“When?”
“Oh, off an’ on. He’s been trying to help out since you’ve been ill.”
“Help out!” repeated Ellen scornfully. “The coward! He wouldn’t have dared set foot on the place if I’d been well.”
“He isn’t a coward!”
Lucy had drawn herself to her full height and now confronted her aunt with blazing eyes. Ellen, however, was not to be deterred.
“He is a coward!” she reiterated. “A coward an’ a blackguard! A curse on the Howes—the whole lot of ’em!”
“Stop!”
The intonation of the single word brought Ellen’s harangue to an abrupt cessation.
“You shan’t speak so of Martin Howe or of his family,” cried the girl. “He is no coward. If he had been as small-minded and cruel as you, he would have left you to die on the 227 floor the day you fell, instead of bringing you upstairs and going for a doctor—you, who have cursed him! You had better know the truth. Did you think it was I who placed you on this bed? I couldn’t have done it. I am not strong enough. It was Martin—Martin Howe!”
Ellen stared stupidly.