He will not dare!"
"Dare?" said Hester, with temper, and dashing the water from her eyes;
"he will dare anything--that Christian devil! But it will do no
good for him to try it this time--but, laws! Hannah! after all's
said and done, he is gifted and wise and good, and he would not
think of such a thing. . . . It is surely time for one of us to go
to that room. What is keeping him? Why doesn't he come and say so?"
They caught the sound of his approaching step. He entered, sat down,
and began to talk.
"Margaret is a sick woman," he said. "She is still sleeping,
but she will wake presently; then one of you must go to her.
She will be worse before she is better. Pretty soon a night-and-day
watch must be set. How much of it can you two undertake?"
"All of it!" burst from both ladies at once.
The doctor's eyes flashed, and he said, with energy:
"You DO ring true, you brave old relics! And you SHALL do all of
the nursing you can, for there's none to match you in that divine
office in this town; but you can't do all of it, and it would
be a crime to let you." It was grand praise, golden praise,
coming from such a source, and it took nearly all the resentment
out of the aged twin's hearts. "Your Tilly and my old Nancy shall
do the rest--good nurses both, white souls with black skins,
watchful, loving, tender--just perfect nurses!--and competent liars
from the cradle.
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