DORA RECEIVES A CHEQUE.
BUT many days passed before Robert was able to come downstairs. The long time he had sat in his wet clothes had given him a severe chill, which, combined with the great nervous shock he had experienced, brought on a low fever. He required constant attention and nursing, and the unceasing care with which he was tended would have touched a harder heart than his.
"Oh, mother," he would say, "what a trouble and expense I am to you. This is a nice way, truly, of fulfilling the trust father left me."
"It is not too late yet, Robert, to prove that you have endeavoured to live up to the high standard he put before you," would be the gentle reply. "Your duty now is to do your best to get well as quickly as possible, and the less you worry and distress yourself, the sooner it will come to pass."
During the fortnight he spent in bed, Robert learnt that the hardest thing in the world is to be patient, and bear weakness and suffering without complaint. But he did try to let his weariness and restlessness have as little outward expression as possible.
This common bond of suffering drew him and Lancie very near together. Robert had had no illness since he was a baby, and for the first time he gained some true idea of what the little cripple's ill-health and feeble body entailed upon him.
And now Lancie, to his great joy, found himself able to render active service. For about a fortnight Robert was extremely weak, and Lancie delighted in waiting on him and being hands and feet to his sick brother. As soon, too, as he was well enough to care for the amusement, he read aloud to him, and many hours that would otherwise have passed heavily and wearily were made pleasant and bright by Lancie's loving anxiety to do "what he could."
Nor was Robert forgotten by those outside his home circle. Mrs. Armstrong was especially kind. During the first days of his illness it was necessary for somebody to sit up with him at night, and she had shared these nights of watching with his mother. Then as he began to get better, many a little dainty to tempt his appetite did she bring in her basket to 99, Madeira Street.
But, perhaps, of all who came to the house to inquire for the invalid, Jack paid the most frequent visits. He himself had felt too poorly to do much on the day following the accident; he had got up late, and, by his own request, gone to bed early. But on the Monday he was well enough to go to school, and on his way he looked out anxiously for Robert.
No Robert, however, did he see, and when at half-past twelve the boys were dismissed, he determined to ask the head master, Mr. Bullen, if he knew the reason of his friend's absence. In reply he was told that Mrs. Grainger had written saying her son was seriously ill, and though she did not think the fever would end fatally, yet it might be several weeks before he would again be able in attend school.