“Anything more?” asked Rachel, repeating her invariable formula as she placed the desk on the bed.
“Yes. Come back in half an hour. I shall want you to take a letter to the great house.”
The nurse’s sardonic composure deserted her for once. “Mercy on us!” she exclaimed, with an accent of genuine surprise. “What next? You don’t mean to say you’re going to write—?”
“I am going to write to Mr. Armadale,” interposed Mrs. Milroy; “and you are going to take the letter to him, and wait for an answer; and, mind this, not a living soul but our two selves must know of it in the house.”
“Why are you writing to Mr. Armadale?” asked Rachel. “And why is nobody to know of it but our two selves?”
“Wait,” rejoined Mrs. Milroy, “and you will see.”
The nurse’s curiosity, being a woman’s curiosity, declined to wait.
“I’ll help you with my eyes open,” she said; “but I won’t help you blindfold.”
“Oh, if I only had the use of my limbs!” groaned Mrs. Milroy. “You wretch, if I could only do without you!”
“You have the use of your head,” retorted the impenetrable nurse. “And you ought to know better than to trust me by halves, at this time of day.”