"Why on earth——?"
Merle cut him short.
"Oh, tell me! There's a boy going on the Occident with a hurt spine—he might look at him! It wouldn't hurt you."
"Well——" began the man, staring at her. "My nephew won't practise, if that's what you mean. But his name is Neil Fraser, if you must know. Better not tell him I told you, for he's on a holiday, and doesn't want to think about spines!"
"He couldn't help it if he knew Dick!" said Merle solemnly. "Thanks, very much." She turned. "I must go and catch another tram."
"I think you had better let me brush you down a bit first," said the Westralian, suiting the action to the word. "I've got daughters myself, and if your mother sees the state your frock is in——!"
Merle submitted to his ministrations more or less gratefully. At the moment it would not have mattered to her if she had no frock at all. She was seething with excited hope. Each night she prayed blindly, desperately, to some God she did not in the least realise that He would make Dick well—that He would let her work out her wickedness by taking Dick's pain, if He only could. Perhaps God was really there, after all—perhaps He really meant to help! She said good-bye to the fatherly Westerner, and managed to get back to the hotel—how, she never knew. A great thought had come to her. She had heard of cases of skin-graft—taking skin from a sound person to heal another's wound. Perhaps this wonderful new man could take a piece of her spine and put it into Dick's. She knelt down by her bed, and prayed wildly to God that He would arrange it.
"It doesn't matter what becomes of me," she said. "Daddy has two sons, and I'm only a girl—and they've only Dick. And it's all my fault. If you can fix it so's he'll be able to walk soon, before he gets any discourageder, I don't care what you do to me. Oh, God, won't you let this Fraser man know all about spines like Dick's!" It was a queer prayer; but who shall say that it did not go straight upwards?
The burden of Merle's secret was heavy upon her as she climbed the gangway of the Occident next day. She had not dared to speak to anyone, in a childish fear of being ridiculed; and the temptation to speak to Dick was so strong that in resisting it she became entirely silent, until Dick grew worried, and said finally, "Look here, Legs, old girl, are you really sure you want to come?"
"Want to come?" She looked at him in a dazed way. "Oh, I never wanted anything so much in my life! You don't want to leave me behind, do you?"