Blind Love

"The time has come at last," said the doctor that evening, when the two

men were alone, "for this woman to go. The man is getting well rapidly,

he no longer wants a nurse; there is no reason for keeping her. If she

has suspicions there is no longer the least foundation for them; she

has assisted at the healing of a man desperately sick by a skilful

physician. What more? Nothing--positively nothing."

"Can she tell my wife so much and no more?" asked Lord Harry. "Will

there be no more?"

"She can tell her ladyship no more, because she will have no more to

tell," the doctor replied quietly. "She would like to learn more; she

is horribly disappointed that there is no more to tell; but she shall

hear no more. She hates me: but she hates your lordship more."

"Why?"

"Because her mistress loves you still. Such a woman as this would like

to absorb the whole affection of her mistress in herself. You laugh.

She is a servant, and a common person. How can such a person conceive

an affection so strong as to become a passion for one so superior? But

it is true. It is perfectly well known, and there have been many

recorded instances of such a woman, say a servant, greatly inferior in

station, conceiving a desperate affection for her mistress, accompanied

by the fiercest jealousy. Fanny Mere is jealous--and of you. She hates

you; she wants your wife to hate you. She would like nothing better

than to go back to her mistress with the proofs in her hand of such

acts on your part--such acts, I say," he chose his next words

carefully, "as would keep her from you for ever."

"She's a devil, I dare say," said Lord Harry, carelessly. "What do I

care? What does it matter to me whether a lady's maid, more or less,

hates me or loves me?"

"There spoke the aristocrat. My lord, remember that a lady's maid is a

woman. You have been brought up to believe, perhaps, that people in

service are not men and women. That is a mistake--a great mistake.

Fanny Mere is a woman--that is to say, an inferior form of man; and

there is no man in the world so low or so base as not to be able to do

mischief. The power of mischief is given to every one of us. It is the

true, the only Equality of Man--we can all destroy. What? a shot in the

dark; the striking of a lucifer match; the false accusation; the false

witness; the defamation of character;--upon my word, it is far more

dangerous to be hated by a woman than by a man. And this excellent and

faithful Fanny, devoted to her mistress, hates you, my lord, even

more"--he paused and laughed--"even more than the charming Mrs. Vimpany

hates her husband. Never mind. To-morrow we see the last of Fanny Mere.

She goes; she leaves her patient rapidly recovering. That is the fact

that she carries away--not the fact she hoped and expected to carry

away. She goes to-morrow and she will never come back again."