He felt uncomfortable and wished to get away, for he did not quite like the grieved look in Edith’s eyes, or the pained expression of her face. Edith herself could not tell why his words hurt her as they did, or why she felt so interested in the sick girl whom she had as yet never seen distinctly. But she was interested in her, and though she did not visit her as she had intended doing, she sent her many delicacies and a pillow from her stateroom, and felt almost as much pleased as Mary Rogers herself when she heard at last that she was better.
Gertie had been very sick, and her bright color was all gone, and her round cheeks looked thin and wan, when at last Mary dressed her in her warm wrapper, with its facings of pink, and then folding Edith’s shawl about her carried her on deck, and propping her up with pillows and cushions made her as comfortable as she could.
Though pale and worn with marks of suffering on her face and in her soft blue eyes, Gertie was pretty still, and made a very attractive picture as she sat in her quiet corner with a book, whose pages she was turning listlessly, when she heard footsteps approaching her, and a voice exclaimed:
“Hallo, Bob, by George, if there isn’t ‘La Sœur,’ looking like a little ghost; here, this way;” and Godfrey Schuyler, who was also better and able to be up, came quickly to her side, followed by Robert Macpherson, who moved more slowly and showed more signs of weakness than the active, restless Godfrey.
Robert Macpherson had seen and talked with Gertie at her lodgings near Oakwood, and had asked her to sit for her picture, and she had said she would, and a day had been appointed for the sitting, when Mary Rogers interfered and refused in toto, and kept her child so close that neither Robert nor Godfrey saw her again except in her aunt’s company or through the window of her room.
Godfrey, indeed, had only spoken to her once, and that when she sat in the door eating blackberries, her lips and pretty fingers stained with the juice, and her bright hair falling about her face. Mrs. Rogers had come upon him then just as he was going to make some flattering speech, and called her little girl away, and he had not seen her since until now, when he esteemed it a great piece of luck to stumble thus upon her with the dragon out of sight. Gertie knew him, and a pleased smile broke over her face and shone in her eyes, when he stopped before her and asked if she had been sick and how she liked the feeling of it. She did not like it at all, and she and Godfrey grew very social and sympathetic as they compared notes, he going far ahead of her, of course, inasmuch as he did not hesitate to draw upon his imagination when necessary, while she adhered strictly to the truth, saying only that she felt at times as if she were standing on her head, while he averred that he did stand on his head until he was black in the face. She did not believe him, but she laughed merrily at his droll sayings, and then acquaintance was progressing rapidly when he asked what she was reading, and stooped down beside her to see the title-page.
Godfrey was very fond of little girls, and this one had interested him greatly from the time he first saw her in the cab on Caledonia Street, and now as he bent his face so close to hers that his brown curls touched her auburn hair, he could not resist the temptation, but snatched a kiss from her lips ere she was aware of his intention. Though small of stature Gertie was twelve years old, and very womanly in some respects, and at this liberty all her instincts of modesty and propriety awoke within her, and while the hot tears glittered in her eyes, which flashed angrily upon the offender, she said:
“You stop! You mustn’t! You shan’t! You have no business to kiss me, Mr. Godfrey, and I am very indignant!”
She wiped her lips two or three times, while Godfrey, who considered it a good joke, and was vastly amused at her rage, said to her:
“Why oughtn’t I to kiss a pretty girl like you when I find her all alone?”