第22章

"Get a wet sponge, Dad - quick!" she cried, "a sponge, - and, if you've got such a thing, a drop o' brandy.I'll see after her!"And then, after he had got the little medicine flask, "I can't think what's wrong with Ellen," said Daisy wonderingly."She seemed quite all right when I first came in.She was listening, interested-like, to what I was telling her, and then, suddenly - well, you saw how she was took, father? 'Taint like Ellen this, is now?""No," he whispered."No, 'taint.But you see, child, we've been going through a pretty bad time - worse nor I should ever have let you know of, my dear.Ellen's just feeling it now - that's what it is.She didn't say nothing, for Ellen's a good plucked one, but it's told on her - it's told on her!"And then Mrs.Bunting, sitting up, slowly opened her eyes, and instinctively put her hand up to her head to see if her hair was all right.

She hadn't really been quite "off." It would have been better for her if she had.She had simply had an awful feeling that she couldn't stand up - more, that she must fall down.Bunting's words touched a most unwonted chord in the poor woman's heart, and the eyes which she opened were full of tears.She had not thought her husband knew how she had suffered during those weeks of starving and waiting.

But she had a morbid dislike of any betrayal of sentiment.To her such betrayal betokened "foolishness," and so all she said was, "There's no need to make a fuss! I only turned over a little queer.

I never was right off, Daisy."

Pettishly she pushed away the glass in which Bunting had hurriedly poured a little brandy."I wouldn't touch such stuff - no, not if I was dying!" she exclaimed.

Putting out a languid hand, she pulled herself up, with the help of the table, on to her feet."Go down again to the kitchen, child";but there was a sob, a kind of tremor in her voice.

"You haven't been eating properly, Ellen - that's what's the matter with you," said Bunting suddenly."Now I come to think of it, you haven't eat half enough these last two days.I always did say - in old days many a time I telled you - that a woman couldn't live on air.But there, you never believed me!"Daisy stood looking from one to the other, a shadow over her bright, pretty face."I'd no idea you'd had such a bad time, father," she said feelingly."Why didn't you let me know about it? I might have got something out of Old Aunt.""We didn't want anything of that sort," said her stepmother hastily.

"But of course - well, I expect I'm still feeling the worry now.Idon't seem able to forget it.Those days of waiting, of - of - "she restrained herself; another moment and the word "starving" would have left her lips.

"But everything's all right now," said Bunting eagerly, all right, thanks to Mr.Sleuth, that is.""Yes," repeated his wife, in a low, strange tone of voice."Yes, we're all right now, and as you say, Bunting, it's all along of Mr.Sleuth."She walked across to a chair and sat down on it."I'm just a little tottery still," she muttered.

And Daisy, looking at her, turned to her father and said in a whisper, but not so low but that Mrs.Bunting heard her, "Don't you think Ellen ought to see a doctor, father? He might give her something that would pull her round.""I won't see no doctor!" said Mrs.Bunting with sudden emphasis."Isaw enough of doctors in my last place.Thirty-eight doctors in ten months did my poor missis have.Just determined on having 'em she was! Did they save her? No! She died just the same! Maybe a bit sooner.""She was a freak, was your last mistress, Ellen," began Bunting aggressively.

Ellen had insisted on staying on in that place till her poor mistress died.They might have been married some months before they were married but for that fact.Bunting had always resented it.

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If you won't go down to the kitchen again, then I must" - she turned to her stepdaughter, and the girl flew out of the room.

"I think the child grows prettier every minute," said Bunting fondly.

"Folks are too apt to forget that beauty is but skin deep," said his wife.She was beginning to feel better."But still, I do agree, Bunting, that Daisy's well enough.And she seems more willing, too.""I say, we mustn't forget the lodger's dinner," Bunting spoke uneasily."It's a bit of fish to-day, isn't it? Hadn't I better just tell Daisy to see to it, and then I can take it up to him, as you're not feeling quite the thing, Ellen?""I'm quite well enough to take up Mr.Sleuth's luncheon," she said quickly.It irritated her to hear her husband speak of the lodger's dinner.They had dinner in the middle of the day, but Mr.Sleuth had luncheon.However odd he might be, Mrs.Bunting never forgot her lodger was a gentleman.

"After all, he likes me to wait on him, doesn't he? I can manage all right.Don't you worry," she added after a long pause.