The
place agrees with Fordham; they say he has never been so well or
active since he came out."
"What is he like?" inquired Babie.
"Like, Babie? Like anything long and limp you can think of. He sits
all in a coil and twist, and you don't think there's much of him; but
when he gets up and pulls himself upright, you go looking and looking
till you don't know where's the top of him, till you see a thin white
face in washed-out hair. He is a good fellow, awfully kind, and I
suppose he can't help being such a tremendous-—" John hesitated, in
deference to his father, for a word that was not slang, and finally
chose "don."
"Oh," sighed Babie, "Armie said in his note he was jolly beyond
description."
"Well, so he is," said John; "he plays chess with Armie, and brings
him flowers and books, and waits on him as you used to do on a sick
doll. And that's just what he is; he ought to have been a woman, and
he would have been much happier too, poor fellow. I'd rather be dead
at once than drag about such a life of coddling as he does."
"Poor lad!" said his father. "Did Janet understand that I was
waiting for those letters, I wonder?"
"You had better go and see, Babie," said Miss Ogilvie. "Perhaps she
cannot find them."
Babie set off, and John proceeded to explain that Mrs.
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