‘Let me get at the bottle,’ she gasped. ‘I don’t want the cat-lap you give me!’
‘Let me hold her,’ said Churchill. ‘Go home, dearest, I will stop to the end.’
‘No, Churchill, you would be less patient than I. And if you nursed her it would set people talking, while it is only natural for me to be with her.’
Elspeth opened the door a little way and peeped in, asking if she could be useful.
‘No, Elspeth, there is nothing for you to do. I have done all Mr. Price directed. Go to bed, child, and sleep if you can. There is nothing more to be done.’
‘And she’ll die before the night is out, perhaps,’ said the girl, with a horror-stricken look at the emaciated figure on the bed. ‘Mr. Price told me there was no hope.’
‘You should not have let her drink so much, Elspeth,’ said Madge gently.
‘How could I help it? If I’d refused to fetch her the brandy she would have turned me out of doors, and I should have had to go on the tramp; and that would have been hard after I’d got used to sleeping in a house, and having my victuals regular. I daren’t refuse to do anything she asked me for fear of the strap. She wouldn’t hesitate about laying in to me.’
‘Poor, unhappy child. There, go to your room and lie down. I will take care of you henceforward, Elspeth.’
The girl said not a word, but came gently in to the room, knelt down by Mrs. Penwyn, and took up the hem of her dress and kissed it, an almost Oriental expression of gratitude and submission.