"Yes, and as I have told you he was most kind. But of course Cherry did not know him, and she kept on crying for you----"
Chloe, who had intended the last words kindly, thinking to please him by this proof of the child's affection for him, was aghast at the result of her speech.
"Mrs. Carstairs, for God's sake don't tell me that!" Anstice's voice almost frightened her, so bitter, so full of remorse was it. "It only wanted that to make the horror complete--the knowledge that I failed a little child in her need!"
"The horror?" She stared at him. "I don't understand."
"No, and there's no reason why you should." With a great effort he resumed his ordinary tone. "Mrs. Carstairs, forgive me. I ... as you know--I was--ill--last night, and I'm not quite myself this morning. But"--he turned the subject resolutely--"what I want to say is this. Cherry will need very careful nursing for some days, and I think it will be well for me to send you a nurse."
Chloe received the suggestion rather dubiously.
"Do you think it is really necessary?" she said at length. "I'm as strong as a horse, and as for Tochatti, I'm afraid she wouldn't like to feel herself superseded. She is devoted to Cherry, you know, and she is a very jealous woman."
"Yes," he said, "but even although you and Tochatti are ready to give yourselves up to the child, in a case of this sort skill is wanted as well as affection." He smiled to soften the harshness of his words, and Chloe inconsequently thought that he looked very weary this morning.
"Of course, and if we don't prove competent you are at liberty to send us a nurse. But"--she spoke rather wistfully--"mayn't we try, Tochatti and I? I would a thousand times sooner nurse Cherry myself than let a stranger be with her."
Touched by something in her voice, remembering also the peculiar position in which this woman stood--a wife without a husband, with no one in the world, apparently, to care for her save her child--Anstice yielded the point for the moment.
"Very well, then. We will try this arrangement first, and if Cherry goes on well there will be no need to call in other help. Now I should like to see Tochatti, and give you both instructions."
Without a word Chloe led him back to the smaller bedroom where Cherry lay uneasily dozing; and Anstice beckoned to Tochatti to approach the window.