Page:The time spirit; a romantic tale (IA timespiritromant00snaiiala).pdf/114

 once very silently from the room. The bottle and the teaspoon went with her.

As soon as the door had closed Lady Wargrave said, "Johnnie, once more I feel bound to protest against the presence of the housekeeper in the library. If the state of your health really calls for such attention I will engage a trained nurse."

The Duke took up the Quarterly Review with an air of stolid indifference.

"I'll get one at once," she persisted. "There's a capable person who nursed Mary Devizes."

The Duke seemed unwilling to discuss the question, but at last, yielding to pressure, he said in a tone of dry exasperation:

"Mrs. Sanderson is quite capable of looking after me. She understands my ways, I understand hers."

"No one doubts her competence." The rejoinder was tart and hostile. "But that is hardly the point. The library is not the place for the housekeeper."

"I choose to have her here. In any case it is entirely my affair."

"People talk."

"Let 'em."

"It's an old quarrel, my friend." Growing asperity was in the voice of Charlotte. "You know my views on the subject of Mrs. Sanderson. We none of us like the woman. Considering the position she holds she has always taken far too much upon herself."

The Duke shook his head. "I must be the judge of that," he said.

"But surely it is a matter for the women of your family."