carelessness anddisobedience, followed, all too naturally, alas, by concealment anddeceit. And for a moment, or two Miss Fortescue felt as if she couldscarcely speak.
"How could they? How _could_ they?" she said to herself. But whenLeila, too, flung herself upon her, in less stormy but still agonisedpenitence, saying over and over again, "I've been as much to blame. Ihave. I was older and I knew how wrong it was. Poor Chrissie--you wereno naughtier than I was," a strange sort of calm, almost of joy, cameover Aunt Margaret.
"The lesson they needed--was this to be it?" she thought. "Oh, if thedarling can yet be restored to us--if only our prayers may be granted."
And the very thought brought hope again, and strength to speak the bestand wisest words to the two broken-hearted little girls--words whichthey never would forget--true in their earnest, even stern, blame of thesmall wrong-doings which had led to greater, yet full of loving sympathyand encouragement.
But the night which followed--of broken sleep and waking to fresh fitsof misery; of miserable dreams, and flashes of hopefulness--gone as soonas they came!--the night was a dreadful one.
"Will the morning never come?" thought Chrissie as she woke for thetwentieth time, to hear Leila's half-stifled sighs and moans beside her.For the morning must bring news--if no better, it must be worse.
And as often happens in such cases, their first _sound_ sleep was afterdawn. And when they opened their weary eyes, Aunt Margaret was standingthere, with, thank God, a smile on her face.
"Yes," she said, before they could ask the question half-choking them."Yes--a shade better. They are hopeful."
CHAPTER TWELVE.
SEA-BREEZES.
And the hopefulness grew. For the improvement continued. That night ofterrible anxiety had brought the crisis and the turning-point in moreways than one!
The news at noon was still good, by the evening better still, andthankfulness beyond words filled the hearts of Aunt Margaret and herlittle grand-nieces. And when the next day, and the days following,saw, in spite of some ups and downs of course, less and still lesseningcause for anxiety, the thankfulness grew and grew and began to bearfruit. Never, I think I may safely say, never, in the course of theirshort lives, had Leila and Christabel been really happier than duringthe weeks they had still to remain at Mrs Greenall's, though the roomswere small and crowded; the food plain, though neatly cooked; thoughthey had to dress themselves and put away their hats and jackets, andeven, now and then, under Aunt Margaret's supervision, sew on a buttonand darn holes in their stockings! There were "ups and downs" in allthis too, of course, as well as in little Jasper's recovery; bad habitsare seldom to be uprooted all at once; they are terribly clinging! Butso, we may gratefully allow, are good ones also--a week of steadyperseverance in doing a right thing, small though it may be, issomething like "compound interest," if you have come to that rule inyour sums. It is really astonishing to find what progress may be madein the time.
"I really think, Auntie, we are beginning to learn to be neater andcarefuller," said Chrissie one Sunday morning when, passing their roomon the way downstairs to go to church, she begged Miss Fortescue to"peep in."
She glanced up brightly as she said it, and her aunt's smile in returnwas bright also. But then Chrissie's face clouded.
"There's only one thing that keeps us miserable," she murmured.
"Yes," Leila agreed; "it always comes over me early in the morning, butChrissie minds it most at night."
"When I say my prayers," whispered Chrissie.
"So we've made a plan," Leila went on, "of not talking--except just whatwe _have_ to, you know, either dressing or undressing."
"A very good plan at all times," said Miss Fortescue, "even when thereis no special reason for it. When I was a child, it was a rule amongus. It keeps tempers and feelings calm and quiet in a wonderful way tobegin and end the day in silence. But what is this one thing thatdistresses you so?"
Both children looked down. Then there came the whisper--"Can't youguess, Auntie? It's Mummy's _not knowing yet_--Mummy and Daddy." MissFortescue stooped to kiss them.
