The Story Book Girls

by S. R. Crockett

  CHAPTER IV

  Cuthbert

  There was a tremendous scurry after this to allow of the four gettingready in time for dinner. Mabel and Elma regained high spirits aftertheir confidences, and everybody seemed in a better key.

  Mrs. Leighton came in to inquire of Mabel why Cuthbert had not returned.Cuthbert, by some years the eldest of the family, had attained greatbrilliance as a medical student, and now worked at pathology in order toqualify as a specialist. His studies kept him intermittently at home,but to-day he had been down early from town and had gone out bicyclingwith George Maclean.

  "Cuthbert!" exclaimed Mabel. "Why, I can't think--why, where'sCuthbert?"

  "Why, yes, where's Cuthbert?" said Jean.

  Their minute differences had engaged their minds so fully, that no onehad really begun to wonder about Cuthbert until that moment.

  "He is always in such good time," said Mrs. Leighton in a puzzled way."Didn't he say to any one that he would be late?"

  No one knew anything about him. They speculated, and collected at thedinner-table still speculating. Even Cousin Harry knew nothing of him,but that, of course, was because of the flower show. While the meal wasin progress, Mr. Maclean appeared quietly in the room. He had prepareda little speech for Mrs. Leighton, but it died on his lips as he saw herface. It was a curious thing, as they afterwards reflected, that Mr.Maclean went on speaking to Mrs. Leighton as though she knew ofeverything that had happened to Cuthbert.

  "He is all right, Mrs. Leighton, but he wouldn't let me bring him inuntil I told you that he was all right."

  "Bring him in----"

  It seemed to the Leightons that Mr. Maclean had been standing all hislife in their dining-room saying that Cuthbert was all right, butwouldn't be "brought in."

  Mr. Leighton put down his table napkin in a methodical manner.

  "You'd better come with me and see him, Lucy," he said to his wife.

  Nothing could have more alarmed the girls. On no occasion had Mr.Leighton ever referred to his wife as Lucy.

  "Oh, Cuthbert must be dead," cried Betty.

  "Nonsense," said Mr. Leighton, with a white face. "Where is Harry?"

  Harry had slipped out after a direct glance from Mr. Maclean, and was atthat moment assisting two doctors to lift Cuthbert from a carriage.

  "Look here, you kids," sang out Cuthbert, "I've only broken a rib ortwo. You needn't look scared. I shall allow you to nurse me. You won'tbe dull, I can tell you."

  Mrs. Leighton gave a sharp little gasp. Her face looked drawn and onlyhalf its size.

  "Oh, Cuthbert," she said.

  "I won't move," said Cuthbert, "till you stop being anxious about me.Maclean, you are a bit of an idiot--look how you've frightened her!"

  Elma found Betty in partial hysterics in the dining-room with Jeanhanging over her in a corresponding condition.

  "I say, you two," she said in a disgusted manner. "You'll frightenmother more than ever. Get up, and don't be idiots."

  "You're as pale as death yourself," cried Jean hotly.

  "Oh--am I," said Elma in almost a pleased voice. She longed to go andsee the effect for herself, but the condition of Betty prevented her.

  "Well, it's our first shock," she said in an important manner. "I neverfelt _awful_ like this before."

  "I'm sure Cuthbert will die," cried Betty.

  "Oh, don't." Elma turned on her fiercely. "Why do you say suchdreadful things."

  "If you think he will die, Betty, he will die," sobbed Jean.

  "Oh, Jean, Jean, do brace up," said Elma. "I don't want to cry, andevery minute I'm getting nearer it. Harry says it's just a knock on theribs, and the navy men don't even go to bed for that."

  "Liar," sobbed Betty, "Cuthbert isn't a softy."

  "Well, of course, if you want him to be bad, I can't help it," saidElma. "I'm off to see where Mabel is."

  Mabel--well, this was just where the magnificence of Mabel asserteditself. She had done a thing which not one of the people who werearranging about getting Cuthbert upstairs and into bed had thought of.At the first sight of his white face and some blankets with which he hadbeen padded into a carriage, after the accident which had thrown himfrom his bicycle and broken three ribs, Mabel turned and went upstairs.She put everything out of the way for his being carried across the room,and finally tugged his bed into a convenient place for his being laidthere. She dragged back quilts and procured more pillows, so that whenCuthbert finally reclined there he was eminently comfortable.

