“Yes; very bad case from the first. Fine boy, too—but they didn’t call me in time. Well, this village had forgotten all about fever.” He jumped into the car. “I’ll be up in the morning,” he said; and whirred off into the darkness.
Alison and Michael, enormously amused at what they took to be a new game, were presently bundled up in blankets and carried across to Homewood; and soon a cab trundled up with a brisk, capable-looking nurse, who at once took command in Geoffrey’s room.
“I don’t think you should stay,” she said to Norah. “The maid and I can do everything for him—and his mother will be home to-morrow. A good hot bath, with some disinfectant in it, here; then leave all your clothes here that you’ve worn near the patient, and run home in fresh things. No risk for you then.”
“I couldn’t leave Geoff,” Norah said. “Of course I won’t interfere with you; but his mother left him to me while she was away. And he might ask for me.”
“Well, it’s only for your own sake I was advising you,” said the nurse. “What do you think, Mr. Linton?”
“I think she ought to stay,” said David Linton shortly—with fear tugging at his heart as he spoke. “Just make her take precautions, if there are any; but the child comes first—he was left in our care.”
He went away soon, holding Norah very tightly to him for a moment; and then the nurse sent Norah to bed.
“There’s nothing for you to do,” she said. “I shall have a sleep near the patient.”
“But you’ll call me if he wants me?”
“Yes—I promise. Now be off with you.”