Blind Love

The moment that Fanny left the room, the doctor addressed his friend in

English, with his eye on the door: "News for you, my boy! We are in a

pretty pickle--Lady Harry's maid understands French."

"Quite impossible," Lord Harry declared.

"We will put that to the test," Mr. Vimpany answered. "Watch her when

she comes in again."

"What are you going to do."

"I am going to insult her in French. Observe the result."

In another minute Fanny returned with the fresh water. As she placed

the glass jug before Mr. Vimpany he suddenly laid his hand on her arm

and looked her straight in the face. "Vous nous avez mis dedans,

drolesse!"* he said.

*In English: "You have taken us in, you jade!"

An uncontrollable look of mingled rage and fear made its plain

confession in Fanny's face. She had been discovered; she had heard

herself called "drolesse;" she stood before the two men self-condemned.

Her angry master threatened her with instant dismissal from the house.

The doctor interfered.

"No, no," he said; "you mustn't deprive Lady Harry, at a moment's

notice, of her maid. Such a clever maid, too," he added with his

rascally smile. "An accomplished person, who understands French, and is

too modest to own it!"

The doctor had led Fanny through many a weary and unrewarded walk when

she had followed him to the hospitals; he had now inflicted a

deliberate insult by calling her "drolesse" and he had completed the

sum of his offences by talking contemptuously of her modesty and her

mastery of the French language. The woman's detestation of him, which

under ordinary circumstances she might have attempted to conceal, was

urged into audaciously asserting itself by the strong excitement that

now possessed her. Driven to bay, Fanny had made up her mind to

discover the conspiracy of which Mr. Vimpany was the animating spirit,

by a method daring enough to be worthy of the doctor himself.

"My knowledge of French has told me something," she said. "I have just

heard, Mr. Vimpany, that you want a nurse for your invalid gentleman.

With my lord's permission, suppose you try Me?"

Fanny's audacity was more than her master's patience could endure. He

ordered her to leave the room.

The peace-making doctor interfered again: "My dear lord, let me beg you

will not be too hard on the young woman." He turned to Fanny, with an

effort to look indulgent, which ended in the reappearance of his

rascally smile. "Thank you, my dear, for your proposal," he said; "I

will let you know if we accept it, to-morrow."