  "You'll have to haul out my bed, it's in a corner," he had sung out asthey carried him in, and there was the bed already prepared for him, andMabel with an extra pillow in her arms.

  "Good old Mabs," said Cuthbert. "I promote you to staff nurse on thespot."

  Mabel was more scared than any one, not knowing yet about the ribs orCousin Harry's tale of the navy men who went about with broken ones, andrather enjoyed the experience. She was so scared that it seemed easy tostand quiet and be perfectly dignified.

  "Come, Mabs dear, and help me to look for bandages. The doctor wants onegood big one," said the recovered voice of Mrs. Leighton.

  Mr. Leighton went about stirring up everybody to doing things. He wasvery angry with Betty and Jean. "Any one can sit crying in a corner,"he declared, "and we may be so glad it's no worse."

  "It's our first shock," said Betty, who had rather admired the sentimentof that speech of Elma's.

  Mr. Leighton could not help smiling a trifle.

  "Well," he exclaimed kindly, "we don't want to get accustomed to them.I should really much rather you would behave properly this time. Youmight take a lesson from Mabel."

  Nobody knew till then what a brick Mabel had been. To have their fathercommend them like that, the girls would stand on their heads. LuckyMabel! There was some merit after all in being the eldest. One knewevidently what to do in an emergency. The truth was that Mabel'stemperament was so nicely balanced that she could act, as well as think,with promptitude. She had always admired dignity and what Mr. Leightoncalled "efficiency," whereas Jean and Betty believed most in the deepfeelings of people who squealed the loudest.

  "Nobody knows the agony this is to me," Jean exclaimed in a tragicvoice. "Feel my heart, it's beating so."

  "Go and feel Mabel's," said Elma. "I expect it's thumping as hard asyours. And she got Cuthbert's bed ready. She really is the leader ofthis family. There's something more in it than putting up one's hair."

  The doctors came down much more merrily than they went up, and joined inthe dining-room in coffee and dessert while Harry stayed with thepatient.

  Mr. Leighton seemed very deeply moved. The thing had hurt him more thanhe ventured to say. A remembrance of the white look on his son's face,the appearance of the huddled figure in the cab, and the anxiety of notknowing for a few moments how bad the injury might be, had given him agreat shock. His children were so deeply a part of his life, theirwelfare of so much more consequence than his own, that it seemeddreadful to him that his splendid manly young son had been suddenlyhurt--perhaps beyond remedy. Mrs. Leighton used to remark that she hadalways been very thankful that none of her children had ever beendangerously ill, her husband suffered so acutely from even a triflingillness undergone by one of them. Now she gazed at him ratheranxiously.

  Mr. Maclean told them at last how it had happened. Cuthbert had donesomething rather heroic. Mr. Maclean recounted it, it seemed to Elma,in the tone of a man who thought very little of the reckless way inwhich Cuthbert had risked his life, until she discovered afterwards thathe as well as Cuthbert had made a dash to the rescue.

  It was a case of a runaway bicycle, with no brakes working, and a girlon it, terror-stricken, trying to evade death on the Long Hill.Cuthbert had rushed down to her. Cuthbert had gripped the saddle, andwas putting some strength into his brakes, and actually reaching nearlya full stop, when the girl swayed and fainted. They were both thr
own,but the girl was quite unhurt. Something had hit Cuthbert on the sideand broken three ribs.

  Mabel stared straight at Mr. Maclean.

  "Where were you?" she asked.

  Mr. Maclean looked gravely at her. "I was somewhere about," he saidwith unnecessary vagueness.

  "Then you tried to save the girl too," said Elma with immediateconviction. She greatly admired Mr. Maclean, and resented the manner ofMabel's question. "How beautiful of you both," she exclaimedenthusiastically.

  Mr. Maclean seemed a little annoyed.

