What Will He Do With It? Book XII

Lady Montfort has arrived at Clare Cottage. She is shown by Bridget Greggs into a small room upon the first floor; folding-doors to some other room closely shut -- evidences of sickness in the house; -- phials on the chimneypiece -- a tray with a broth-basin on the table -- a saucepan on the hob -- the sofa one of those that serve as a bed, which Sleep little visits, for one who may watch through the night over some helpless sufferer -- a woman's shawl thrown carelessly over its hard narrow bolster; -- all, in short, betraying that pathetic untidiness and discomfort which says that a despot is in the house to whose will order and form are subordinate; -- the imperious Tyranny of Disease establishing itself in a life that, within those four walls, has a value not to be measured by its worth to the world beyond. The more feeble and helpless the sufferer, the more sovereign the despotism -- the more submissive the servitude.

In a minute or two one of the folding-doors silently opened and as silently closed, admitting into Lady Montfort's presence a grim woman in iron grey.