"You silly coward," she said to herself; "you know you and a sick woman are alone in the house, and what are you afraid of?" But for all her attempt at courage, as she flew up the stairs again, she repeatedly looked over her shoulder, with a nervous dread of she knew not what.
"Have they gone—safely gone? And is the door locked?" The words greeted her ears directly she entered the bedroom upstairs, and the dark eyes of the woman in the bed looked at her, with agonised questioning and dread.
"Yes; they have driven away, and everything is locked up, and now I want to make you comfortable, and poke up the fire, and we shall be quite cosy in this nice warm room." Christina spoke cheerfully, all trace of her own nervous fears had vanished; she was intent on calming the troubled woman, whose feverish excitement was still only too apparent.
"Nice and cosy?" the woman laughed drearily. "I can't rest quietly until I know:—he—— Can I trust you?" She pulled herself bolt upright in the bed, and looked fixedly at Christina; "will you be silent about everything you see, everything you hear?"
"Why, of course. But, you will try and go to sleep now, won't you?" Christina said soothingly, with a startled certainty that her beautiful charge must be delirious.
"Go to sleep?" The dreary laugh came again. "How could I sleep? I must lie here; there is no help for that. Marion has done her work well, though, poor soul! she did not mean to harm me. But I can't lie here whilst he—you will promise to keep silence?"
"I promise," Christina said hastily, intent only on quieting her at any cost; "is there something you want me to do?"
The other nodded.
"Go along the passage that leads off this landing," she said, "knock at the third door on the left; and ask—my—the person who is there if there is anything he needs. He may need—food—we could do nothing for him whilst Marion—and the doctor——"
She dropped back upon the pillow with closed eyes, and so exhausted a look, that Christina bent over her, too anxious about her well-being to think of her own surprise at the order just given her.