"If I do go away, I'll come back very soon. But I'm going to stay with you now."
The whole weight of Daisy's little wasted body was flung across Maureen's wounded hand and arm. Maureen was suffering such tortures that she wondered she didn't faint, but her very pain kept her from this.
Dr. Halsted in a great hurry entered the room. Daisy screamed when she saw him.
"Go away! Go away! I've got a White Angel curing me. Get out of this, you old horror. Oh, hurrah, hurrah! Wherever is Henny? Not that I care. I have got the White Angel; she's worth ten thousand Hennies. Wasn't it fun when I dropped all the laudanum into the mash, and the horse had such beautiful eyes. He gobbled and gobbled and I—I stirred and stirred. I don't seem to remember much else. I think I'm drowsy. Don't you touch me, you horror. The White Angel is my doctor. She is telling me about a place called Heaven."
"My dear child," said Dr. Halsted. He did not address the sick girl, but Maureen. "She is lying on your wounded arm! Let me arrange you more comfortably."
"Don't touch her. I'll kill you if you do!" shrieked Daisy, and then she went off into a dead faint.
During that faint the doctor and the nurses were able to release Maureen from her torments, but she absolutely refused to leave Daisy's side.
"I have promised to stay with her," said Maureen. "When she comes to again, she will want me. Oh, Dr. Halsted, is she very ill?"
"Yes, child, this is a most serious and unlooked-for relapse. I will put you at this side of her, so that she can lean against the hand and arm that are not injured. Nurses, a word with you both."
All during that night, that long and yet short night, Maureen retained her seat by Daisy's bedside, but although the poor girl quickly got over her swoon, she did not recover consciousness.