She had not seen Gertrude that morning, and had indeed only had brief visits from her on each evening.
“Her father wrote the day before yesterday, and asked her to go home next week. Mrs. Lorimer is very low down, and, judging from a few things that poor girl has let drop, very difficult to live with, I’m afraid.”
“Next week. Poor Gertrude!” Nell sighed heavily, for she had seen far enough into the heart of her friend to know how much it would cost Gertrude to leave Bratley just now.
Then she sat silent for a while, wondering if she dared offer to go to Lorimer’s Clearing and help them all until Mrs. Lorimer was better, finally asking the advice of Mrs. Nichols on the subject.
“You might offer certainly, and I haven’t a doubt you would do a good part by them. But you are worth a better post than that now, and I can’t bear to think of your being dragged backwards when you ought to be rising all the time. Of course, socially, you are a long way above the Lorimers, and I don’t like to think of your drudging for them like a common hired girl,” the stout woman said, in a discontented fashion.
Nell smiled faintly. “Some one must do the drudgery, and I am more fit for it than Gertrude.”
“Very likely you are, so far as strength goes; but, well, you ought to be above that sort of thing now. I hate for you to take a low-down place, so there!” said Mrs. Nichols, vehemently.
Nell laughed outright at this, only somehow there was a lack of mirth in the sound. Then she took a sudden resolve, and began to tell Mrs. Nichols of the encounter with Doss Umpey at Camp’s Gulch, which had resulted in her injuries.
“I could not speak of it while there was any danger of the police finding him,” she said sadly. “But if the Brunsens got clear away, most certainly granfer would get away too. Only when you begin to talk about my social position being so much better than Gertrude’s, it is as well that you should know what weights there are to drag me down.”
“Oh, the wicked old man, to strike you such cruel blows!” cried Mrs. Nichols, in horrified tones. “Why, he ought to be shut up in prison for the remainder of his life.”