The nurse laughed grimly, and shook her gray head.
"And we will fumigate, Jane, fumigate tremendously. Surely Englishmen have more self-respect than to be such babies, and you a woman, and I a girl, shaming them out of face."
"It doesn't matter, Miss; they won't come. I know them well, the lot I mean that are in the house now."
"Very well, Jane, we'll have Gamekeeper Hiatt, and his eldest son; they are men I know. And if that is not enough, we'll send to Gloucester for Thomas Henwood. But why don't you open the lobby door, as I told you?"
"If you please, Miss, I can't. They have fastened it outside."
"Do you mean to say that they have dared to lock us in?"
"Indeed I do, Miss; we have been fastened in since the morning."
"And pray, why did you not tell me?'
"Because I feared to excite you, Miss. I know your temper when you are wronged, ever since you was that high; and in this fever air, excitement is sure to kill you. Brutes! But I suppose they don't know it."
"They know it well; at least the master-spirit does. And for that very reason I will crush my indignation. Since I was that high, Jane, I have passed through much tribulation, and have dropped my lady-heiress tone. I can now command myself."