'Please, will it quite ruin father?' asked Dolores, who had not out-
grown childish confusion about large sums of money.
'Not exactly, my dear. It was more than he had in the bank, and Uncle
Regie thinks the bankers will undertake part of the loss if he will let
them. It is more inconvenient than ruinous.'
'Ah!' There was a faintness and oppression in the sound which made
Lady Merrifield think the girl ought not to be left, and before long,
sickness came on. Nurse Halfpenny had to be called up, and it was one
o'clock before there was a quiet, comfortable sleep, which satisfied
the aunt and nurse that it was safe to repair to their own beds again.
The dreary, undefined self-reproach and vague alarms, intensified by
the sullen, reserved temper, and culminating in such a shock,
alienating the only persons she cared for, and filling her with terror
for the future, could not but have a physical effect, and Dolores was
found on the morrow with a bad head-ache, and altogether in a state to
be kept in bed, with a fire in her room.
Gillian and Mysie were much impressed by the intelligence of their
cousin's illness when they came to their mother's room on the way to
breakfast, and Mysie turned to her sister, saying, 'There Gill, you see
she did care, though she didn't cry like us. Being ill is more than
crying.'
'Well,' said Gillian, 'it is a good deal more than such things as you
and Val cry for, Mysie.'
'It was a trial such as you don't understand, my dears,' said Lady
Merrifield.
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