He had deposited the excited animal on the bed, and in the
course of its frantic gambols it overbalanced and fell sprawling to the
floor on its back. The ancient canopied bed was high, and the puppy was
frightened as well as hurt, and lifted up its voice in anguished yells.
When Michael had rescued it, and put it outside the door and finished
laughing, he came back to find Arithelli weeping helplessly with her face
buried in the pillow. His alarmed suggestion that he should fetch Emile
helped her to recover more quickly than any amount of sympathy could have
done.
Sometimes there were other visitors. The grooms and strappers from the
Hippodrome came often to enquire, and Estelle, forbidden by the Manager
to come at all on account of infection, sat on the stairs and showered
effusive speeches in a high-pitched voice through the open door.
Arithelli had sent no word of her illness to her parents in London. She
knew their views on the subject of complaints. They would consider the
whole thing due to imagination, there would be unpleasant letters, and it
was perfectly certain that they would send no assistance in the shape of
money.
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