have come here from pure good-nature and
anxiety to help others. Don't go away, there,
to the window. Come and sit down by me."

Mrs. Jazeph had risen from the trunk, and
was approaching the bedside—when she
suddenly turned away in the direction of the
fire-place, just as Mrs. Frankland began to
speak of her father.

"Come, and sit here," reiterated Rosamond,
getting impatient at receiving no answer.
"What in the world are you doing there at
the foot of the bed?"

The figure of the new nurse again
interposed between the bed and the fading evening
light that glimmered through the window,
before there was any reply.

"The evening is closing in," said Mrs.
Jazeph, "and the window is not quite shut.
I was thinking of making it fast, and of
drawing down the blind—if you had no
objection, ma'am?"

"O, not yet! not yet! Shut the window,
if you please, in case the baby should catch
cold, but don't draw down the blind. Let me
get my peep at the view as long as there is
any light left to see it by. That long flat
stretch of grazing-ground out there, is just
beginning, at this dim time, to look a little
like my childish recollections of a Cornish
moor. Do you know anything about Cornwall,
Mrs. Jazeph?"

"I have heard" — At those first three
words of reply the nurse stopped. She was
just then engaged in shutting the window
and she seemed to find some difficulty in
closing the lock.

"What have you heard?" asked
Rosamond.

"I have heard that Cornwall is a wild,
dreary country," said Mrs. Jazeph, still
busying herself with the lock of the window,
and, by consequence, still keeping her back
turned on Mrs. Frankland.

"Can't you shut the window, yet?" said
Rosamond." My maid always does it quite
easily. Leave it till she comes up, I am going
to ring for her directly. I want her to brush
my hair and cool my face with a little Eau de
Cologne and water."

'' I have shut it, ma'am," said Mrs. Jazeph,
suddenly succeeding in closing the lock.
"And, if you will allow me, I should be very
glad to make you comfortable for the night,
and save you the trouble of ringing for the
maid."

Thinking the new nurse the oddest woman
she had ever met with, Mrs. Frankland
accepted the offer. By the time Mrs. Jazeph
had prepared the Eau de Cologne and water,
the twilight was falling softly over the
landscape outside, and the room was beginning to
grow dark.

"Had you not better light a candle?"
suggested Rosamond.

"I think not, ma'am," said Mrs. Jazeph,
rather hastily. "I can see quite well
without."

She began to brush Mrs. Frankland's hair
as she spoke; and, at the same time, asked a
question which referred to the few words
that had passed betwen them on the
subject of Cornwall. Pleased to find that the
new nurse had grown familiar enough at last
to speak before she was spoken to, Rosamond
desired nothing better than to talk about her
recollections of her native county. But, from
some inexplicable reason, Mrs. Jazeph's touch,
light and tender as it was, had such a
strangely disconcerting effect on her, that
she could not succeed, for the moment, in
collecting her thoughts so as to reply, except
in the briefest manner. The careful hands of
the nurse lingered with a stealthy gentleness
among the locks of her hair; the pale, wasted
face of the new nurse approached, every now
and then, more closely to her own than appeared
at all needful. A vague sensation of uneasiness
which she could not trace to any particular
part of her —which she could hardly say
that she really felt, in a bodily sense, at all—
seemed to be floating about her, to be hanging
around and over her, like the air she
breathed. She could not move, though she
wanted to move, in the bed; she could not
turn her head so as to humour the action of
the brush; she could not look round; she
could not break the embarrassing silence which
had been caused by her own short, discouraging
answer. At last the sense of oppression
—whether fancied, or real—irritated her
into snatching the brush out of Mrs. Jazeph's
hand. The instant she had done so, she felt
ashamed of the discourteous abruptness of
the action, and confused at the alarm and
surprise which the manner of the nurse
exhibited. With the strongest sense of the
absurdity of her own conduct, and yet without
the least power of controlling herself,
she burst out laughing, and tossed the brush
away to the foot of the bed.

"Pray don't look surprised, Mrs. Jazeph,"
she said, still laughing without knowing why,
and without feeling in the slightest degree
amused. "I'm very rude and odd, I know.
You have brushed my hair delightfully; but
I can't tell how it seemed, all the time, as
if you were brushing the strangest fancies
into my head. I can't help laughing at them
—I can't, indeed! Do you know, once or
twice, I absolutely fancied, when your face
was closest to mine, that you wanted to kiss
me! Did you ever hear of anything so
ridiculous? I declare I am more of a baby, in
some things, than the little darling here by
my side!"

Mrs. Jazeph made no answer. She left
the bed while Rosamond was speaking, and
came back, after an unaccountably long delay,
with the Eau de Cologne and water. As she
held the basin while Mrs. Frankland bathed
her face, she kept away at arm's length, and
came no nearer when it was time to offer the
towel. Rosamond began to be afraid that
she had seriously offended Mrs. Jazeph, and