And the two were no doubt alike in Hall’s mind.
“And he goes every week and says his commandments in class here, standing up before all the school! I wonder what the doctor——”
Hall cut short her complaints. Van Rheyn had suddenly opened his eyes, and was looking up at us.
“I find myself better,” he said, with a smile. “The pain has nearly departed.”
“We wasn’t thinking of pains and headaches, Master Van Rheyn, but of this,” said Hall, resentfully, taking the spoon out of the saucer, and holding it within an inch of the gold cross. Van Rheyn raised his head from the pillow to look.
“Oh, it is my little cross!” he said, holding it out to our view as far as the ribbon allowed, and speaking with perfect ease and unconcern. “Is it not beautiful?”
“Very,” I said, stooping over it.
“Be you of the Romanic sex?” demanded Hall of Van Rheyn.
“Am I—— What is it Mrs. Hall would ask?” he broke off to question me, in the midst of my burst of laughter.
“She asks if you are a Roman Catholic, Van Rheyn.”