When I returned, I found that he had awakened from his sleep, calm and refreshed; that he had asked to see his sister Lily, and--that that fool of a nurse had allowed it! Oh, I could have shaken her! As it was, I gave her a talking to that she sulked over for a week. Lily, she said, had only remained with him ten minutes--as if one minute wouldn't have been enough to undo all our work! _Idiot!_ And to call herself a trained nurse, too! As soon as I approached his bed I saw the difference. Not only had he been doing so well, he had been so nice to me, so loving and gentle, as if feeling that all was right between us. Now he was flushed--I knew his temperature had gone up again--and he looked at me as if I were his enemy instead of his mother. "Is it true," he said, "that you have given Miss Blount notice?" I did not know what to say. Seeing the absolute necessity for keeping him quiet, I tried to put the question aside. But he would have an answer. "Dearest," I pleaded, "I am doing for the best. And you will be the first to acknowledge it when you are yourself again. It is for her sake," I added, though I'm sure I don't know why I said that. He continued to look at me as if I were a graven image, insensible to the tears that filled my eyes. And he looked _so_ handsome--even in this wreck of health--a fit husband for a queen. "Mother," he said, in a stern way, "if you do a thing so unjust as that I will never forgive you." Ah, Harry! Harry! And after all I had done for him--slaving night and day! After all the love and care, the heart's blood, that I had lavished on him for nearly twenty-four years! "Unjust!" I repeated, cut to the quick. "My boy, I may have my faults--I daresay I have--nobody is perfect in this world; but my worst enemy cannot lay it to my charge that I have ever committed an injustice." He smiled, but it was a hard smile. And the nurse came up, as bold as you please, to tell me I must be silent, as I was exciting him. _I_ exciting him! It was then I gave her that talking to.