“The doctor wished the door to be opened and the room to be given up to me,” replied the nurse. “My name is Sister Helen, and I am looking after dear little Miss Vivian. We couldn’t find you to tell you about the necessary alterations, which were made in a hurry. Ah, I mustn’t leave my patient! I hear her calling out again. She is terribly troubled about something she has lost. Do you hear her?”
“I won’t give it up! I won’t give it up!” called poor Betty’s voice.
“I was asked to tell you,” said Sister Helen, “to go straight to Miss Symes, who has arranged another room for you to sleep in—that is, if you are Miss Crawford.”
“Yes, that is my name. Have my things been removed?”
“I suppose so, but I don’t know. I am going back to my patient.”
The nurse re-entered the room, closing the door on Fanny, who stood by herself in the corridor. She heard Betty’s voice, and Betty’s voice sounded so high and piercing and full of pain that her first feeling was one of intense thankfulness that she had been moved from close proximity to the girl. The next minute she was speeding down the corridor in the direction of Miss Symes’s room. Half-way there she met St. Cecilia coming to meet her.
“Ah, Fanny, dear,” said Miss Symes, “I thought your little meeting would have been over by now. Do you greatly mind sharing my room with me to-night? I cannot get another ready for you in time. Dr. Ashley wishes the nurse who is looking after Betty to have your room for the present. There was no time to tell you, dear; but I have collected the few things I think you will want till the morning. To-morrow we will arrange another room for you. In the meantime I hope you will put up with me. I have had a bed put into a corner of my room and a screen around it, so you will be quite comfortable.”
“Thank you,” said Fanny. She wondered what further unpleasantness was about to happen to her on that inauspicious night.
“You would like to go to bed, dear, wouldn’t you?” said Miss Symes.