'You have done: and that is better than feeling.'
'Done! and how miserably! Oh, the difference it might have made, if I had been a better nurse!'
'Papa and Dr. Spencer both say you have been a wonderful nurse, considering—' the last word came out before Mary was aware.
'Oh, Dr. May has been so kind and so patient with me, I shall never forget it. Even when I scalded his fingers with bringing him that boiling water—but I always do wrong when he is there—and now he won't let me go back to Leonard.'
'But, Averil, the best nurse in the world can't hold out for ever. People must sleep, and make themselves fit to go on.'
'Not when there is only one:' and she gasped.
'All the more reason, when there is but one. Perhaps it is because you are tired out that you get nervous and agitated. You will be quite different after a rest.'
'Are you sure?' whispered Averil, with her eyes rounded, 'are you sure that is all the reason?'
'What do you mean?' said Mary.
Averil drew in her breath, and squeezed both hands tight on her chest, as she spoke very low: 'They sent me away from mamma—they told me papa wanted me: then they sent me from him; they said I was better with Leonard; and—and I said to myself, nothing should make me leave Leonard.'