"Lottie is honest," she said. "Now I understand why she would never leave the room even to nurse you. Good girl! she has been more faithful to my mother than her own child; but who could have known this?" "Be dutiful!" I whispered, for this conversation had taken away my last remnant of strength. "I will,--and watchful. Others may doubt this,--I believe it." CHAPTER XLIX. LOTTIE SEEMS TREACHEROUS. Lottie came into the room while we were talking, and, after closing the door, Jessie began to question her about the events of that night. To my astonishment, Lottie looked blankly in her face, and protested that she could not understand what we were thinking of. Mrs. Lee had fainted, and Miss Hyde had been called, of course, and that raised a fuss, as such things generally did. This was all she knew about it. Jessie looked at her steadily a moment and turned away. I was astonished and grieved. What could the girl mean? After Jessie went out, the creature came up to my bed, and, doubling up her fist, shook it in my face, thus mocking my indignant weakness. "You're a pretty Miss Hyde to trust a secret with, you are! What possessed you to tell that? How many cooks do you mean to have in one mess of soup? She can't keep it more than you could; and the next thing will be, you and I'll be swept out of this house like a nest of wasps. Not that I'd go, but there'd be a tussel, such as never was seen here before. Of course, you'd give in, and curl up like a caterpillar on a dry leaf; but I'll never do it while she lives and wants me. But all that don't mean that I'm going to fly in the face of Providence, and give Babylon a chance to turn me out, for it mightn't be convenient for me to get sick--not that I think your sickness isn't the genuine article, mind; I know it is, more shame to 'em, but I'm bound to be on hand with a sharp eye and close tongue. Trust Miss Jessie, indeed! Well, crazy folks will be crazy folks, any way you can fix it." I was so weary that all this scarcely made an impression on my poor brain. But I had a vague feeling that the girl was right, and that I had acted very rashly. Indeed, I was not sure that Lottie's stout denial of that woman's work might not shake even Jessie's confidence in me. The distress and excitement of these thoughts shook my poor, quivering nerves, till I fell back into the old delirium, and after that no talking was allowed in my room for a long time. No wonder Mr. Lee started as if he had seen a ghost, when I crept by him in the passage leading to his wife's chamber, the first time that I was permitted to move from my room. The color mounted to his face. He paused, turned back and gave me his hand, striving to smile. I could not touch his hand, or even attempt to smile. He had wounded me too deeply for that.