Gwen hoped she was right—always a good thing to do. But what had her mother said about the accident? Oh—the accident! Well—she remembered very little of it. She did not know why she should have become half unconscious. The last thing she could be clear about was that Dave was shouting for joy, and Dolly frightened and crying. Then a gentleman carried her upstairs out of a carriage.
"No!" said Gwen. "Carried her downstairs into a carriage.... Oh no!—I know what she meant. It was my cousin Percy, not the fireman."
At this point Dr. Nash returned from the bedroom. Gwen began hoping that he had found his patient really better, but something stopped her speech, and she said:—"Oh!" Ruth Thrale was outside the room by then, far enough to miss the disappointment in her voice.
Dr. Nash glanced round to make sure she was out of hearing, and closed the door. "I don't like to say much, either way," said he.
Gwen turned pale. "You need not be afraid to tell me," she said.
"I see you know what I mean," said he, reading into her thoughts. "Miracle apart, one knows what to expect. I don't believe in any miracle, though certainly she has everything in her favour for it, in one sense."
"Meaning?" said Gwen interrogatively.
"Meaning that she has absolutely nothing the matter with her. If she has any active disorder, all I can say is it has baffled me to find it out."
"But, then, why?..."
"Why be frightened? Listen, and I'll tell you.... We gain nothing, you know, by not looking the facts in the face."