In other countries there are earthquakes, but the
people forget all about them until the shock comes, and the houses
begin to topple over their heads."
"You are right, no doubt," Rupert said. "But to a stranger the
feeling, at first, of living over a great quicksand, is not
altogether pleasant.
"Tomorrow the doctor says I may leave my room. My own idea is that
I need never have been kept there at all."
"If there had been any great occasion for you to have moved about,
no doubt you might have done so," Maria said; "but you might have
thrown back your cure, and instead of your bones knitting well and
soundly, as the leech says they are in a fair way to do, you might
have made but a poor recovery. Dear me, what impatient creatures
boys are!"
"No, indeed I am not impatient," Rupert said. "You have all made me
so comfortable and happy, that I should indeed be ungrateful were I
to be impatient. I only want to be about again that I may spare you
some of the trouble which you bestow upon me."
"Yes, that is all very well and very pretty," Maria said, laughing;
"but I know that you are at heart longing to be off to join your
regiment, and take part in all their marching and fighting. Do you
know, an officer who came here with you after that terrible fight
near Antwerp, told me that you covered yourself with glory there?"
"I covered myself with mud," Rupert laughed. "Next day, when I had
dried a little, I felt as if I had been dipped in dough and then
baked.
Pages:
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162