“Oh, you mustn’t do that, Julia,” I said, trying to speak lightly. “When anyone is working as hard as Mrs. McNab she can’t interrupt herself to talk. As for the thieves, I believe they are well out of the district; remember, the police are watching for them everywhere now.”
“Yerra, the polis!” said Julia, with much scorn. “Is it the polis you’d be puttin’ your dependence on, miss? Sure, as Bence says, they’re too busy tryin’ to catch poor motor-drivers to be doin’ anny real worrk. Dr. Firth’s seen the lasht of them jools of his, you mark my words. ’Tis meself was in Ireland when all the fightin’ was goin’, but I never felt as quare an’ lonesome as I do in this place.”
I poured her out a cup of coffee.
“Just drink that and you’ll feel better, Julia,” I said. “I’m not going to be scared of any thieves, and I don’t believe you are, either. I’ll take up a little saucepan: if Mrs. McNab isn’t back I can warm up her coffee on my spirit-lamp when she does come in.”
But I knew, as I carried the tray away, that it was not Mrs. McNab whom Julia had seen slinking by the wall. Ronald Hull must have come down the stairs very softly while we had talked in my room. I wondered what he was doing, out in the night.
Mrs. McNab had not moved, and for a moment I fancied that she was asleep. But she stirred as I came near her, and drank her coffee as though she were thirsty.
“That was very good,” she said, lying back. “You are a very kind child to me: my own daughter does not think of such things. It is a shame to burden you with my troubles.”
I told her not to worry about that. “Indeed,” I said, “I have been more uneasy about you for some days than I am now. Ever since I have seen more of you, in looking after your burnt hand, I knew something was troubling you terribly, and I have been so anxious.”
“Was it so plain?” she sighed heavily. “I have done my best to seem cheery and normal, but it has been hard; and all to-day I have felt almost as if I were going mad. I think and think, until my brain feels as though it were whirling in a circle.”
She lit a cigarette and smoked for a few moments without speaking.