Kit muttered something indistinctly, and she went on talking in her soft voice. 'The child has got into her head that you have done something to the Doctor, so I want you to assure her that it is all right. Will you, Kit dear?'
'I'm the biggest brute,' burst out the boy, 'that ever----'
'Nonsense!' said Jill, putting her hand over his mouth. Then she opened the door of Barbara's room and they went in.
Auntie Anna was sitting by the child, trying to soothe her.
'Bless your little heart!' she was saying as they entered. 'There's nothing the matter with the Doctor, my dear. What makes you think such a thing, eh?'
'You don't understand,' said the little fretful voice from the bed. 'Kit said--Kit said----'
Christopher pushed Jill on one side, and suddenly knew what he had got to do.
'That's all right, Babe; I was only rotting,' he said bluntly, and patted the hot little hand that lay on the counterpane.
The bright, wistful eyes were fixed searchingly on his face. 'But you've sent him wandering seven times round the world,' she murmured wearily. 'You said you had, Kit.'
'It's all right, Babe,' said Kit, again. 'He's come back now. I've just seen him.'
He only partly understood what she was talking about, but he seemed to know how to satisfy her, and the others drew back and left him to do it alone.
'You've seen him?' asked Babs, wonderingly. 'But----'
'You see,' said Kit, desperately, 'it doesn't take long to get round the world seven times, when--when you've got a smart little cob like his!'
The worried look faded out of the child's face, and she smiled for the first time. 'That isn't the reason, Kit,' she told him. 'It is because he was once a fairy prince.'
The bright little eyes were closing sleepily, and the aching bandaged head fell sideways on the pillow.
'He has only got to kill the giant and rescue the princess now,' she whispered contentedly. And Kit went on stroking her hand till she was sound asleep.
Barbara was none the worse for her relapse, and she made such a good recovery in the weeks that followed, that the Doctor decided she could be moved to Crofts on the last day of the holidays. Miss Finlayson vowed she had never enjoyed her Easter holidays so much before for she had persuaded Auntie Anna and the boys to remain her guests the whole time, to save her, as she said, from the horrible feeling of loneliness that always seized her as soon as the last fly went down the drive with the last box on the top of it, and the last girl sitting inside. 'At my age,' she told them laughingly, 'it is not safe to be left alone. Who knows that I might not begin talking about rheumatism and nerves, if I had a whole month to think about myself?' And Auntie Anna, who never talked about rheumatism by any chance, though it had bent her back for her ten years ago, nodded her head wisely like the old witch that she was, and consented to remain at Wootton Beeches with her adopted daughter and her noisy young nephews until Barbara was well enough to be taken home. The boys, for their part, enjoyed themselves every bit as well as if they had been at Crofts; for Finny was first-rate company as long as she was with them, and she contrived at the same time to leave them to themselves just as much as they wished to be left. And staying at a girls' school was by no means such poor fun as might have been expected; for it was big enough for them to make as much noise in it as they pleased without disturbing anybody, while they had the run of a capital gymnasium, and, as soon as their bicycles had been brought from Crofts, could explore the country for miles round as well. Altogether, the Easter holidays were a great success, and there were many groans when the month came to an end, and school once more threatened to darken the joy of their existence.