Page:Possession (Roche, February 1923).pdf/278



may have been standing about on the ice so long that gave Derek a cold (he wandered there an hour or more after Grace had left him) but, whatever it was, the cold appeared, manifesting itself in flashes of heat and chills, and, worst of all, a toothache. He did not sleep much all night because of the toothache, and when morning came his one thought was to be rid of the tooth.

He did not like leaving Buckskin for so long, but he had a way of barricading him with chairs on the couch in the dining room that had answered very well when he had gone to visit Hobbs. After breakfast he imprisoned him thus, gave him Pegleg to play with, a bottle of milk and two biscuits for refreshment, and left Jock on the foot of the couch for company.

The ride to Brancepeth made him feel better, the invigorating air, the light rise and fall in the stirrups, the feel of the well-groomed horse beneath him.

By the time he was sitting in the waiting-room of the dentist's office the tooth was not aching at all, nevertheless he was determined to have it out.

There was a patient in the chair, so he was obliged to wait. He felt nervous about Buckskin. He stared through the dingy window at the shops across the way. There was the milliner's where Fawnie had come out on the step to show him the new hat. Fawnie. She should be at home now minding Buckskin—the baggage!