“Denton!”
“Don’t ask me, my dear, please,” faltered the old woman.
“I desire you to speak,” cried Gertrude imperatively.
“Then I will, my dear, for it’s only another reason why you should not go and do what you are thinking about doing,” cried the old woman angrily. “I don’t care, you may send me away if you like, but I shall have done my duty by you, and I shan’t have that on my mind.”
“Have the goodness to remember what you are, Denton,” said Gertrude, speaking coldly, and turning very pale.
“Yes, miss, only your poor old servant, but I can’t see you going headlong to destruction without trying to stop you. I say you oughtn’t to marry a gentleman who can’t keep from the drink, and goes out spending the night after everybody else has gone to bed.”
“What do you mean, Denton?”
“That we’ve been wherritting ourselves about him all the morning, and he’s never been to bed all night.”
“Denton!”
“Well, miss, come up and look. The bed’s just as I turned it down, and the pillows all of a puff.”