“You need not be frightened; of that I am certain. But don’t let the little girl, Miss Nancy, stay too much in the room; it is never wise in these feverish cases. I will call in early in the morning. I trust by then the fever will have abated.”
The doctor went away. When Miss Roy returned to the sickroom Augusta was lying half across the bed, her arms flung round Nancy’s neck, who was kneeling by her side. As Miss Roy came in she heard Augusta say:
“Take the cross off my neck, Nancy, and put it on yours. I shall die if I wear it any longer. It is so heavy—so heavy—like lead—it goes through me; it burns through my flesh. Wear it—wear it, to please me—to please me.”
Nancy began to take the cross off with trembling fingers.
“Let me fasten it round your neck, Nan; then I shall feel better. Oh! it is some sort of—some sort of”——
“Let me fasten it round your neck, Nan, then I shall feel better.”
The words gradually trailed away into silence. The miserable girl had fallen into a broken slumber.
“Get up at once, Nancy,” said Miss Roy; “and take that off—do, my dear. And—and go away to bed.”
Nancy rose to her feet looking pale and scared. The dark blue cross with its silver mountings shone up against her white neck. Miss Roy herself removed it, and laid it on the table.