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CHAPTER V


The few words I had with Nurse Benham the next morning cleared the air and the situation between us. The strange thing was that at first she did not notice the parcel at all, still loose and untidy in the paper in which Dr. Kennedy had enwrapped it. Not until I told her to be careful not to spill the tea over it did it strike her to wonder how it came there.

"Did Suzanne give you that?" she asked suspiciously.

"She has not been in my room since you left me."

"That's the very parcel you asked for the other night. How ever did you get hold of it?"

"After you left me I got out of bed and fetched it."

"You got out of bed!" She grew red in the face with rage or incredulity.

"Yes, twice. Once for the parcel and once for the scissors!"

She did not speak at once, standing there with her flushed face. So I went on:

"It is absurd for you to insist on me doing this or that, or leaving it undone. You are here to take care of me, not to bully and tyrannise over me."

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