Townsend was taken to the San~ She opened the door and Matron beckoned her in, seeing at once that she was Joan’s mother.
“She’s asleep,” she whispered. “Come over here and sit by the bed till she wakes.” Mrs. Townsend sat beside the bed. She looked at Joan. The little girl was thin and pale, and her sleeping face was so unhappy that her mother couldn’t bear it, She leant over Joan and kissed her gently on the cheek.
Joan awoke and stared up. Her large eyes grew larger as she saw her mother, She looked at her for a moment and then spoke, “Are you really here? Was it you who kissed me?” “Of course,” said Mrs. Townsend, with tears in her eyes. “Poo~ little Joan! I was so very sorry to hear you were ill.” Joan’s mother put her arms round her little girl and hugged her. Joan flung her arms round her mother’s neck in delight.
“Oh, Mother! I didn’t want you to come! But now I’m so happy!” “I’m sorry I didn’t remember your birthday, darling,” said Mrs. Townsend. “I think we’ve got a few things to say to one another. Why didn’t you want me to come?” “Because-because-oh, because I didn’t think you would be pleased that somebody pretended to be you and sent me things,” said Joan. “I was afraid of seeing you.” “Now listen, Joan; I want to tell you something,” said Mrs. Townsend, sitting on the bed and cuddling Joan beside her. And she began to tell the little girl of her lost brother. “You see, I grieved so much for him, that I almost forgot I had a little daughter to make up for him,” said Mrs. Townsend in a trembling voice. “You have always been so quiet and timid too, Joan-.– you never asked for things, never pushed yourself for’. ward. So I never knew that you minded so much. You didn’t say a word.” “I couldn’t,” said Joan, “But I’m very happy now, Mother. This is the biggest surprise of my life. I understand things now! I do wish you had told me before. But it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters now that I’ve got you close beside me, and I know you really do love me, and won’t forget me again.” “I will never forget you,” said Mrs. Townsend. “I didn’t think you minded at all-hut now that 1 know what you have been thinking, I shall be the kind of mother you want. But you must hurry up and get better, mustn’t you?” “Oh, I feel much, much better already,” said Joan. And indeed she looked quite different. When Matron came in, she was surprised to see such a happy-looking child.
“I shall want lots of dinner to-day!” said Joan. “Because Mother is going to have it with me, Matron, and she wants to see how much I can eat!” As they were eating their dinner together they talked about Elizabeth. “I guessed that it was Elizabeth who sent those things, when you said it wasn’t you,” said Joan. “It was just the sort of mad, kind thing she would do! You know, Mother, she’s the first real friend I’ve had, and I think she’s splendid, though the first weeks she was here she was really the naughtiest, rudest girl in the school. The sad thing is-she’s made up her mind to go at half-term, so I shan’t have her very much longer.” “I want to see Elizabeth,” said Mrs. Townsend. “She wrote me such a funny, sad letter. If it hadn’t been for her letter, and what she did for your birthday, we shouldn’t have come to understand one another as we now do, Joan! And although she thinks she did a very wrong thing, somehow or other it has come right, because she really did mean to be kind.” “Matron! Do you think Elizabeth might come and see me whilst my mother is here?” asked Joan, when Matron came in to take her temperature.
“We’ll see what your temperature is doing,” said Matron, pleased to see the empty plates. She slipped the thermometer into Joan’s mouth. She waited a minute and then took it out again.
“Good gracious! Just below normal!” she said. “You are getting better quickly! Yes-I think Elizabeth might come. I’ll send for her.” Elizabeth was practising her duet with Richard when the message came. One of the school maids brought it.
“Mrs. Townsend is in the San. with Joan and says she would like to see you,” said the maid. “Matron says you can go for twenty minutes.” Elizabeth’s heart sank. So Mrs. Townsend had come to the school! She had got her letter-and now she was here, and wanted to see Elizabeth! “I don’t want to go to the San,” said Elizabeth. “Oh dear-isn’t there any excuse I can make?” “But I thought Joan was your friend?” said Richard in surprise.
