Page:Robins - My Little Sister.djvu/38

26 for the hunting. If the people had children, they were of palpitating interest to us, even though we never saw much of the children.

Sometimes the fathers and mothers scraped acquaintance with our mother.

If they had seen the Brighton doctor driving up to our door, they would stop to ask how my mother was.

The doctor was a grim man with a stiff grey beard. He said my mother ought to have a nurse. She said she had me.

That was the proudest moment of my childhood.

I had to try very hard not to be glad when she was ill. It was such delight to nurse her. And after all, the only thing she herself seemed to mind about being ill was not having Bettina always with her.

Bettina was too little to understand that one must be quiet in a sick room.

In any case Bettina never wanted to stay indoors. So she would escape, and run about the garden, singing. My mother made us wheel her bed to the window that she might look out. She would lie there, watching Bettina play at