"Give in to what, mother?"
The sobs went on. An impulse of pity and tenderness took possession of Marigold. Yielding to it, she put her arms round Mrs. Plunkett and kissed her.
"Mother, you'll tell me. I know something's wrong. It isn't natural your being like what you've been lately. It's ever so much better to speak out, and then I could be a help. I do want to be nice to you, if only you'll let me."
"You're a good girl, and you mean it all, I do believe." Mrs. Plunkett began to recover herself a little. "And I know I've been cross—sometimes . . . I don't know who wouldn't, if they'd that to bear . . . It ain't only the pain . . . though I don't know how to stand the pain pretty often . . . but it's the thing itself . . . knowing what's coming . . . I've had no rest night or day since the doctor said what it was . . . and I couldn't bear to speak . . ."
"But you ought to have spoken. If you were ill, you ought to have let me do everything. Don't you see? I do wish I had known. Where is the pain, and when did it begin?"
"It wasn't long after I was married. I didn't think anything much of it at first, and then I knew some'at was wrong . . . And then I went to a doctor. Not a doctor living here,—just a stranger going through the place. Lots of people went to him. And he told me what it was. He said I might have to have an operation, and I said I couldn't. I never could bear the thoughts of it. And then he gave me a bottle of medicine, and he said that 'ud do me good, and it didn't. I wasn't a scrap better. And I made up my mind I wouldn't tell nobody. And nobody has known. I've kep' it all to myself. It's been hard work, more especially of late. It's got so much worse lately. Sometimes I don't know how to move nor breathe. And at last to-day, it was so bad, I couldn't bear up no longer."
"Mother, you don't mean to say it's—"
The dread word she feared was whispered in answer.
"He said if I didn't get better, I'd ought to have an operation. But I couldn't—I couldn't!"
"It wouldn't hurt. You'd have something given to make you sleep, and you would know nothing."