"Is she still sleeping?" Hester glanced at the door.
"Ay, ever since you left. Her pains have wore her out, belike. A terrible night! Why didn' you call me sooner?"
"You have a letter, I see."
Mrs. Trevarthen nodded, obviously embarrassed. "Keeping it for her, I was," she explained. "She do dearly like to look my letters over. She gets none of her own, you see."
But Hester was not deceived, having observed (without appearing to detect it) Mrs. Trevarthen's difficulty with the written instructions on the medicine bottles.
"But she will not wake for some time, we'll hope; and you haven't even broken the seal! If you would like me to read it to you—it would save your eyes; and I am very discreet—really I am."
Mrs. Trevarthen hesitated. "My eyes be bad, sure enough," she said, weakening. "But you mustn't blame me if you come across a word or two you don't like."
"I shall remember no more of it than you choose," said Hester, slightly puzzled.
"My Tom han't ever said a word agen' you, and the odds are he'll say nothing now. Still, there's the chance, and you can't rightly blame him."
"Tom?" Hester's eyes opened wide.