Her Last Stake, Chapters I-V [pp. 815-839]

HIER LAST STAKE.
was her listener's calm comment, as she strove to convey as
delicately as possible the proprietor's demand. "He wants to
be paid-naturally. And I-I have nothing to pay him with.
He has already taken all that was here, you say?"
"Everything of value except your watch; that is here,"
answered Sister Gabrielle, lifting it from the mantel-piece as she
spoke.
"Ah, that is well! Give it to me here, please. I may need
it yet." And she hid it carefully beneath her pillow, and lay
back, evidently thinking painfully, for some time.
"Will you get me some paper, and a pen and ink, please?"
she said at length with a visible effort. They were brought to
her, and slowly, writing evidently with as much mental as bodily pain, she traced a few lines on two separate sheets of paper,
and placed each in an envelope, which she addressed.
"Will you ask the proprietor to stamp these and send
them?" she asked.
"I will go down with them myself," said the nun, glad to
show that her mission had been so far successful. And she ran
lightly down the three long flights of stairs to the tiny bureau
where M. Grosjean sat all day long, like a merry spider in the
centre of his web.
"What do you think now?" he exclaimed as he saw her;
"that unfortunate patient of yours is destined to bring me
nothing but misfortune. Her opposite neighbor has caught the
fever!"
"Dear me, that is dreadful!" agreed the nun.
"I think the doctor wishes to ask you to undertake the
case," went on M. Grosjean; "you see it is very difficult to find
a nurse now; there is so much illness about that they are all
engaged."
"My present patient is hardly well enough to be left yet,"
objected Sister Gabrielle.
"She will have to be left, however," retorted the proprietor,
"for I do not intend to support a nurse for her any longer. It
is hard enough for me to have to keep her-which, of course,
I shall only do until she is well enough to leave."
Sister Gabrielle felt somewhat bewildered and shocked at
this new turn that things were taking. She had not realized
before that her very presence there was, in the eyes of the proprietor, an extra and uncalled-for expense, added to the burden
which poor Miss Falconer was already felt to be. As she was
extremely anxious to remain near her lonely patient, she began
826
[Mar.,