"Have I been asleep?" he asked, looking at his watch. Only ten
minutes since I looked last? Well, now I am all right."
"You will be when you have eaten this," said Lord Fordham.
Johnny obeyed, and ate with relish.
"There!" said he; "now I am ready for anything."
"Don't get up yet. I'll go and order a horse for you."
When Lord Fordham came back from doing so, he found his patient
really fast asleep, and with a little colour coming into the pale
cheeks. He stole back, bade that the pony should wait, went on
writing his letter, and waited till one hour, two, three hours had
passed, and at last the sleeper woke, greatly disgusted, willing to
accept the bath which Lord Fordham advised him to take, and which
made him quite himself again.
"You'll let me go now," he said. "I can walk as well as ever."
"You will be of more use now, if you ride," said Lord Fordham.
"There, I hear our luncheon coming in. You must eat while the pony
is coming round."
"If it won't lose time-—thank you," said Johnny, recovered enough now
to know how hungry he was, "But I ought not to have stayed away. My
aunt has no one but me."
"And you can really help her?" said Lord Fordham, with some
experience of his brother's uselessness.
"Not well, of course," said Johnny; "but it is better than nobody;
and Armine is so patient and so good, that I'm the more afraid.
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