Ellen's hand poised motionless above the little vials.
"What's the matter, Ellen?"
"Why—" began Ellen.
"What is it?" Miss MacVane blinked unseeing.
Still Ellen made no motion. There was something wrong. Ammonia was not a medicament for the eye, but the lotion seemed to be pure ammonia!
"What is it, Ellen?"
Ellen believed suddenly that she understood what had happened—Dr. Lanfair had made a mistake. Her next act, quickly conceived and executed, was like a protecting gesture. Into her eyes came again the expression with which Fetzer and Miss Knowlton and Miss MacVane regarded their master. No wonder that he had made a mistake! She put deliberately into Miss MacVane's eyes two drops of distilled water.
When Miss MacVane had gone, Ellen stood holding the bottle and looking at it. What should she do now? Had she behaved with unwarrantable officiousness? She stood in the same spot holding the bottle in her hand when Stephen entered and stared at her in surprise and then in amazement. For an instant they regarded each other, for the first time straightforwardly. A vaguely disturbing recollection troubled Stephen's mind and then was immediately lost in a sharper emotion.
"What's the matter?"
Ellen grew pale and her knees weakened. But it was better to have been unwarrantably officious than to have used the wrong medicine!