'This is all wrong,' said she, with a faint bewildered smile, as Mary
filled up her cup for her. 'I ought to be treating you as guest,
Miss May.'

'Oh, don't call me Miss May! Call me Mary. Think me a sister. You
know I have known something of like trouble, only I was younger, and
I had my sisters.'

'I do not seem to have felt anything yet,' said Averil, passing her
hands over her face. 'I seem to be made of stone.'

'You have done: and that is better than feeling.'

'Done! and how miserably! Oh, the difference it might have made, if
I had been a better nurse!'

'Papa and Dr. Spencer both say you have been a wonderful nurse,
considering--' the last word came out before Mary was aware.

'Oh, Dr. May has been so kind and so patient with me, I shall never
forget it. Even when I scalded his fingers with bringing him that
boiling water--but I always do wrong when he is there--and now he
won't let me go back to Leonard.'

'But, Averil, the best nurse in the world can't hold out for ever.
People must sleep, and make themselves fit to go on.'

'Not when there is only one:' and she gasped.