Helen marveled at what she had heard. What could Marie Duncan want of her? It certainly was a peculiar situation—unique, she believed, in the annals of history, that she, the discarded wife of John Hungerford, should be entreated to come to the bedside of the dying woman who had robbed her of her husband! It was even more strange that she should have been impelled to come to her without a suspicion of Marie's desire for her presence. Perhaps she wished to leave with her some message for John, in case he were still living, and ever sought her again.
Helen shrank with repulsion from the thought, and almost regretted that she had come. She had no desire ever to see him again, much less to be the bearer of any last words from Marie to him. She was beginning to be exceedingly nervous and uncomfortable, the more she thought of the approaching interview, when the messenger returned and said the nurse wished her to come immediately upstairs.
She was presently ushered into a small room on the second floor, at the back of the building, and experienced a great sense of relief upon finding that she was not to be subjected to the trying scenes of a ward, as she had feared.
Marie Duncan, white and wan, but looking far more womanly with the paint and powder of a few days previous removed from her face, threw out an eager hand to her as she drew near her cot.
"Oh, I am sure God must have sent you!" she said weakly. "I have wanted you so, but they"—glancing at the nurse, who, having placed a chair for the visitor, was moving toward an adjoining room—"could not find your name in the directory, and I thought I'd have to go without seeing you."
Almost unconsciously Helen clasped the hand extended to her, and dropped into the rocker beside the bed.
"I came just as soon as I read about the accident," she said.
"Why did you come?" questioned Marie, her beautiful dark eyes hungrily searching Helen's face.
"I—don't know—unless it was because you told me you had no friends."
"What could it matter to you whether I had or not?" almost sharply demanded the patient. "You must hate me like the d——"