  "I nearly ran into them," he growled. "Cuthbert was the man who did theclean neat thing."

  Mabel stirred her coffee with a dainty air, and then she lookedprovokingly at Mr. Maclean. In some way she made Elma believe that shedid not credit that he could be valorous like Cuthbert.

  "I think it was most grand-iloquent of you," Elma said to Mr. Maclean byway of recompense.

  The word saved the situation. Where doctors' assurances had not clearedanxiety from the brow of Mr. Leighton, nor restored the placidity whichwith Mrs. Leighton was habitual, the genuine laugh which followed Elma'seffort accomplished everything.

  "I shall go right up and tell Cuthbert," said Jean.

  "No, you won't! Cuthbert mustn't laugh," said Mrs. Leighton hurriedly.

  "Oh, mummy," said poor Elma.

  Nobody laughed later, however, when all four girls were tucked in bedand not one of them could sleep. Betty in particular was in a nervousfeverish condition which alarmed Elma. She would have gone to hermother's room to ask advice, except for Mabel's great indication ofcourage that afternoon, and the certainty that Mabel and Jean were bothsensibly fast asleep in the next room. She took Betty into her own bedand petted her like a baby. On windy nights Betty never could sleep,and had always gone to Elma like a chicken to its mother to hide herhead and shut out the shrieking and whistling which so unnerved her. Butto-night, nothing could shut out the fear which had suddenly assailedher that everybody died sooner or later, and Cuthbert might have diedthat day. She lay and wept on Elma's shoulder.

  At last the door moved gently and Mrs. Leighton came in. The moon shoneon her white hair, and made her face seem particularly gentle andlovely.

  "I've been scolding Mabel and Jean for talking in bed," she said, "andnow I hear you two at it."

  "Oh, mummy," replied Elma, "I'm so glad you've come. You don't know howempty and dreadful we feel. We never thought before of Cuthbert'sdying. And Betty says you and papa might die--and none of us couldp--possibly bear to live."

  She began to cry gently at last.

  "I can't have four girls in one house all crying," said Mrs. Leighton;"I really can't stand it, you know."

  "What--are Mabel and Jean crying?" asked Elma tearfully, yet hopefully."Well, that's one comfort anyway."

  Mrs. Leighton sat down by their bed. Long years afterwards Elmaremembered the tones of her mother's voice, and the quiet wonderfulpeace that entered her own mind at the confident words which Mrs.Leighton spoke to them then.

  "I thought you might be feeling like that," she said; "I did once also,long ago, when my father turned very ill, until I learned what I'm goingto tell you now. We aren't here just to enjoy ourselves, or that wouldbe an easy business, would it not? We are here to get what Cuthbertcalls a few kicks now and again, to suffer a little, above all toremember that our father or our mother isn't the only loving parent wepossess. What is the use of being taught to be devoted to goodness andtruth, if one doesn't believe that goodness and truth are higher thananything, higher than human trouble? If you lost Cuthbert or me orpapa, there is always that strong presence ready to hold you."

  "Oh, mummy," sobbed Betty, "there seems nothing like holding your hand."

  Mrs. Leighton stroked Betty's very softly.

  "Would you like a little piece of news?" she asked.

  "We would," said Elma.

  "The only person who is asleep in this household--last asleep,is--Cuthbert."

  "O--oh!"

  Elma could not help laughing.

  "And another thing," said Mrs. Leighton. "Didn't you notice? Not oneof my girls asked a single question about the girl whom Cuthbert saved."

  "How funny!"

  Betty's sobs became much dimmer.

  "Do you know who she was?" asked Mrs. Leighton.

  "No," chimed both.

  "Well, I don't know her name," said Mrs. Leighton. She rose and movedtowards the door. "But I know one thing." She opened the door softly.

  Elma and Betty sat up dry-eyed in bed.

  "Remember what I said to you to-night," Mrs. Leighton said, "and don'tbe very ungrateful for all the happiness you've known, and littlecowards when the frightening time comes. Promise me."

  They promised.

  She prepared to draw the door quietly behind her.

  "She is staying with the Story Books," whispered Mrs. Leighton. Thenshe closed the door.