"Very well. I will go back. Rogers, you may wait."
At the door of the ward the nurse said to her, "You had scarcely gone, madam, before she seemed in great distress and bade me call you back. I think there was something she had forgotten to say.... Oh, no, it will not hurt her to talk."
And again at the little white bed Margaret sat down. The girl had her eyes closed, and her lips moved as if in prayer or preparation for something she had to say.
"Rosalie," said Margaret, gently, with a sudden impulse using the girl's first name, "was there something you wanted to say to me?"
The girl wrung her hands.
"My poor child, what is it? Talk freely to me as you would to a sister."
"Oh, madam, it breaks my heart to have you speak so tenderly. I—I am not worthy of it. I am not fit to touch your hand. I—I told you falsely when I said there was no blot upon my little Louis's name. Oh, madam, do not turn away from him! He is innocent though he is—the child of shame!"
CHAPTER XXX
"NOT WISELY BUT TOO WELL"
"Oh, it was pitiful!