The three plunged after her: "Oh, m'am! M'am! Whatever is it?"
The devoted woman paused at the head of the stairs; screamed down
orders: "Sticking-plaster! Lint! Cotton-wool! Mr. Bob has had an
accident! Hot-water bottles! Ice! Doctor! Go for the doctor, one of
you!"
A figure with battered face above vest and pants bounded from its
room. "No!" Bob roared. "No!"
"No!" Mrs. Chater echoed, not knowing to what the negative applied,
but hysterically commanding it.
"No!" screamed the agitated servants, one to another.
"No! no doctor!" bellowed Bob; grabbed the can from his mother; shot
back to his room.
"No doctor!" Mrs. Chater screamed to the white-faced pack upon the
stairs; fled after him.
"My boy! Tell me!"
Her boy raised his dripping face from the basin. "For God's sake shut
the door!" he roared.
She did. "Tell me!" she trembled.
"It's that damned girl."
"That girl?"
"Miss Humfray!"
"Miss Humfray! Done that to you! Oh, your poor face! Your poor face!"
"No!--no! Do be quiet, mother! Some infernal man she goes about with
in the Park! I spoke to him and he set on me!"
"The infamous creature! The wicked, infamous girl! A bad girl, I knew
it!--"
Agitated tapping at the door: "The cotton-wool m'am." "Sticking-
plaster, m'am." "'Ot bottle, m'am.
Pages:
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185