Nurse Elisia Part 50

"No, my dear; you are the elder, and I ask you. Time after time I've had nice things got ready, and you have refused to dine with us. Now promise me you will come this evening."

"Oh, very well, Aunt, if it will please you."

"Thank you, my dear; that's very good of you. It will please me very much."

"That's right, then. And, by the way, Aunt, I shall be going back in a few days."

"Going back, my dear?"

"Yes; my father can be left now."

"Then the nurse will go with you?" she said, with a look of suspicion in her eyes.

"No, Aunt," he said coldly. "Nurse Elisia will stay here as long as my father desires to have her at his side."

"Oh, very well," said Aunt Anne, rustling her dress; "it is just as your father likes. You are a terribly headstrong race, you Elthornes."

"Including yourself, Aunt?"

"Oh, no, my dear. I take after my mother's family. But it is nothing to me. I am not going to interfere. All I say is that I hope everything is for the best."

"And I hope the same, Aunt," said Neil cheerfully. "It's all self-denial through life, eh?"

"Always, my dear. Then you will dress to-night, and come?"

"Oh, yes, Aunt; I'll come."

"Then we shall have a decent dinner," thought Aunt Anne, as she went back to the drawing room. "I'm sorry that woman is not going, but I'm glad she is not going up with Neil. Now suppose, after all, he is giving her up! Oh, if I could only get poor Alison to be as sensible, instead of growing more infatuated by that creature every day!"

Neil settled down to his books at once, seeking in study for the cure of his mental pains, but he had hardly begun to forget the events of the morning in an abstruse theory of muscular disease, when there was another tap on the panel, and in obedience to the cry, "Come in!"

Isabel hurriedly entered and closed the door.

"Ah, my dear!" he said; and she looked at him wonderingly, his tone and manner were so different to their wont. This gave her encouragement, and begat her confidence, so that she ran to him, sank on her knees by his chair, and took his hands.

"Why, what's this?" he cried. "Anything the matter?"

"Yes, Neil, dear," she said. "I'm in trouble, and I want you to help me."

"Trouble? Help? Well, what is it, baby?"

"Don't laugh at me, Neil," she whispered in a broken voice. "Sir Cheltnam Burwood is coming to dinner."

"Yes. Aunt has just been to tell me. What of that?"

"What of that?" she cried piteously. "Oh, Neil, dear, you don't see all this as I do. It is so that he may see and talk to me. It is Aunt's doing, and she says it is only carrying out poor papa's wishes."

"Ah, yes," he said thoughtfully. "I had almost forgotten that."

"Forgotten it?" she cried reproachfully. "Oh, Neil!"

"I'm a selfish fellow, little one," he said, bending down to kiss her, when her arms were flung round his neck, and she buried her face in his breast and burst into tears.

"Come, come, come!" he whispered soothingly; "what is it, Bel darling?

There, wipe your eyes and tell me all about it, and let's see if something cannot be done."

"Yes, Neil, dear. It's very weak and foolish of me, but Sir Cheltnam's coming, and he quite persecutes me with his addresses, and if I am angry he only laughs. He talks to me as if I quite belonged to him now."

"Does he? Well, we must stop that, Bel. You are not his wife yet."

"No, dear; and I've no one to come to but you and Nurse Elisia. She is so kind, but what can she do?" Neil frowned.

"Ah, yes," he said huskily, "what can she do?"

"I believe I should have broken my heart if she had not been so loving and kind to me."

"Loving and kind?"

"Yes; I used to hate her, Neil, but she is so good and dear."

Neil half turned away his head.

"Neil, darling, you can help me to-night. When papa is quite strong enough I am going to beg and pray of him to let me stay at home and be his nurse and attendant. I love Tom, but I won't ask to marry him if papa says no. But I can't marry anyone else. I don't want to, and it would kill me to have to say `I will' to that dreadful man."

"Poor little darling!" he said tenderly. "Then you shall not. Father must listen to reason by and by. I can think about you now, and I will."

"Oh, Neil, you have made me so happy," she cried ecstatically. Then, changing her manner directly, "But he's coming to-night."

"Well, what of that? You must be cool to him."

"But he does not mind that, and Aunt is sure to arrange to leave us alone. I know she has planned it all with him."

"Ah!"

"Yes, I am sure of it; and if you would watch for me, and as soon as Aunt has left us alone come and put a stop to it by staying with me, I should be so grateful."

"What a duty for a surgeon, Bel!"

"It is to heal a sore heart, Neil," she said, smiling through her tears.

"Is it, pet? Well, then, I will try what I can do. Some people ought to be made happy in this weary world."

"But it isn't a weary world, Neil," she cried enthusiastically. "It's a lovely world, and I could be so happy in it, if--"

"Yes, Bel," he said sadly; "and I could be so happy in it too, if--"

"People did not make it a miserable world," cried Isabel.

They were silent for a few minutes, and then the girl continued: