“That is so nice!” she said, as her hot face touched their coolness. “Now I am going to sleep again, and you must do the same. I can ring if I want anything—but indeed I shall want nothing. Run off to bed at once, or I shall have to get up to make you go!”
I gave in, seeing that she was really worried about my being up, though I was not at all sleepy. Nevertheless, once I was in bed I slept like a log, and did not waken until I found Julia by my side with tea in the morning. She beamed cheerfully at me.
“Let you take your tay in peace, now,” she said. “The misthress is betther: she’s afther drinkin’ a cup, an’ she towld me to tell you to take your time, for she’s needin’ nothin’.”
“Is she really better, Julia?” I asked anxiously.
“She is. There’s great virtue in that quare little glass stick she’s afther suckin’; she med me give it to her, an’ she says it’s made her norrmal. I dunno what is norrmal, but she says she’s cured. The fever’s gone out of her entirely. But she have a strong wakeness on her yet; sure I had to howld the cup when she drank, for there’s no more power in her hand than a baby’s. But that’s nothin’ at all: we’ll have her as well as ever she was in a few days, if only she’ll leave the owld writin’ alone.”
Mrs. McNab greeted me with a smile when I hurried in.
“Ah, I told Julia to make you rest awhile,” she said. Her voice was still faint, but her eyes were clear, and the pain had gone out of them. “I am really better: the attack has passed off, and I have only to get rid of this weakness. But it takes time.”
She was a very meek patient that morning. All her powers were concentrated on getting back her strength: she took nourishment whenever I brought it to her, and tried to keep herself as placid as possible by sheer strength of will. But strength of will, even as great as Mrs. McNab’s, does not work miracles: she was still weak enough to tremble violently when I brought her her letters at twelve o’clock, and when she came to one in a dingy blue envelope her hand shook so that she had to let me open it for her. With a great effort she commanded herself to read it.
“It is from Transom!” she gasped. “Everything is arranged, and he wants Ronald to join him in Adelaide immediately—not to delay an hour longer than he can help!”
The letter fluttered to the ground and I sprang to her side. She had fainted.