r except
Harold who had courage to do so! I could not help my heart bounding at
the thought, and afterwards enjoying the talk with him that I could not
help. But then it made me feel undutiful to my dear mother, and then
there was the further difficulty to be faced. It would have been all
very well to live with my nephews if we had been in a desert island,
but I could not expect them not to make friends of their own; and if
mine chose to drop me, how would it be for me, at my age, all alone in
the house?

Harold was forced to confess that he had done too much that first day.
His hand was inflamed, and pain and weariness forbade all thought of
spending a long day from home; and, besides, there arrived letters by
the morning's post which left grave lines on his brow.

So Eustace drove off alone, a good deal elated at such an expedition,
and I took Harold to my own little sitting-room, so despised by Dora,
for the convenience of bathing the flesh wounds on the right hand,
which, though really the least injured, was a much greater torment than
the broken fingers, and had allowed him very little sleep.

It was the first time he had been in the room, and on the chimney-piece
stood open a miniature-case containing a portrait, by Thorburn, of my
little brother Percy, in loose brown holland. Harold started as he
came in, and exclaimed, "Where did that come from?" I told him, and he
exclaimed, "Shut it up, please," and sat down with his back to it,
resigning his hand to me, and thanking me warmly when the fomentation
brought some relief, and when I asked if I could do any more for him he
seemed undecided, extracted some letters from his pocket with his
two-fifths of a hand, and sent Dora to his room for his writing-case.
I offered to write anything for him, but he said, "Let me try," and
then endeavoured; but he found that not only did the effort hurt him
unbearably, but that he could not guide the pen for more than a word or
two; so he consented to make use of me, saying, however, "Dora, it is
no use your staying in; you had better go out."

Dora, of course, wanted to stay; but I devised that she should go,
under the escort of one of the maids, to carry some broth to the
wounded boy, an expedition which would last her some time, and which
Harold enforced with all his might as a personal favour, till she
complied.

"Thank you," said Harold; "you see this must be done at once, or we
shall have them coming over here."