So he went, and brought back Word, with Mr. James' Services, that my Lady was still very ill, and still kept her Chamber, and so did Mrs. Gatty.
I said, "Did he mean Mrs. Gatty was confined to her own Chamber or to my Lady's? for that makes all the Difference."
Peter says, "Well, Ma'am, I understood him to mean she kept my Lady's Chamber; but I gave you the very Words he said."
So I gave them, just the same, to my Father.
"Blockhead! Dunderhead!" exclaimed he impatiently. "Well, if she's in her Chamber, she's not in the Churchyard at any Rate—And I shall soon be able to spare you, Patty, to go and see how she really is."
That Night Prudence and I slept together, for the first Time since my Return Home. Before that, I had lain in the little Closet close to my Father's Room, to be within Call. We undressed silently enough, and I noticed again the great Depression she had betrayed ever since my Return; but yet I was as quiet as she.
When the Candle was put out, she crept closer to me; and though she was quiet for a While, I had an Impression she was going to say Something. At length, "Patty," says she,—and I could perceive her Voice was unsteady, "did you ever know what a Burthen it was to have Something on your Mind that you longed, yet feared, to tell?"
"Well," said I, "I can form some Notion of the Pain it must give."
"I have that Pain," says she, and fell a crying.