She still held her chain of keys. The sight of them made me cry worse. She shook one free, and Betty took it to the nurse''s cupboard, unlocked the door, and brought out a jar of grease. The grease was white and hard, like lard. Betty sat, took a handful of it, and began to work it into Nurse Bacon''s swollen fingers. Nurse Bacon winced again. Then she sighed, and her face grew smooth.
''That finds the mark!'' she said; and Betty chuckled.
I turned my head into my pillow and closed my eyes. If the house had been hell, and Nurse Bacon the Devil, and Betty a demon at her side, I could not have been more wretched. I cried until I could cry no more.
And then there came a movement beside my bed, and then a voice, very gentle.
''Come, my dear. You must not give in to tears.''
It was the pale old lady, Miss Wilson. She had put out her hand to me. I saw it, and flinched.
''Ah,'' she said then. ''You shrink from me. I don''t wonder at it. I am not quite in my right mind. You will grow used to that, here. Hush! Not a word. Nurse Bacon watches. Hush!''
She had taken a handkerchief from her sleeve, and made signs that I should dry my face. The handkerchief was yellow wi