As Mr Benson was showing Mr Davis out, Ruth opened the study-door, and said, in a very calm, low voice:
"Mr Benson! will you allow me to speak to Mr Davis alone?"
Mr Benson immediately consented, thinking that, in all probability, she wished to ask some further questions about Leonard; but as Mr Davis came into the room, and shut the door, he was struck by her pale, stern face of determination, and awaited her speaking first.
"Mr Davis! I must go and nurse Mr Bellingham," said she at last, clenching her hands tight together, but no other part of her body moving from its intense stillness.
"Mr Bellingham?" asked he, astonished at the name.
"Mr Donne, I mean," said she, hurriedly. "His name was Bellingham."
"Oh! I remember hearing he had changed his name for some property. But you must not think of any more such work just now. You are not fit for it. You are looking as white as ashes."
"I must go," she repeated.
"Nonsense! Here's a man who can pay for the care of the first hospital nurses in London—and I doubt if his life is worth the risk of one of theirs even, much more of yours."
"We have no right to weigh human lives against each other."