"This is for Felix and Betty, as well as for myself, father," he
said pleadingly. "They feel just as badly as I do about you, but we
thought 'twas best for one to speak for the three; and I being the
eldest,--you understand?"
"Yes," papa said gently, "I understand."
As the door closed behind Phil, papa called me. "Jack," he said, in a
weak voice, "it seems to me that Miss Appleton is gone a good while;
perhaps you had better give me something,--I think I am tired."
My! didn't I get nervous! There was nothing on the table but bottles and
a medicine glass; I didn't know any more than the man in the moon what
to give him, and I didn't like to ask him. I was pretty sure he didn't
know; and besides, he had shut his eyes. I caught up one of the bottles
and uncorked and smelled it without in the least knowing what I intended
doing next. How I did wish the nurse would come! Just then some one
came into the room, and when I turned quickly, expecting to see Miss
Appleton, who was it but _Betty_!
Well, I was so surprised, I nearly dropped the bottle. But she didn't
even look at me; she just marched up to papa and began talking.
She stood a little distance from the bed,--she said afterward she was
afraid to go nearer for fear she'd shake the bed, or fall on it,--with
her hands behind her back, and she just rattled off what she had to say
as if she'd been "primed," as Phil calls it.
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