"Dears," she said, "I can give you some comfort. They _do_ know--only aday or two ago I wrote a long letter to your mother. She cannot writeback, as it might bring infection, but she spoke to me out of the windowyesterday. I was to tell you--I was only waiting for a quiet time thisafternoon--to tell you that they both, Daddy and Mummy, send you theirfull and loving forgiveness."
Chrissie drew a deep breath of relief.
"I think God has forgiven us by making Japs get better," she said.
"Need _he_ ever know?" asked Leila.
"Not about the way he caught the illness," said Aunt Margaret. "Wethink it better not. But about the prayer-book, yes. From what youboth told me, that was evidently on his mind, and it will make him happyto know that Chrissie has at last kept what he believed to be a promise.You must not see your mother, dears, before she takes Jasper to theseaside, as the house has to be thoroughly disinfected, but when theygo--next week we hope--she is planning to pass by us on their way to thestation, so that she, and perhaps little Jasper, may nod and smile toyou."
"Auntie," said Leila, "I'm afraid it'll all cost a lot--doing the house,and the doctor and the nurse, and going to the seaside, and even us atMrs Greenall's; and it needn't have been, and we've so little moneynow."
"Yes," replied her aunt. By this time they were on their way to church."Yes, that is true. Still, that is really a small trouble compared towhat might have been, if--" and though she said no more they understood.
She was not one to "pile on the agony" or to tell them how almostoverwhelmingly difficult it was to meet these utterly unlooked-forexpenses.
"They are so young still," she said to herself, "but it is delightful tosee real consideration and thoughtfulness beginning gradually to grow inthem."
The spring, unfortunately, was a cold and late one that year. April wasfairly advanced before the doctor gave leave for Jasper to be taken awayfor change of air, or to do more than walk up and down for a very fewminutes in the best time of the day. A sadly thin and white littlecreature he looked the morning that, as had been promised, thefour-wheeler, with luggage on the top and his mother and himself inside,drove slowly past Mrs Greenall's house, where Leila and Chrissie andAunt Margaret were eagerly on the look-out. Then there were nods andsmiles and kissings of hands--but when the little girls drew their headsin again and shut the window, their aunt was scarcely surprised to seethat there were tears in their eyes.
"He does look _so_ ill," they murmured, "and poor Mummy taking him awayall alone, without a nurse or a maid."
"They will be all right when they get to Seabay," she replied; "forthere they will be at your old nurse's mother's. You have often beenthere--it is so near Fareham. She has a nice little house with tworooms that she lets. It would not have done to go to a hotel, even ifwe could have afforded it, just for fear of any lingering infection,though your mother says Jasper has been bathed and carbolic-ed and Idon't know all what--and their clothes stoved and boiled! In afortnight or so from now, the house will be perfectly safe, and we shallbe able to go back there and make everything nice for them to returnto," she added cheerfully.
But still the children sighed.
"I'm glad they're going to Seabay," said Leila, "only it'll make Mummyrather sad to be so near Fareham and for it not to be ours any more."
"My dears," said their aunt, "I truly do believe that nothing of thatkind could make her sad just now. All her heart is filled withthankfulness--and, my little girls, hopefulness too. She is lookingforward to a happier home life than you have ever yet had, and I do notthink she will be disappointed?"
"We do mean to try," murmured Chrissie, and the way in which the simple,humble words were said showed that the good seed had taken root.
And now, for a little change, we are going to leave Leila and Christabeland their aunt, and travel to Seabay with Jasper and his mother. Afine, mild day had been chosen
for the journey, and if any of you whoread this story have ever known what it was to be very ill and to getbetter again, you can picture to yourselves our little boy's delight atbeing out once more and able to enjoy the _open_ air and the brightspring sunshine. Even the drive in the four-wheeler was full ofpleasure, and once he was comfortably settled in the railway carriage,in a corner by the window, you may be sure his face beamed withsatisfaction.
Yet what a small white face it looked! Full of thankfulness andhopefulness as his mother was, she could scarcely keep back a littlesigh as she glanced at him.
"You are sure you are
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