212520_The_Adve ... _Way_Through_The_World.pdf - OUDL Home

618 THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP
During Charlotte's fever and illness, the Little Sister had left
her but for one day, when her patient was quiet, and pronounced to
be mending. It appears that Mrs. Charlotte was very ill indeed
on this occasion; so ill that Dr. Goodenough thought she might
have given us all the slip : so ill that, but for Brandon, she would,
in all probability, have escaped out of this troublous world, and left
Philip and her orphaned little ones. Charlotte mended then : could
take food, and liked it, and was specially pleased with some chickens
which her nurse informed her were " from the country." " From
Sir John Ringwood, no doubt ?" said Mrs. Firmin, remembering
the presents sent from Berkeley Square, and the mutton and the
turnips.
" Well, eat and be thankful !" says the Little Sister, who was
as gay as a little sister could be, and who had prepared a beautiful
bread sauce for the fowl ; and who had tossed the baby, and who
showed it to its admiring brother and sister ever so many times ;
and who saw that Mr. Philip had his dinner comfortable ; and who
never took so much as a drop of porter—at home a little glass
sometimes was comfortable, but on duty, never, never ! No, not if
Dr. Goodenough ordered it ! she vowed. And the Doctor wished
he could say as much, or believe as much, of all his nurses.
Mihnan Street is such a quiet little street that our friends had
not carpeted it in the usual way; and three days after her temporary
absence, as Nurse Brandon sits by her patient's bed, powdering the
back of a small pink infant that makes believe to swim upon her
apron, a rattle of wheels is heard in the quiet street—of four wheels,
of one horse, of a jingling carriage, which stops before Philip's door.
" It's the trap," says Nurse Brandon, delighted. " It must be
those kind Ringwoods," says Mrs. Philip. "But stop, Brandon.
Did not they, did not we ?—oh, how kind of them !" She was
trying to recall the past. Past and present for days had been
strangely mingled in her fevered brain. " Hush, my dear ! you
are to be kep' quite still," says the nurse—and then proceeded to
finish the polishing and powdering of the pink frog on her lap.
The bedroom window was open towards the sunny street : but
Mrs. Philip did not hear a female voice say, " 'Old the 'orse's 'ead,
Jim," or she might have been agitated. The horse's head was held,
and a gentleman and a lady with a great basket containing peas,
butter, greens, flowers, and other rural produce, descended from the
vehicle, and rang at the bell.
Philip opened it; with his little ones, as usual, trotting at
his knees.
" Why, my darlings, how you air grown !" cries the lady.
"Bygones be bygones. Give us your 'and, Firmin: here's