''I believe—let me see—we know so little of the passing seasons ... I should say, many years.''
''Two-and-twenty,'' said Nurse Bacon, still listening. ''For you were quite an old hand—were you not?—when I first come in as a young one. And that was fourteen years, this autumn.—Ah, press harder, Betty, there! Good girl.''
She pulled a face, let out her breath, and her eyes closed. I
thought in horror, Two-and-twenty years!—and the thought must have shown on my face, for Miss Wilson said,
''You must not think you shall stay so long as that. Mrs Price comes, every year; but her husband has her home again, when the worst of her spells are past. It was a husband, I think, who signed your order? It is my brother who keeps me here. But men want wives, when they may do without their sisters.'' Her hand rose. ''I would speak plainer, if I could. My tongue— You understand.''
''The man,'' I said, ''that has put me here, is a dreadful villain; and only pretends to be my husband.''
''That is hard for you,'' said Miss Wilson, shaking her head and sighing. ''That is the worst of all.''
I touched her arm. My heart, that had sunk, now rose like a float—so hard, it hurt me.
''You believe it,'' I said. I looked at Nurse Bacon; but she had heard me and opened her eyes.
''Don''t make anything of that,'' she said, in a comfortable voice. ''Miss Wilson believes all sorts of nonsense. Only ask her, now, what creatures live in the moon.''