“He has been to Dr Wilkins,” Miss Fortescue replied quietly.
“What a fuss!” Chrissie muttered. It was only meant for Leila, but her aunt, who was by no means deaf, caught the words.
“Mother,” Roland went on, “you don’t think it can be anything worse than a cold? I told the doctor you thought it was a bad chill, but he questioned me a good bit when he heard Japs was sleeping close beside me—and he was queer in the night. Talking nonsense, you know. Dr Wilkins asked if he went to school, or had been near any infection. He said there had been a lot of scarlet fever near here—in a street called Peter’s Place. It had been brought in a curious way, and they had some difficulty in tracing where it came from—that was how he had heard of it. It’s over now, but if Japs had been near there, you see?”
“No,” his mother replied, “that is impossible. We knew of the illness there some time ago, and your father warned us. No—I cannot see that he has been exposed to any infection.”
But she was feeling very anxious—so much so that she did not notice the strange look that had come over the faces of both her little daughters as they heard what Roland said. She did not see that Leila grew white and Christabel red, but Aunt Margaret’s eyes were keen.
“Can it be only nervousness—dread of serious illness?” she said to herself. “No, they are far from cowardly. I fear, I fear, it is something worse.”
But then, for the time being, her mind and thoughts, as well as their mother’s, were too entirely taken up by the sudden new trouble that had come upon the household, for her to be able to let them dwell on the increased misgiving that something was wrong, something “on the children’s minds.”
Breakfast was cleared away quickly and the two girls told to remain where they were in the dining-room. Then Dr Wilkins’ brougham drove up and he came in. It was still standing at the door when, at ten o’clock, Miss Greenall punctually made her appearance.
“Is that a doctor’s carriage here?” she asked with some anxiety, and then, glancing at her pupils, she saw that they seemed unusually subdued and quiet.
“Yes,” replied Chrissie. “It’s our own doctor. He’s come to see Japs, who’s got a cold.”