Both ladies exclaimed in astonishment upon seeing
the supposed invalid up and dressed, while Mrs. Seabrook
viewed with grave disapproval the tray before her,
with its remnants of a hearty dinner.
“My dear! are you crazy that you dare eat meat,
potatoes and vegetables—yes, and pie!—with
such a fever?” she cried, aghast.
“I have no fever,” said Miss Reynolds,
giving her a cool, normal hand. “I am very
much better, and I was hungry, so asked Miss Minturn
to bring me something nice to eat.”
“All the same, you are very injudicious,”
was the severe rejoinder. But the transgressor
only smiled serenely and began to talk of other things,
while Katherine removed the offensive tray, taking
it below, after which she sought her own room.
Mrs. Seabrook’s problem.
Katherine spent a while chatting with her roommate,
after which she made some change in her dress, then
sought Mrs. Seabrook’s apartments to make her
promised visit to Dorothy.
The child was reclining on a couch and propped up
by numerous pillows. She looked pale and worn
from recent suffering, although, just then, she was
comparatively comfortable.
Prof. Seabrook was sitting beside her, reading
from an entertaining book, to pass the time during
his wife’s absence on her round of visits to
the sick.
Katherine flushed slightly as she entered the room,
for, try as she would, she had not yet quite overcome
a sense of reserve whenever she met her principal.
His manner to her was always marked by the most punctilious
politeness; but it was such frigid courtesy and so
entirely at variance with his affability during their
first interview, that she also seemed to freeze when
in his presence.
The moment the door opened Dorothy uttered a cry of
joy, extending eager hands to her, and, after saluting
Prof. Seabrook, Katherine went to her side, a
cheery smile upon her lips as she greeted her.
“I’m so glad, Miss Minturn! Mamma
said you were coming, and I’ve been watching
the door ever since dinner. Can you stay a long
time?” exclaimed the girl, in glad tones.
“Perhaps I am interrupting something interesting,”
Katherine observed, as she glanced at the book in
the professor’s hands.
“Well, papa has been reading to me, and it was
interesting,” Dorothy truthfully admitted.
“But he has an engagement pretty soon, and is
only staying with me till mamma comes back, for Alice
is out. Mamma has gone up to see Miss Reynolds.
Do you know she is awful sick?”
“She is much better to-day. I came from
her room only a little while ago,” said Katherine,
“and I can stay an hour, or more, with you if
you like. I will go on with the reading, Prof.
Seabrook, if it will relieve you,” she added,
courteously turning to him.
“Oh, I’d rather talk with you,”
Dorothy interposed. “Mamma can finish the
story by and by. Now, papa, you can go and leave
me with Miss Minturn.”
