Rose said, "Well——" It was a little word she used frequently.
"Well, I'm sorry you think I'm a beast."
Rose's face had a scared look. She could not follow him, and that frightened her. It is always terrifying to be left behind. So he spared her.
"Why would you be glad to nurse Miss Kentish?"
"Because," said Rose, "I like taking care of people."
"Do you like taking care of me?"
Rose was silent again. She turned suddenly away. It was the second time she had done this, and again he wondered why.
By the eighth day Tanqueray was strong enough to wash his own hands and brush his own hair. On the ninth the doctor and Rose agreed that he might sit up for an hour or two in his chair by the window. On the eleventh he came down-stairs for dinner. On the thirteenth Rose had nothing more to do for him but to bring him his meals and give him his medicine, which he would otherwise have forgotten.
At bed-time, therefore, he had two sovereigns ready for her in an envelope. Rose refused obstinately to take them; to have anything to do with sovereigns.
"No, sir, I couldn't," she reiterated.