“Where is the milk? Was there no milk for him? I am sure,” cried the nurse, “I put it here last night.”
Mary looked at Agnes; and Agnes, with a terrified glance at her. Was it true?
“Go,” said Miss Hill quietly; “don’t waste a moment now, and get him some fresh. Let nobody touch it. I will go with you myself,” she cried, after a moment, taking the woman by the arm. Was it true? Was it true?
“Oh,” said the nurse, “don’t think I’m like that. It never happened before—oh, never, never! No case of mine was ever neglected. Oh, ask the sisters at the hospital. Ask the doctors! I could die with shame—I, that always bragged that I was never sleepy. And why should I be sleepy, after getting my good rest?”
“How do you account for it?” said Agnes, still stern.
They were going down the great staircase together in the full flush of morning light.
“I don’t know how to account for it. Mrs. Parke brought me something which she said was restoring, in case I had a hard night. I never have taken anything, but she seemed so kind, and, perhaps, she didn’t know. I thought I oughtn’t to take it, but she seemed so kind. Oh, madam, don’t think badly of me. I’ll go back to the hospital to-day and send another. Nurse Newman or Nurse Sandown, or any of them that I looked down upon would be better than me.”
Agnes bade her dry her eyes and put her cap straight. “There is no harm done, and nothing shall be said. But you must learn a lesson from what has happened.” Her own voice sounded harsh and unfeeling to Agnes as she spoke. She would have liked to be angry, to pour out some of the pain in her heart in indignation and reproach. Could it be true, then? No dream of Mary’s, but dreadful truth. She went down with the wondering woman all the way to the dairy, where a pail of foaming milk had just been brought in, and took some of it herself back to the sick-room. So far as this went they were safe, but for all the rest what was to be done? Agnes went a great deal further than Mary in her panic and horror! Could they venture to give him anything, even a glass of water, in a house where such a thing had been done? if, indeed, it was true and not a dream.
“We must get him out of the house,” she said. “We must take him home. I brought this myself from the dairy where it had been brought straight from the cow. I drank some to test it. We must get him away. We must take him home.”
“But he is not able to go. It will be many a day yet before he can even leave his bed.”