"Very well," she said, "I'll come up for a moment. I'm not going far, and I shall not be a long time away. If there is a crisis in the case----"
"Mamie is far worse than you imagine," Hetty said coldly. "Your own constitution is so magnificent that you cannot understand weakness in others. If Mamie were mine I should be in grave anxiety about her."
Leona Lalage laughed again. Once more she glanced at the clock.
"Come along then," she said gaily. "I know I am a bad mother."
The child looked flushed and ill, her hand was hot, and she groaned in her sleep. The Countess bent and kissed her carelessly. She moved to her own room and Hetty followed. There was just a touch of hauteur in the manner of the Countess as she intimated that she had nothing further to say.
"Perhaps I have something to say to you," Hetty said between her teeth.
The hour had come to show her pluck and courage, and Hetty was not going to flinch. It wanted ten minutes to twelve by the clock on the dressing-table.
"You are forgetting yourself," the Countess said coldly. "Leave the room."
"When I have finished," Hetty replied. "You heard Dr. Bruce's message. He said that child should not be left. You may urge that I am sufficient, but there is a time for a mother's care. If I had my way you should not go."
It all sounded sorry nonsense in Hetty's ears, but she was playing her part, and merely talking against the clock. With blazing eyes the Countess advanced, but Hetty did not flinch.