passed by, walking up and down on the
lawn outside,--I gathered that they were discussing the possibility of
communication with Uncle and Aunt Gordon; and as they came in again
through the school-room, my father said, "You are sure that the crisis
will be over by that time?"

"Quite sure. There is nothing for it now but perfect quiet, the
administration of the medicines and cordials I have prescribed, when
possible, and close watch of all the symptoms. I can assure you I am not
without hope. You may look for me again by ten o'clock."

And so saying, Dr. Wilson drove rapidly off, and my father went back
again to Aleck's room. I think it must have been his planning, that
nurse soon afterwards came down to the school-room and bestowed her
company upon me for quite a long time, entertaining me at first, or
meaning to entertain me, by a wearisome narration about a little boy who
lived nowhere in particular a long time ago; but she wakened up all my
interest when at last, unable to keep off the subject as she had
intended, she gave me a detailed account of my cousin having been put
into the bed in the spare room; and how he had lain so still, she could
scarcely believe her senses he was not dead; and how, when Dr. Wilson
set his arm, the pain of the operation seemed to waken him up for a
moment from the stupor, but he had gone back again almost immediately.
"The doctor said," she added, "that it was the injury to the head that
was of the greatest consequence--the arm was nothing to signify, a mere
simple fracture; as if a broken arm were a mere nothing. I should like
to know whether, _if his own_ were broken, he would call it a simple
fracture, and say it didn't signify!" And nurse looked righteously
indignant, and as if she would be rather glad than otherwise for Dr.
Wilson to meet with an accident, and learn, by personal experience, the
true measure of insignificance or importance attaching to a broken limb.
Remembering, however, at this point, the inconvenience which might
result to ourselves from such a catastrophe, she retreated from the
position, and took to speculating what the doctor's views were likely to
be with reference to his night accommodation; whether he would go
"between sheets," or merely lie down on the sofa, and what motives might
be likely to influence him towards either decision; reasoning it all out
to me as if I had been grown-up.

In fact, one of the peculiar sensations which are stamped upon every