nce, before this monument of
composure, Lucy, like David Copperfield in the presence of the waiter,
suddenly felt very young.

"Thank you; I wish you would," she managed to stammer, hastily closing the
door.

She reflected with amusement, as she made her retreat, that there were
several things she had intended to caution the new nurse not to mention,
one being that it was Martin Howe who had brought her hither. But after
having once seen Melvina Grey, such warnings became superfluous and
absurd. There was no more probability of Melvina's imparting to Ellen the
circumstances of her coming than there was of the rocks on the mountain
side breaking into speech and voicing their past history. Therefore she
crept downstairs to the kitchen to prepare supper, pondering as she went
as to how Ellen and this strangely stolid attendant would get on
together.

"It will be like a storm dashing against granite cliffs," she thought
whimsically. "Well, there is one merciful thing about it--I shall not have
to worry about Melviny gossiping or telling tales."

In this assumption Lucy was quite right. Melvina Grey proved not only to
be as dumb as an oyster but even more uncommunicative than that
traditionally self-contained bivalve. Notwithstanding her cheery
conversation about the weather, the crops, Sefton Falls, the scenery, she
never trespassed upon personalities, or offered an observation concerning
her immediate environment; nor could she be beguiled into narrating what
old Herman Cole died of, or whether he liked his son's wife or not. This
was aggravating, for Melvina had been two years a nurse in the Cole family
and was well qualified to clear up these vexed questions. Equally futile,
too, were Ellen's attempts to wring from her lips any confidential
information about the Hoyles' financial tangles, despite the fact that she
had been in the house during the tragedy of Samuel Hoyle's failure and
had welcomed the Hoyle baby into the world.

"Why, the woman's a clam--that's what she is!" announced the exasperated
patient. "You can get nothin' out of her. She might as well not know
anything if she's going to be that close-mouthed. I don't believe hot
irons would drag the words out of her. Anyhow, she won't go retailin' our
affairs all over town after she goes from here; that's one comfort!"

Lucy endorsed the observation with enthusiasm. It was indeed just as well
that Melvina did not report in the sick room all that went on down