"Dear, dear!" she thought, "I shall have a time of it with Molly to-night; but I don't care. I'm not going to be bullied or browbeaten. I'll just let Miss Molly see that I'm going to have my fun as well as another. I wish though, I didn't sleep in the room with them; they'll be as cross and cantankerous as two tabby cats." Nesta entered the house. Somehow the house did not seem to be quite as usual; the drawing room was not lit up; it had not been used that evening. She poked her head round the dining-room door. There was no appetising and hearty meal ready for tired people when they returned home. What was the matter? Why, her father must be back by this time. She went into the kitchen. "Cook!" she said. "Keep out of my way, Miss Nesta," said the cook. "What do you mean? Where is my supper? I want my supper. Where are all the others? Where's Molly? Where's Ethel? I suppose that stupid old Marcia is back now? Where are they all?" "That's more than I can tell you," said cook, and now he turned round and faced the girl. "I only know that it's ten o'clock, and that you have been out when you ought to be in, and as to Miss Molly and Miss Ethel, I don't want to have anything to do with them in the future. Here's Susan--she'll tell you why there ain't no supper for you--she'll speak a bit of her mind. Susan, here's Miss Nesta, come in as gay as you please, and asks for her supper. And where are the others, says she, and where's Marcia, says she. And is she back, says she. Miss Marcia is back, thank the Lord; that's about the only thing we have to be thankful for in this house to-night." "Dear me, cook, I think you are remarkably impertinent. I shall ask mother not to keep you. Mother never would allow servants to speak to us in that tone. You forget yourself, Susan." "It's you that forgets yourself, Miss Nesta," said Susan. "There; where's the use of stirring up ill will? Ain't there sorrow enough in this house this blessed night?" "Sorrow," said Nesta, now really alarmed. "What is it?" "It's your mother, poor soul," said Susan. She looked into Nesta's face and there and then determined not to spare her. "Mother? Mother?" For the first time the girl forgot herself. There fell away from her that terrible cloak of selfishness in which she had wrapped herself. "Mother? Is anything wrong with her?" "Dr Anstruther is upstairs, and he is going to spend the night here, and Miss Marcia is with her, and not a living soul of you is to go near her; you wouldn't when you might, and now you long to, you won't be let; so that's about the truth, and if the poor darling holds out till the morning it'll be something to be thankful for. Why, she nearly died, and for all that I can tell you, she may be dying now." "Nonsense!" said Nesta. "What lies you tell!"