Almira Pratt proved an excellent nurse, and there was help enough, yet Marion found her task by no means an easy one. Gerty had many days of restlessness and wandering, and at times her old demon of sarcasm seemed to take entire possession of her, so that even Almira Pratt, experienced nurse as she was, found it hard to bear with her patient.
"I've nursed unreasonable folks before," she said one day; "but I never saw anybody who could contrive to hurt folks' feelings as you can, Mrs. Van Alstine. It seems to me if I were where you are, I should be trying to leave pleasant remembrances behind me."
"Well, I can't help it," said Gerty, who seemed to be struck by this blunt way of putting the matter. "It is natural to me to be sarcastic, and I can't help it."
"Did you ever try?" asked Almira.
Gerty did not answer, but it was plain that the words made an impression on her. It was not long afterward that she said to Marion,—
"Marion, when I leave Rock Bottom, I shall not leave a single friend behind me."
"People have been very kind in coming to ask for you and offering to sit up," said Marion.
"Oh yes, I know—they are always that here. It is my own fault. I don't blame any one. I was brought up to think it was smart to be sarcastic and say unkind things. Father always did it, and he and mother used to have regular fencing-matches of words. Whatever annoyance either of them felt came right out, and they were always in the habit of talking over everybody and everything before me. So it is no wonder if I did the same when I grew up."
"But didn't you know it was wrong, Gerty?"
"Yes, I knew it in my own soul, but I would not own it even to myself. I have made my husband unhappy and separated him from all his friends. I have left myself almost alone in the world. Marion, I wish you would send for Mr. Landon. I want to see him. I have used him shamefully, and done all I could to undermine him in the parish, but I think he would come if he knew I wanted him."