"I am going upstairs at once," she said. "Enemy or no enemy, the poor creature cannot be neglected. You need not come, Vera."
Vera, too, had risen to her feet. She was not going to be put aside.
"But I am coming," she said. "I will not allow you to go up those stairs alone. And Geoffrey shall accompany us."
Marion said no more. She seemed strangely anxious and restless.
Geoffrey followed with a lamp in his hands. Mrs. May lay quietly there, breathing regularly and apparently in a deep sleep.
Marion bent over the bed. As she did so she gasped and the color left her face. She fell away with a cry like fear.
"Oh," she shuddered. "Oh, it is Mrs. May!"
Vera bent over the bed. She unfastened the dress at the throat.
"What does it matter?" she said. "I know you don't like the woman, but she is suffering. Marion, where are your tender feelings?"