“But I do want money, all you promised, and I will have it, too.”
“All I promised? how much was that?”
“Two hundred dollars for the baby; four, if both went together,” answered Jane, resolutely.
“Two hundred dollars!” cried madame, lifting up both hands, with the long, claw-like nails, like a bird ready to pounce on his prey. “Two hundred dollars! Is the woman crazy? Why, it was two dollars; a handsome little fee to the nurse, for kindness and care of a poor girl that once lived with me. Two hundred dollars!”
“The poor young mother isn’t dead; and good nursing may save her. I am a good nurse, when I fancy the patient, Madame De Marke.”
CHAPTER V.
THE MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE.
Madame De Marke was evidently startled by the threat which Jane Kelly insinuated, rather than spoke; her eyes fell and were lifted again with a sidelong glance. Jane read the glance, and her own eyes filled with the low cunning always uppermost in her nature.
“I have two ways of nursing. That ‘masterly inactivity,’ which worked so well for the baby—regular attention to the doctor’s directions when he happens to be an experimentalizing student, or inattention to his orders when he is honest and knows what he is about. Any one of ’em is pretty sure to create a demand for two breadths of cotton muslin and a pine coffin.”
“And which of these will you take?” asked madame, anxiously.
“None of them, madame. You don’t choose to settle up, and I don’t choose to work for nothing. Can’t afford it; nurses’ pay is next to being a beggar; it’s only two months since they gave me so much as would keep me.”