‘You must understand,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to be unkind, but I have my own life to consider. I am a very busy woman, and this has all been forced on me. I don’t want to seem brutal. I’m glad to have been of some assistance to you, but I think Mrs. Abbott is well enough to go home now—and I wish you all good night.’
‘I am sure,’ said Mrs. Edwards, looking up at her from the sofa, ‘that you’ve been kindness itself, Miss Herries. Ada recognises it, I’m sure. But to move her now would be to kill her, that’s all. Any movement and she’ll drop at your feet.’
‘We have nowhere to go,’ said Henry Abbott.
‘But Mrs. Edwards——’ began Miss Herries, her anger rising.
‘We have only two rooms,’ said Mrs. Edwards quietly. ‘I’m sorry, but just now, what with my husband coughing all night——’
‘Oh, but
