But she protested that she had only come for a few minutes to ask
about David. "I must go right home," she said nervously.
"No, no. You can't get away,--oh!" he broke off excitedly--"here he
is!" Dr. Lavendar's eagerness at the sight of the little boy who came
running up the garden path, his hurry to open the front door and bring
him into the study to present him to Mrs. Richie, fussing and proud
and a little tremulous, would have touched her, if she had noticed
him. But she did not notice him,--the child absorbed her. She could
not leave him. Before she knew it she found herself taking off her
bonnet and saying she would stay to tea.
"David," said Dr. Lavendar, "I've got a bone in my leg; so you run and
get me a clean pocket-handkerchief."
"Can I go up-stairs like a crocodile?" said David.
"Certainly, if it affords you the slightest personal satisfaction,"
Dr. Lavendar told him; and while the little boy crawled laboriously on
his stomach all the way up-stairs, Dr. Lavendar talked about him. He
said he thought the child had been homesick just at first; he had
missed his sister Janey. "He told me 'Janey' gave him 'forty kisses'
every night," said Dr. Lavendar; "I thought that told a story--" At
that moment the crocodile, holding a handkerchief between his teeth,
came rapidly, head foremost, down-stairs. Dr. Lavendar raised a
cautioning hand;--"Mustn't talk about him, now!"
There was a quality in that evening that was new to Helena; it was
dull, of course;--how very dull Lloyd would have found it! A childlike
old man asking questions with serious simplicity of a little boy who
was full of his own important interests and anxieties;--the feeding of
Danny, and the regretful wonder that in heaven, the little dog would
not be "let in."
"Who said he wouldn't?" Dr. Lavendar demanded, fiercely, while Danny
yawned with embarrassment at hearing his own name.
"You read about heaven in the Bible," David said, suddenly shy; "an'
it said outside were dogs;--an' some other animals I can't remember
the names of."
Dr. Lavendar explained with a twinkle that shared with his visitor the
humor of those "other animals" itemized in the Revelations. It was a
very mild humor; everything was mild at the Rectory; the very air
seemed gentle! There was no apprehension, no excitement, no
antagonism; only the placid commonplace of goodness and affection.
Helena could not remember such an evening in all her life. And the
friendship between youth and age was something she had never dreamed
of. She saw David slip from his chair at table, and run around to Dr.
Lavendar's side to reach up and whisper in his ear,--oh, if he would
but put his cheek against hers, and whisper in her ear!