"I--I--was just trying to recall that, nurse. Mr Fitzroy"--she could not say his name without flushing scarlet all over to the tips of her fingers--"lost his train, and came back?" "He did, ma'am," said nurse, with severe self-restraint. "He ought not to have done it, nurse." "Indeed, ma'am, he ought not to have done it." Nurse shut up her lips firmly, that other words might not burst forth. "He--gave me--a terrible fright, nurse. I had forgotten that the window was open." "Yes, Mrs Brunton." Poor Nelly looked so wistfully in the woman's face, not explaining further, not asking her support in words, but so clearly desiring it, that nurse's heart was deeply touched. "I think, ma'am," she said, "if you'll not be angry----" Nelly's face was heartrending to behold. She expected nothing but condemnation, and how could she accept it, how defend herself against it, from her servant, her dependant, a woman who at least might have been expected to be on her side? If nurse had indeed condemned her, Nelly's pride might have been aroused, but now she sat with her eyes piteously fixed upon her, appealing to her as if against a sentence of death. "If you won't be angry with me, ma'am," repeated nurse, "and if I may make so bold as to say it, I think you behaved just as a lady ought--not stopping to argue with him, but coming right away, and leaving the gentleman to me." "O nurse!" cried Nelly, bursting into tears with a relief unspeakable. "O nurse! thank God that you think I did right." "It was an awful trial for a lady, a young lady like you--oh, an awful trial, enough to drive you out of your senses!" Nelly had flung herself on the woman's shoulder and lay sobbing there, while nurse patted her tenderly, as if she had been one of the children. "Don't take on now, don't, there's a dear lady! Get up, ma'am, and dress quick, and don't spoil your eyes with crying. I saw Mrs Glynn at the Rectory door, looking as if she were coming here." "O nurse! I cannot see her! You must say I have a headache." "Not this morning, Mrs Brunton, oh, not this morning," cried nurse, "if I may make so bold as to say it. Come down and look your own self; and I would own to the fright, if I was you."