“She is,” said Elizabeth, “but you see-oh dear, I can’t possibly explain. Things have just gone wrong, that’s all.” The little girl put her music away, looking glum. “Cheer up!” said Richard. “Things aren’t so bad when you go and face them properly!” “Well, I’ll face them all right,” said Elizabeth, throwing her curls back. “I wonder what’s going to happen to me now?” CHAPTER 22.
Rita talks to Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH went to the San. Matron was just coming out, smiling.
“How is Joan now?” asked Elizabeth. “Much better!” said Matron, “We shall soon have her out and about again now.” “Oh, good,” said Elizabeth, “Can I go in?” “Yes,” said Matron. “You can stay for twenty minutes, till afternoon school, Talk quietly, and don’t excite Joan at all.” Elizabeth went in. She shut the door quietly behind her, Joan was lying in a white bed under a big sunny window, and Mrs. Townsend was sitting beside her.
“And is this Elizabeth?” asked Mrs. Townsend with a welcoming smile. Elizabeth went forward and shook hands, thinking that Mrs. Townsend didn’t look very angry after all. She bent over and kissed her friend.
“I’m so glad you’re better, Joan,” she said. “I do miss you.” “Do you really?” said Joan, pleased. “I’ve missed you too.” “Come here, Elizabeth,” said Mrs. Townsend, drawing Elizabeth to her. “I want to thank you for your letter. I was so surprised to get it-and I know it must have been hard to write.” “Yes, it was,” said Elizabeth, “I was awfully afraid you would be angry with me when you got it, Mrs. Townsend. I meant to make Joan so happy on her birthday-and I didn’t think she’d find out it wasn’t you who sent the things! I know it was a silly thing to do, now.” “Never mind,” said Joan’s mother. “It has made things come right in the end!” “Have they come right?” asked Elizabeth in surprise, looking from Joan to her mother.
“Very right,” said Mrs. Townsend, smiling. “Joan will tell you all we have said, one day, and you will understand how they went wrong. But now I want to tell you that I am very, very glad Joan has such a kind little friend. I know she will be much happier at WhyEeleafe now that she has you. It is so horrid to have no friends at all.” “Oh, Elizabeth, I do so wish you were staying on at Whyteleafe,” sighed Joan, taking her friend’s hand, “Couldn’t you possibly, possibly stay?” “Don’t ask me to, Joan,” said Elizabeth. “You know I’ve made up my mind to go, and it’s feeble to change your mind once you’ve made it up! I’ve said I shall go, and if the Meeting says I can, I shall go back with my parents when they come to see me at half-term.” “Do you think you will be able to come and see me at half-term?” asked Joan, turning to her mother.
“Yes, I will,” answered Mrs. Townsend. “I hope by then that you will be up and about, and we will go to the next town, and spend the day there, Joan.” “Oh, good,” said Joan happily. It was the first time her mother had ever come to take her out at half-term, and the little girl was delighted. “I shall get better quickly now, so that I shall be ready for you at halfterm!” A bell rang in the school. Elizabeth got up quickly.
“That’s my bell,” she said. “I must go. Good-bye, Mrs.
Townsend, and thank you for being so nice about my letter. Good-bye, Joan. I’m so glad you’re happy. I’ll come and see you again if Matron will let me.” She ran off. Mrs. Townsend turned to Joan, “She’s a very nice child,” she said. “How funny that she should have been so naughty at first-and what a pity she wants to leave! She’s just the sort of girl that Whyteleafe School would be proud of.” Elizabeth thought of Rita as she sat in class that afternoon, doing her painting. “I told Rita I would go to her as soon as I had an answer to my letter,” she thought, “Well-I haven’t exactly had an answer-and yet I do know the answer, because Mrs. Townsend came herself and told me!” She wondered if she should go to Rita after tea. What should she tell her? She didn’t know! She need not have worried herself. Miss Belle and Miss Best had sent for Rita that day, and had told her about Elizabeth, and her queer letter to Joan’s mother.