Then it seemed to clear away, and common sense reigned for a few brief moments while he stumbled out of the car and staggered into Miss Marilla’s parlor and into the warmth and cheer of that good woman’s almost tearful, affectionate welcome.
“I want you to take that,” he said, hoarsely pressing into her hand the roll of bills he had got at the bank; and then he slid down into a big chair, and everything whirled away again.
Miss Marilla stood aghast, looking at the money and then at the sick soldier, till Mary Amber took command. He never remembered just what happened, nor knew how he got up-stairs and into the great warm, kind bed again, with hot-broth being fed him, and hot-water bags in places needing them. He did not hear them call the doctor on the telephone, nor know just when Mary Amber slipped away down to her car again and rode away.
But Mary Amber knew that this was the afternoon when _The Purling Brook Chronicle_ went to press, and she had an item that must get in. Quite demurely she handed the envelope to the woman editor just as she was preparing to mail the last of her copy to the printer in the city. The item read: “Miss Marilla Chadwick, of Shirley Road, is entertaining over the week-end Sergeant Lyman Gage, of Chicago, but just returned from France. Sergeant Gage is a member of the same division and came over in the same ship with Miss Chadwick’s nephew, Lieutenant Richard Chadwick, of whom mention has been made in a former number, and has seen long and interesting service abroad.”
Mary Amber was back at the house almost before she had been missed and just as the doctor arrived, ready to serve in any capacity whatever.
“Do you think I ought to introduce him to the doctor?” asked Miss Marilla of Mary in an undertone at the head of the stairs, while the doctor was divesting himself of his big fur overcoat. She had a drawn anxious look like one about to be found out in a crime.
“He doesn’t look to me as if he were able to acknowledge the introduction,” said Mary with a glance in at the spare bed, where the young man lay sleeping heavily and breathing noisily.
“That’s all right, Auntie Rill,” said Mary easily; “I told him his name was Gage when I phoned, and said he was in the same division with your nephew. It isn’t necessary for you to say anything about it.”