. I looked away
from her, but still felt her watching. And then she said, quite evenly, ''You have
come to Millbank, to look on women more wretched than yourself, in the hope
that it will make you well again.''—I remember the words very clearly, because they
were so gross, and yet came so close to the truth, that I heard them and blushed.
''Well,'' she went on, ''you may look at me, I am wretched enough. All the world may
look at me, it is part of my punishment.'' She had grown proud again. I said
something to the effect that I hoped my visits might serve to ease the harshness of
her punishment, not add to it; and she answered at once—as she had before— that
she didn''t need me to comfort her. That she had many friends, who came to
comfort her whenever she required it.
I stared at her. ''You have friends,'' I said, ''here?'' She closed her eyes, and made a
theatrical kind of pass at the front of her brow. ''I have friends, Miss Prior,'' she
answered, ''here.''
I had forgotten about this. Now, remembering it, I felt my cheek grew cool
again. She sat with her eyes quite shut; I think I waited until she had opened
them and then I said, ''You are a spiritualist. Miss Craven told me as much.'' Here
she tilted her head a little. I said, ''So, the friends that visit you, they
are—spirit-friends?'' She nodded. ''And they come to you—when?''