Unexpectedly she went to the door opening into the hall and closed it, coming back swiftly.
“Mr. Reed thinks it is not necessary, but—there are some things that will puzzle you. Perhaps I should have spoken to the other nurse. If—if anything strikes you as unusual, Miss Adams, just please don’t see it! It is all right, everything is all right. But something has occurred—not very much, but disturbing—and we are all of us doing the very best we can.”
She was quivering with nervousness.
I was not the police agent then, I’m afraid.
“Nurses are accustomed to disturbing things. Perhaps I can help.”
“You can, by watching the children. That’s the only thing that matters to me—the children. I don’t want them left alone. If you have to leave them call me.”
“Don’t you think I will be able to watch them more intelligently if I know just what the danger is?”
I think she very nearly told me. She was so tired, evidently so anxious to shift her burden to fresh shoulders.
“Mr. Reed said,” I prompted her, “that there was an epidemic of children’s diseases. But from what you say——”
But I was not to learn, after all, for her husband opened the hall door.