ou hear me? Maud Lilly and Richard Rivers. They have put me here—they have cheated and tricked me—they have made you think me her, and her me!''
He shook his head again, and drew close his brows; and again, he almost smiled. Then he said, slowly and very easily:
''But, my dear Mrs Rivers, why should they go to the trouble of doing that?''
I opened my mouth. Then I closed it. For, what could I say? I still supposed that if I only told him the truth, he would believe it. But the truth was I had plotted to steal a lady''s fortune; that I had made myself out a servant, when I was really a thief. If I had not been so afraid, and so tired, and so bruised from my night in the pads, I might have thought up a clever story. Now I could not think, at all. Nurse Bacon rubbed her hands and yawned. Dr Christie still watched me, with a humouring expression on his face.
''Mrs Rivers?'' he said.
''I don''t know,'' I answered at last.
Ah.''
He nodded to Dr Graves, and they began to move off.
''Wait! Wait!'' I cried.
Nurse Spiller came forward. ''That''s enough from you,'' she said. ''You are wasting the doctors'' time.''
I did not look at her. I watched Dr Christie turn from me, and saw beyond him the pale old lady, her fingers still chafing at her mouth; and the sad-faced woman with her hair pulled all before her eyes; and Betty, the idiot girl, her lip gleaming with sugar; and I grew wild again. I thought, ''I don''t care if they put me in a prison for it! Better a prison, with thieves and murderesses, than a madhouse!'' I said,