“What! you were sick?”
“Only for a few days—a cold. As I was saying, she did not leave me night or day.”
Luiza was afraid that Jorge would speak of her illness to Juliana, and that the latter, taken unaware, would say she had not been sick. She therefore called her, towards evening, into her room.
“I have told your master,” she said, reddening as she spoke, “that you were very attentive to me during an illness I had while he was away.”
Juliana smiled to find herself thus made her mistress’s accomplice,—a thing which coincided so well with her own designs.
“I understand, Senhora; you may make yourself easy,” she returned.
The following day after breakfast Jorge said graciously to Juliana,—
“I understand you took good care of your mistress while she was ill.”
“I only did my duty,” she answered, bowing, and laying her hand on her heart.
“Very well, very well,” replied Jorge, putting a half-pound into her hand as he left the room.