to go through the Pullmans to find a physician.
“Oh, if you would, dear Mr. Dalken,” sighed the apparently ill lady.
“No, no! don’t you take a step, Mr. Dalken,” remonstrated Mr. Alexander. “Maggie’s fits always pass off quicker when no one pays any attention to her. I know, from years’ experience, what ails her now. We ain’t been amusin’ her since we started this trip, and now that we’re here to hear and see, we’re in for my wife’s kind of scoldin’. Ask Dodo about it, if you don’t believe me.”
But Dodo turned away and walked to the other end of the car. She was wise for so young a girl, but then she had had ample time in which to watch and profit by her mother’s silly pretences.
Mrs. Alexander flashed a furious glance at her husband, but she still had hopes of making herself the center of concern, so she slumped down in the seat and closed her eyes, at the same time she threw up both hands and gave a gurgling breath. Poor Algy stood beside her, trembling violently, and wiping the perspiration from his noble (?) brow.
“Say! Aw, I say! cawn’t you folks do something to brace her up a bit? I weally haven’t the stwength to stand by and witness the end of a lady. Why, I cawn’t bear to see any one kill a fly—it makes me deathly ill, don’t chaw know!” Having expressed his sentiments, Algy turned and fled to the smoking compartment.
At this moment Dodo rushed down the length of the Pullman, and excitedly cried: “A fire! Oh, what shall we do—there’s a fire on the train.”