She drew a deep breath, and the colour ebbed back into her face.

’Perhaps it may be a relief:  I am weary of silence,—­of trying to bear it alone; and other things are wearing me out.  Etta is not so far wrong, after all.’  And then she stopped, and looked at me wistfully, and her lips trembled.  ’Ursula, you are a nurse; you go about comforting sick bodies and sick minds.  If I am ill,—­one must be ill sometimes,—­will you promise to come and take care of me, in spite of all Etta may do or say?’

I hesitated for a moment, for it seemed to me impossible to give an unconditional promise, but she continued reproachfully, ’You cannot have the heart to refuse!  I wanted to ask you this before.  You would not, surely, leave me to eat out my heart in this loneliness!  If you knew what it is to have Etta with one at such times! an east wind would be more merciful and comforting.  I know I am expressing myself far too strongly, but all this excites me.  Do promise me this, Ursula.  Giles will not hinder you coming:  he appreciates you thoroughly:  it will only be Etta who may try to oppose you.’

Gladys was right; I had not the heart to refuse:  so I gave her the required promise, and she grew calmed at once.

‘Now that is settled, I can breathe more freely,’ she said presently.  ’I am afraid I am growing fanciful, but lately I have had such a horror of being ill.  Giles would be kind, I know,—­he is always kind in illness,—­but he lets Etta influence him.  Ursula, she influenced him and turned him against my poor boy; with all Giles’s faults,—­and he can be very hard and stern and unforgiving,—­I am sure that of his own accord he would never have been so harsh to Eric.’

’But Mrs. Maberley told me that Miss Darrell took your brother Eric’s part.’

’Yes, I know, she believes in Etta, and so does Giles; but she is not true; she has a dangerous way of implying blame when she is apparently praising a person:  have you never noticed this?  Giles was always more angry with Eric after Etta had been into the study to intercede for him.  If she would only have let him alone; but that is not Etta’s way:  she must make or mar people’s lives.’

There was a concentrated bitterness in Gladys’s voice, and her face grew stern.

’There was no love between them.  Eric detested Etta, and on her side I know she disliked him.  Eric never would tell me the reason; he was always hinting that he had found her out, and that she knew it, and that in consequence she wanted to get rid of him; but I thought it was all fancy on the poor boy’s part, and I used to laugh at him.  I wish I had not laughed now, for there was doubtless truth in what he said.’

‘You were very fond of him, Gladys?’ I asked softly, and as I spoke her face changed, and its expression grew soft and loving in a moment.