"IF the Miss Burtons could see me!" she said. "Oh, I've managed
everything so beautifully; they think I'm spending a fortnight at
Katoomba--oh, BUNTY, you ought to see the curls Miss Marian Burton
wears plastered at each side of her cheeks!" She broke off,
laughing almost hysterically, and then coughing till the tears came
back in her eyes.
"Do go and get me something to eat," she said crossly, when she got
her breath--"you might remember I've had nothing to eat since
yesterday morning; only you always were selfish, Bunty."
He got up and moved away in a great hurry. "What could you eat?
what shall I get?" he said, and put one leg down the trap-door.
"Anything so long as it's a lot," she said--"ANYTHING!--I feel I
could eat this straw, and crunch up the beams as if they were
biscuits. I declare I've had to keep my eyes off you, Bunty;
you're so fat I keep longing to pick your bones."
Her eyes shone with a spark of their old fun, but then she began to
cough again, and, after the paroxysm had passed, lay back exhausted.
"Do fetch same of the others," she called faintly, as his head was
disappearing. "You're not much good alone, you know."
His head bobbed back a moment, and he tried to smile away the pain
her words gave him, for just at that minute he would have died for
her without a murmur.
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