Nurse Elisia Part 40

"Oh, I couldn't, miss; I couldn't, indeed."

"Then there is something," said Dana, "and--you shall tell me," she cried fiercely, as, in an Amazonlike fas.h.i.+on, she gripped the woman's arm. "Now then, you tell me. It's something about the nurse and--"

"Miss Dana, please don't. I'm so weak still," pleaded Maria.

"There, you as good as owned to it. What is it?"

"It's nothing, miss. I only sus--fancied something."

"Then speak out," cried Dana, sharply. "I will know before you go out of this room. Then it was them I saw across the park," she exclaimed excitedly.

Maria's eyes twinkled.

"You were thinking something about Mr Alison?"

"O Dan, you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" cried Saxa.

"Ought I? Never mind. It was what I suspected, but I wouldn't let myself believe it. Now, Maria, you speak out. I will know now."

"I dursn't, miss."

"You tell me directly, or it will be the worse for you and for him."

"I'm sure I don't know nothing, miss," said Maria, whimpering, "and you are hurting my arm."

"And I'm sure you do," cried Dana, loosening her grip and tearing off her glove. "There," she said, taking off a ring set with good-sized pearls, "tell me everything and I'll give you that."

Maria turned pale with excitement, and her right hand opened and shut.

"I dursn't, miss," she whispered hoa.r.s.ely. "It's more than my place is worth."

"If anything comes of what you tell you shall be maid to us, so speak out honestly. There, take the ring."

"Dana, I'm ashamed of you," whispered Saxa, as Maria's fingers closed upon the valuable jewel. "It's disgraceful."

"I don't care. He's playing fast and loose with me, and I'm not going to put up with it, so I tell you. Now then, I'll speak plainly, Maria, and you've got to speak plainly, too. Mr Alison has been making up to that nurse!"

"You won't tell on me, miss?" whispered Maria, in whose palm the ring seemed to burn as if the chaste, pale pearls were fiery rubies.

"No; I'll hold you safe."

"Then it is true, miss. He's always after her, and has been ever since she came."

"You lying hussy!" cried Saxa hotly. "If I were my sister I'd lash you with my riding whip--I mean shake you till you went down on your knees and owned it was out of spite."

"Lying hussy, am I?" cried Maria viciously, "when every word's true, and that isn't all, miss; Mr Neil's as bad or worse."

There was a sharp sound in the room, for Saxa had flashed up with rage and struck the woman sharply across the mouth with the back of her hand.

"A lie!" she cried. "Mr Neil Elthorne would not degrade himself by noticing such a woman."

"A lie, is it?" cried Maria, with her hand to her lips. "Then you shall have it now without paying me for it. It's a lie, I suppose, that he was going on with her all the time I was in hospital, and when he was down here and obliged to stay because of poor master's hurt--plotted and planned to get her down here, too? That's a lie, I suppose, miss? I'm not blind. I've seen a deal too much, and if that woman isn't soon turned out of the house I'm not going to stop."

"It--is--not--true," cried Saxa hoa.r.s.ely.

"And poor dear master lying there all helpless, and being cheated by 'em both. It's shameful; and how you young ladies can put up with it--"

"It can't be true," said Saxa furiously.

"Very well, miss, you know best," said Maria; "but I'm not going to stay here to be knocked about by the best lady as was ever born."

"Stop!" cried Saxa fiercely; and she caught the malignant woman's arm as she was making for the door. "I--I beg your pardon. Tell me, is all this true?"

"Yes, miss, it's true enough," said Maria, beginning to sob; and then, as her arm was loosened, she made for the door, trembling and frightened at what she had said in her bitter dislike to the woman who had almost saved her life.

"You had better go," said Dana, who was startled at the change which had come over her sister's face.

Maria waited for no more, but, repentant in her alarm, hurried out of the room, leaving the sisters alone.

Just then the great bell in the turret over the hall began to clang out its summons for dinner.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

"VERY BAD NEWS."

"Saxa! What is it? I say, don't stand looking in that stony way,"

cried Dana, seizing and shaking her sister by the shoulder.

"Don't, Dan," she said in a low, hoa.r.s.e voice. "But you look so strange."

"Yes; I've come a cropper," said Saxa, with a hard, set look in her handsome face. "Is--is it all true?"

"Yes," said Dana fiercely. "I can think of a dozen things now which go to prove it. I've had a faint suspicion for some time."

"I hadn't," said Saxa in the same low tone. "I did not think he cared much for me, but I thought him too much of a gentleman, and too loyal."

"They have both neglected us shamefully."

"Yes, sis, they have," continued Saxa slowly, "but I didn't mind so very much. I never cared for him a deal. I never felt that it was what people called love, but one has gone on for years with the idea that one was to marry Neil Elthorne, and I feel now as if I had come down heavily all at once, horse and all."

"Yes; they've fooled us both," cried Dana, and there was a deep silence in the house now, for the dinner bell had ceased to clang. "What are you going to do? We can't go in to dinner now."

"Do?"

"Yes, we can't pa.s.s this over in silence."

"No," said Saxa slowly, and as if she were thinking out her words before she spoke them. "I'm going in to poor old daddy to tell him how we've been thrown off the scent."

"It will half kill him."