nonsense! I ain’t offended, Miss. I hope you may be able to think in your own conscience that it is nonsense; you’ll find your spirits all the better for it in this—you’ll excuse my being so free—in this burying-ground of a place; which is wearing of me down. Master Paul’s a little restless in his sleep. Pat his back, if you please."
"Of course you think," said Berry, gently doing what she was asked, "that he has been nursed by his mother, too?"
"Betsey Jane," returned Mrs. Wickam in her most solemn tones, "was put upon as that child has been put upon, and changed as that child has changed. I have seen her sit, often and often, think, think, thinking, like him. I have seen her look, often and often, old, old, old, like him. I have heard her, many a time, talk just like him. I consider that child and Betsey Jane on the same footing entirely, Miss Berry."
"Is your uncle’s child alive?" asked Berry.
"Yes, Miss, she is alive," returned Mrs. Wickam with an air of triumph, for it was evident. Miss Berry expected the reverse; "and is married to a silver-chaser. Oh yes, Miss, She is alive," said Mrs. Wickam, laying strong stress on her nominative case.
It being clear that somebody was dead, Mrs. Pipchin’s niece inquired who it was.
"I wouldn’t wish to make you uneasy," returned Mrs. Wickam, pursuing her supper. "Don’t ask me."
This was the surest way of being asked again. Miss Berry repeated her question, therefore; and after some resistance, and reluctance, Mrs. Wickam laid down her knife, and again glancing round the room and at Paul in bed, replied:
"She took fancies to people; whimsical fancies, some of them; others, affections that one might expect to see—only stronger than common. They all died."
This was so very unexpected and awful to Mrs. Pipchin’s niece, that she sat upright on the hard edge of the bedstead, breathing short, and surveying her informant with looks of undisguised alarm.
Mrs. Wickam shook her left forefinger stealthily towards the bed where Florence lay; then turned it upside down, and made several emphatic points at the floor; immediately below which was the parlour in which Mrs. Pipchin habitually consumed the toast.
"Remember my words, Miss Berry," said Mrs. Wickam, "and be thankful that Master Paul is not too fond of you. I am, that he’s not too fond of me, I assure you; though there isn’t much to live for—you’ll excuse my being so free—in this jail of a house!"
Miss Berry’s emotion might have led to her patting Paul too hard on the back, or might have produced a cessation of that soothing monotony, but he turned in his bed just now, and, presently awaking, sat up in it with his hair hot and wet from the effects of some childish dream, and asked for Florence.
She was out of her own bed at the first sound of his voice; and bending over his pillow immediately, sang him to sleep again. Mrs. Wickam shaking her head, and letting fall several tears, pointed out the little group to Berry, and turned her eyes up to the ceiling.
"Good-night, Miss!" returned Wickam softly. "Good-night! Your aunt is an old lady, Miss Berry, and it’s what you must have looked for, often."
