"Two of you! Isn't one enough?"
Mrs. Tams vanished.
"Heath took charge of the bikes," Louis murmured, as if to the
ceiling.
Over half an hour elapsed before the gate creaked.
"There he is!" Rachel exclaimed happily. After having conceived a
hundred different tragic sequels to the accident, she was lifted by
the mere creak of the gate into a condition of pure optimism, and
she realized what a capacity she had for secretly being a ninny in an
unexpected crisis. But she thought with satisfaction: "Anyhow, I don't
show it. That's one good thing!" She was now prepared to take oath
that she had not for one moment been _really_ anxious about
Louis. Her demeanour, as she stated the case to the doctor, was a
masterpiece of tranquil unconcern.
III
Dr. Yardley said that he was in a hurry--that, in fact, he ought to
have been quite elsewhere at the time. He was preoccupied, and showed
no sympathy with the innocent cyclist who had escaped the fatal
menace of hoofs. When Rachel offered him the torn linen, he silently
disdained it, and, opening a small bag which he had brought with
him, produced therefrom a roll of cotton-wool in blue paper, and
a considerable quantity of sticking-plaster on a brass reel.
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