t. I must ask you to take it as it is."

"Oh, but really, I can't..." Esther continued in earnest protest,
really meaning it, feeling it impossible to accept favours from this
woman.

She was rudely cut short.

"Will you kindly leave me now? I have a great many things to attend
to. Good-bye."

That was all. Hot to the roots of her hair, Esther had left the room,
blindly colliding with Chalmers as she did so.

"I beg pardon, miss!" he apologized with his invariable courtesy. "I
hope I haven't hurt you?"

"Not at all, Chalmers, it was all my fault."

Then before she was out of earshot, she had heard him saying to his
mistress:

"I was going to ask, my lady, as I hear the nurse is about to leave,
whether you'd care to have Thompson drive her down to her hotel. He's
waiting to know."

The reply came crisp and uncompromising:

"Not at all; let her get herself a taxi."

It was the crowning touch to an exhibition of rudeness unparalleled in
her experience. Never before, happily, had she felt herself pushed out
of a house where she was neither needed nor wanted. She had served her
purpose, she could get herself a taxi and quit the premises.

Burning with indignation she returned forthwith to her room and began
throwing things into her trunk, anxious not to lose a minute in getting
away. Since the occasion when she had been forced to intervene between
Sir Charles and his wife, Esther had been afraid that the latter must
cherish resentment towards her, but till now there had been no open
sign of it. During the past ten days, indeed, Lady Clifford had spoken
very little to either of the nurses, but that little had been polite.
This abrupt change of attitude indicated plainly that tact was no
longer necessary. There was something superbly arrogant in the way in
which she washed her hands of Esther, lost no time about getting her
out of the house.

Stay--was it because of Roger's evident liking for her? Did Lady
Clifford resent that? Or could it be that she definitely wanted Esther
out of the way?

She was too deeply humiliated to think very clearly, and yet, sitting
there on her trunk, she felt her attention drawn by this new idea.
What if it was true that Lady Clifford was _afraid_ to have her in the
house? She had not had time properly to consider this fresh
possibility when a knock came at the door.

"Who is it? Come in," she called indifferently.

She expected one of the servants, come to i