"What must I do?" she asked."What will she want me to do?""It's only," said Martha, "if the pains come on very bad, to give her some drops.They're in a little green bottle by her bed.Five drops...yes, miss, five drops in a little green bottle.Only if the pains is very bad.She's brave--wonderful.I'd 'ave sat up till morning willing, and so of course would Miss Elizabeth.But she seemed to want you, miss."They were like two conspirators whispering there in the dark.The room within was so still.Maggie very softly pushed back the door and entered.She walked a few steps inside the room and hesitated.
There was no sound in the room at all, utter stillness so that Maggie could hear her own breathing as though it were some one else at her side warning her.Then slowly things emerged, the long white bed first, afterwards a shaded lamp beside it, a little table with bottles, a chair--beyond the circle of lighted shadow there were shapes, near the window a high glass, a dark shade that was the dressing-table, and faint grey squares where the windows hung.
In the room was a strange scent half wine, half medicine, and beyond that the plain tang of apples partially eaten, a little smell of oil too from the lamp--very faintly the figure of the Christ above the bed was visible.Maggie moved forward to the bed, then stopped again.She did not know what to do; she could see a dark shadow on the pillow that must she knew be her aunt's hair, and yet she did not connect that with her aunt.The room was cold and, she felt, of infinite space.The smell of the wine and the medicine made her shy and awkward as though she were somewhere where she should not be.
There came a little sigh, and then a very quiet, tired voice.
"Maggie, is that you?"
"Yes, Aunt Anne."
She came very close to the bed, and suddenly, as though a curtain had been drawn back, she could see her aunt's large eyes and white sharp face.
"It was very good of you, dear, to come.I felt ashamed to wake you up at such an hour, but I wanted you.I felt that only you must be with me to-night.It was a call from God.I felt that it must be obeyed.Sit down, dear.There, on that chair.You're not cold, are you?"Maggie sat down, gathering her dressing-gown close about her.She was not even now drawn right out of her dream, and the room seemed fantastic, to rise and fall a little, and to be filled with sound, just out of hearing.For a time she was so sleepy that she nodded on her chair, and the green lamp swelled and quivered and the very bed seemed to sway in the dark, but soon the cold air cleared her head, and she was wide awake, staring before her at the grey window-panes.