She huddled nearer the fire, feeling cold and physically sick. And
suddenly the thought came to her: 'If I don't let the servants know
I'm here, they might go out and see what I saw!' Had she shut the
drawing-room window when she returned so blindly? Perhaps already--! In
a fever, she rang the bell, and unlocked the door. The maid came up.
"Please shut the drawing-room, window, Ellen; and tell Betty I'm afraid
I got a little chill travelling. I'm going to bed. Ask her if she can
manage with baby." And she looked straight into the girl's face. It wore
an expression of concern, even of commiseration, but not that fluttered
look which must have been there if she had known.
"Yes, m'm; I'll get you a hot-water bottle, m'm. Would you like a hot
bath and a cup of hot tea at once?"
Gyp nodded. Anything--anything! And when the maid was gone, she thought
mechanically: 'A cup of hot tea! How quaint! What should it be but hot?'
The maid came back with the tea; she was an affectionate girl, full of
that admiring love servants and dogs always felt for Gyp, imbued, too,
with the instinctive partisanship which stores itself one way or the
other in the hearts of those who live in houses where the atmosphere
lacks unity. To her mind, the mistress was much too good for him--a
foreigner--and such 'abits! Manners--he hadn't any! And no good would
come of it.
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