She marched out of the door and closed it behind her, and there to her
great astonishment she found the trained nurse standing as if she had
been listening and, more amazing still she was laughing. She was a big
handsome young woman who ought not to have been a trained nurse at all,
as she could not bear invalids and she was always making excuses to
leave Colin to Martha or anyone else who would take her place. Mary had
never liked her, and she simply stood and gazed up at her as she stood
giggling into her handkerchief..
What are you laughing at? she asked her.
At you two young ones, said the nurse. It s the best thing that
could happen to the sickly pampered thing to have someone to stand up
to him that s as spoiled as himself; and she laughed into her
handkerchief again. If he d had a young vixen of a sister to fight
with it would have been the saving of him.
Is he going to die?
I don t know and I don t care, said the nurse. Hysterics and temper
are half what ails him.
What are hysterics? asked Mary.
You ll find out if you work him into a tantrum after this but at any
rate you ve given him something to have hysterics about, and I m glad
of it.
Mary went back to her room not feeling at all as she had felt when she
had come in from the garden. She was cross and disappointed but not at
all sorry for Colin. She had looked forward to telling him a great many
things and she had meant to try to make up her mind whether it would be
safe to trust him with the great secret. She had been beginning to
think it would be, but now she had changed her mind entirely. She would
never tell him and he could stay in his room and never get any fresh
air and die if he liked! It would serve him right! She felt so sour and
unrelenting that for a few minutes she almost forgot about Dickon and
the green veil creeping over the world and the soft wind blowing down
from the moor.
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