To the speaker's intense alarm, she had not concluded this apparently harmless sentence when Prudence had a relapse so sudden and violent that it at once brought the medical woman on the scene. Without ceremony—her manners had never pleased Mrs. Dumaresq—she bundled the diplomatic lady into the corridor, and left her reflecting bitterly that since the new boarder's wife had betrayed such inconvenient knowledge of her family, Miss Lord had been much less civil.
After about twenty minutes the medical woman joined her, and enquired abruptly:
"What were you saying to her to set her off like that again?"
"Nothing at all. I cannot account for it. I only asked her for her sister's address that I might write to her. You heard the doctor say she ought to be told how ill Miss Prudence is."
"Look here," exclaimed the medical woman, "this is more of the mystery about her sister which I feel persuaded is at the bottom of her illness. You shouldn't have mentioned her at all, and the woman in such a state of nerves. I wish I could find out what really is the matter. It seems to me to be all of a piece."
