“I think I do,” he said. “By the way, do you know I think I could smoke.”
“Oh, splendid!” she cried, and, springing up, she searched through his coat pockets, found pipe, pouch, matches, and soon he had his pipe going. “There, that looks more like living,” said Kathleen, laughing somewhat hysterically. “Oh, you did frighten me!” Again the red flush came into her face and she turned away from him.
“There they are coming. Sure enough, they are coming,” she cried with a sob in her voice.
“Steady, Kathleen,” said Jack quietly. “You won't blow up now, will you? You have been so splendid! Can you hold on?”
She drew a deep breath, stood for a minute or two in perfect silence, and then she said, “I can and I will. I am quite right now.”
Of course they exclaimed and stared and even wept a bit--at least the ladies did--but Jack's pipe helped out amazingly, and, indeed, he had recovered sufficient strength to walk unhelped to the car. And while Tom sent the Packard humming along the smooth, resilient road he kept up with Nora and his sister a rapid fire of breezy conversation till they reached their own door. It was half an hour before Tom could bring the doctor, during which time they discussed the accident in all its bearings and from every point of view.
“I am glad it was not I who was with you,” declared Nora. “I cannot stand blood, and I certainly should have fainted, and what would you have done then?”
“Not you,” declared Jack. “That sort of thing does not go with your stock. God knows what would have happened to me if I had had a silly fool with me, for the blood was pumping out all over me. But, thank God, I had a woman with a brave heart and clever hands.”
When the doctor came, Mrs. Waring-Gaunt went in to assist him, but when the ghastly bloody spectacle lay bare to her eyes she found herself grow weak and hurried to the kitchen where the others were.
“Oh, I am so silly,” she said, “but I am afraid I cannot stand the sight of it.”
Kathleen sprang at once to her feet. “Is there no one there?” she demanded with a touch of impatience in her voice, and passed quickly into the room, where she stayed while the doctor snipped off the frayed patches of skin and flesh and tied up the broken arteries, giving aid with quick fingers and steady hands till all was over.