girl! You must be no more than sixteen.''
She had come close, and made to catch at my arm. I drew away from her.
''Will you listen to me?'' I said.
''Listen to you? La, if I listened to all the rubbish I heard in this house, I should go mad myself. Come on, now.''
Her voice, that had started off mild, grew sharper. She took hold of my arm. I flinched from the feel of her fingers. ''Watch her,'' said Nurse Spiller, seeing me twitch.
I said, ''If you''ll only not touch me, I''ll go with you, wherever you want.''
''Ho!'' said the dark nurse then. ''There''s manners. Come with us, will you? Very grateful, I''m sure.''
She pulled me and, when I tugged against her grip, Nurse Spiller came to help her. They got their hands beneath my arms and more or less lifted me, more or less dragged me, out of the room. When I kicked and complained—which I did, from the shock of it—Nurse Spiller got those great hard fingers of hers into my arm-pit, and jabbed. You can''t see bruises in an arm-pit. I think she knew it. ''She''s off!'' she said, when I cried out.
''That''s my head ringing for the rest of the day,'' said the other. And she gripped me tighter and shook me.
Then I grew quiet. I was afraid I should be punched again. But I was also looking hard at the way we were taking—at the windows and the doors. Some doors had locks. All the windows had bars on. They looked over a yard. This was the back part of the house— what should have been, in a house like Briar, the servants'' part. Here it was given over to nurses. We met two or three of them as we walked. They wore aprons and caps, and carried baskets, or bottles, or sheets.