"Mrs. Brown! What made you go there to that proud set?" asked her father, angrily.
"Just because she offered to lend them, and Mrs. Satchell didn't," replied Jessie, sharply. "What was I to do? The doctor said I must have clean things for mother if she was ever to get better, and I ran out to get them, for ours are all dirty. I went for Mrs. Satchell, and found her talking to Mrs. Brown at their gate. I said I wanted the sheets for mother; but no one spoke for a minute, and I was afraid I wasn't going to get the sheets, when Mrs. Brown said she would lend them, and come and help me make mother comfortable."
"Ah! And she put you up to turning the place out," grumbled Collins.
"It was the doctor said it first," answered Jessie.
"Well, now, look here. I ain't going to have your mother interfered with and found fault with by no Mrs. Brown, there now."
"Dad, you're a fool!" said Jessie, in an angry tone. "And it's my belief mother would have died if I hadn't happened to see Mrs. Brown that night."
Collins went upstairs to see his wife, closely followed by Jessie.
"Look here, I ain't going to have mother upset," she whispered, with her hand on the door-handle.
"Who wants to upset her?" roughly asked her father; and as he spoke he gave the girl a push, which sent her reeling, and she fell down the stairs with her foot doubled under her, which caused her such pain that she fainted, and lay in a heap at the bottom of the stairs until her father, hearing her moans, came down and found her.
"There, wake up, Jess! Wake up!" he said, as he lifted her in his arms, and seated her on a chair in the kitchen. "There, it's all right," he said soothingly. "Your mother says Mrs. Brown ain't got no fault-finding ways about her, and so, if she likes—"