"Miss Rose," she whispered.
The girl stopped playing immediately, and came from behind the screen.
"Is it the doctor, Prissy?" she asked.
"No, miss."
Prissy pointed to her mistress, and Rose went to the armchair, and adjusted a light shawl which was falling from the sleeping lady's shoulder. It was a slight action, but it was done with so much tenderness that Prissy smiled approvingly. She liked Rose much better than Ruth, who did not hold in her affections the place the other members of the family did. Humble as was her position in the household, she had observed things of which she disapproved.
Ruth was from home more frequently than she considered proper, and had often said to her: "You need not tell my mother that I have gone out unless she asks you."
Prissy had not disobeyed her, and the consequence was that Ruth was sometimes absent from the house for hours without her father or mother being aware of it. Prissy's idea was that her young mistress would bring trouble on the house, but she kept silence, because she would otherwise have got into trouble herself with Ruth, and would also have distressed her dear lady if she had made mention of her suspicions, for which she could have offered no reasonable explanation. Prissy's distress of mind was not lessened because Ruth, when she enjoined secrecy upon her, gave her money, as if to purchase her silence. She would have refused these bribes, but Ruth forced them upon her, and she felt as if she were in a conspiracy to destroy the peace of the family.
"I did not know she was asleep," said Rose, coming back to Prissy.
"I'm sure you didn't, miss. She falls off, you know."
"Yes, I know," said Rose with affectionate solicitude. "What do you want, Prissy?"