"Don't be afraid, Amy," he said, in a low tone.
"I'll go with you," she assented, cordially, "and I cannot think of
anything that would make my birthday more complete."
"I'll be ready in an hour," he said, flushing with pleasure, and he went up
to his room two steps at a time.
Burt's mental processes during the past few weeks had been characteristic,
and would have amused Amy had she been fully aware of them. As Webb
surmised, his fever had to run its course, but after its crisis had passed
he rapidly grew rational. Moreover, in his mother, and indeed in Amy
herself, he had the best of physicians. At first he was very penitent, and
not a little chagrined at his course. As days went by, however, and it was
not referred to by word or sign on the part of the family, his nervous
apprehension passed away. He thought he detected a peculiar twinkle in
Leonard's eyes occasionally, but it might have resulted from other causes.
Still Amy did the most to reassure him both consciously and unconsciously.
As she said, she took him at his word, and being unembarrassed by any
feeling of her own, found it easy to act like a sister toward him. This
naturally put him at his ease. In her floral expeditions with Johnnie,
however, and her bird-nestings with Alf, wherein no birds were robbed, she
unconsciously did more to reconcile him to the necessity of waiting than
could hours of argument from even his mother.
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