“Bless you, miss! I’m so glad you came, and I hope this will save me from that awful scourge. I began to think the old landlord lied, when he said that he’d send us the nurse and doctor.”
“I was told at the drug store that the doctor was ill himself, so there was none to come but me,” the nurse replied, adding:
“But I know how to treat the case very well myself, as the disease ran through my own family once, and there’s more in the nursing than the medicine, so lead me to your master and we’ll see what is to be done.”
With joyful alacrity, the man preceded her to the darkened room where lay her millionaire father-in-law in the terrible plight of a smallpox patient at the worst stage, without benefit of doctor or skillful nurse.
Berenice took hold of everything with an ease that fairly charmed John Tousey, evolving comfort out of chaos, and soon making the sick man more comfortable in every way.
The larder was well filled, so that, although isolated from their kind, they were in no danger of starving. Berry took up her burden with a cheerful heart, thinking:
“Although Senator Bonair may despise me for being a poor cottage girl, it is well for him now that I am skilled in homely accomplishments, that I may minister the better to his needs.”
She wondered, as she went busily about her work, when Charley would return and what he would think of the task she had undertaken. He would be disappointed at finding her gone, but he could not blame her, could not think she was in the wrong.
She had written to him sweetly:
“I have isolated myself from you for a time, my dearest love, but when I tell you why I am sure you will be glad for me to do this act of kindness.