The Mill Mystery | Page 9

to
salute me and make me ask myself if there was a secret skeleton in this
house, that they feared so much the eyes of a stranger.
"But," the young man went hurriedly on, "she is not at all the kind of
person to have over my mother. How could we----" and there his voice
fell so as to become unintelligible.
But the doctor's sudden exclamation helped me out.
"What!" he wonderingly cried, "do you intend to sit up too?"
"I or my brother," was the calm response, "Would you expect us to

leave her alone with a stranger?"
The doctor made no answer, and the young man, taking a step sidewise,
threw me a glance full of anxiety and trouble.
"I don't like it," he murmured; "but there must be a woman of some
kind in the room, and a stranger----"
He did not finish his words, but it seemed as if he were going to say:
"And a stranger may, after all, be preferable to a neighbor." But I
cannot be sure of this, for he was not a man easy to sound. But what I
do know is that he stepped forward, to me with an easy grace, and
giving me a welcome as courteous as if I had been the one of all others
he desired to see, led me up the stairs to a room which he announced to
be mine, saying, as he left me at the door:
"Come out in five minutes, and my brother will introduce you to your
duties."
So far I had seen no woman in the house, and I was beginning to
wonder if Mrs. Pollard had preferred to surround herself with males,
when the door was suddenly opened and a rosy-cheeked girl stepped in.
"Ah, excuse me," she said, with a stare; "I thought it was the nurse as
was here."
"And it is the nurse," I returned, smiling in spite of myself at her look
of indignant surprise. "Do you want any thing of me?" I hastened to ask,
for her eyes were like saucers and her head was tossing airily.
"No," she said, almost with spite. "I came to see if you wanted any
thing?"
I shook my head with what good nature I could, for I did not wish to
make an enemy in this house, even of a chambermaid.
"And you are really the nurse?" she asked, coming nearer and looking
at me in the full glare of the gas.
"Yes," I assured her, "really and truly the nurse."
"Well, I don't understand it!" she cried. "I was always Mrs. Pollard's
favorite maid, and I was with her when she was took, and would be
with her now, but they won't let me set a foot inside the door. And
when I asked why they keep me out, who was always attentive and
good to her, they say I am too young. And here you be younger than I,
and a stranger too. I don't like it," she cried, tossing her head again and
again. "I haven't deserved it, and I think it is mighty mean."
I saw the girl was really hurt, so I hastened to explain that I was not the

nurse they expected, and was succeeding, I think, in mollifying her,
when a step was heard in the hall, and she gave a frightened start, and
hurried towards the door.
"So you are sure you don't want anything?" she cried, and was out of
my sight before I could answer.
There was nothing to detain me, and I hastened to follow. As I crossed
the sill I almost started too, at sight of the tall, slim, truly sinister figure
that awaited me, leaning against the opposite wall. He was younger
than his brother, and had similar features, but there was no charm here
to make you forget that the eye was darkly glittering, and the lip
formidable in its subtlety and power. He advanced with much of the
easy nonchalance that had so characterized the other.
"Miss Sterling, I believe," said he; and with no further word, turned and
led me down the hall to the sick-room. I noticed even then that he
paused and listened before he pushed open the door, and that with our
first step inside he cast a look of inquiry at the bed that had something
beside a son's loving anxiety in it. And I hated the man as I would a
serpent, though he bowed as he set me a chair, and was careful to move
a light he thought shone a little too directly in my eyes.
The other brother was not present, and I could give my undivided
attention to my charge. I found her what report had proclaimed her to
be, a handsome woman