“I am very glad,” said the nurse gently. “Mrs Barnett said that there were several little things you might do now in Mr Elthorne’s room.”
Maria’s face turned scarlet, and she faced round viciously.
“Then it was you, was it, who complained to her that I didn’t do my work properly?”
“I, my good girl?” said Nurse Elisia, smiling. “Oh, no.”
“It must have been. Nobody else wouldn’t have been so mean as to go telling tales.”
“You are making a great mistake, Maria,” said the nurse, with quiet dignity. “I certainly asked Mrs Barnett about a few things being done in your master’s room, and she referred me to you.”
“I don’t want you to come here teaching me my work.”
“Oh, no, I will not interfere, Maria,” said the nurse coldly; “but it is necessary that the room should be seen to.”
“Thank you, ma’am; as if I didn’t know what a ’ousemaid’s work is. Oh, I haven’t patience with such mean, tale-bearing, stuck-up ways.”
The nurse looked at her in a pained way, and for a few moments there was a slight flash of resentment in her face; but it died out directly, and she spoke very gently: