“Let me stay with you,” she pleaded, taking the two thin hands in hers; “you were always so good to me. I know that something terrible has happened to you; you shall tell me what it is by-and-by, when you are better. Now I want to take care of you; and you will let me, won’t you?”
“You shall do anything you like, my dear,” Aunt Anne gasped, too weak to offer resistance.
Then Mrs. North went out to the fly, which was still waiting at the gate, and found Jane Mitchell, who, attracted by the unusual sight, was talking to the driver.
“I want some coals sent at once, and a servant.”
“I was the servant, if you please, ma’am; only Mrs. Wimple said she didn’t want me,” remarked Jane.
“Then go in immediately and make a fire,” answered Mrs. North, imperiously; “and if there are no coals get some, from a shop or your mother’s cottage or anywhere else. There must be shops in the village. Order tea and sugar, and everything else you can think of. I will send to London for my maid and cook, to come and help you. Make haste and light a fire in the drawing-room. Where is my shawl? Here, driver, take this telegram; and order these things from the village, and say they are wanted instantly”—she had written the list on the leaf of a note-book; “and this is for your trouble,” she added.
“Now, you dear old lady,” she said, going back to her, “let me put this shawl over your feet first, for we must make you warm. Consider that I have adopted you.” In a moment she ran upstairs, and searched for a soft pillow to put under Aunt Anne’s head, and then produced some grapes and jelly from the basket which, with a certain foresight, she had brought with her. Aunt Anne sucked in a little of the jelly almost eagerly, and as she did so Mrs. North realized that she had only just come in time. “We must send for a doctor,” she thought; “but I am afraid that everything is too late.”
In twenty-four hours the cottage looked like another place. Mrs. North’s cook had taken possession of the kitchen; a comfortable-looking, middle-aged maid went up and down the stairs; the windows were open, though there were fires burning in all the grates. There were good things in the larder, and an atmosphere of home was everywhere. Aunt Anne was bewildered, but Mrs. North looked quite happy.
“I have taken possession of you,” she explained, the second morning after she came. “You ought to have sent for me sooner. In fact, you ought never to have left me. You only got into mischief, and so did I.”
“Yes, my dear,” said Aunt Anne, feebly, “we both did.”