The fire was out and the room undusted and unswept, a close smell she did not recognise filled the room.
She persuaded him to lie down on the sofa; she got the fire lit; threw open the window, put on the kettle for hot water, and wrote a note, which she sent by the woman to the nearest doctor.
He came and looked down upon the prostrate figure.
"Is he very ill?" asked Margaret, anxiously.
"No, madam," he answered, with a strange expression on his face, "he is only very drunk."
CHAPTER VI.
Margaret stared at the doctor, who so calmly announced this appalling fact to her, with widely opened eyes and a blanched face.
Ignorant of her history, he was startled to find so young a creature in such a position, and he said, impelled to respect by her whole air and manner, "This is news, and very unwelcome news, to you?"
"I have this moment arrived from nursing my sister in Scotland," she said, hurriedly. "My husband has been alone.... All is very wretched; can you tell me where I could hear of a nurse, I suppose, and—servants?"