The porter heard her calling Nella from an inner room, and then he heard
Nella's voice indistinctly. He waited before the open door.
Nella was a born chatterer, but she had her good qualities, and in an
emergency she was silent and skilful.
"Leave it to me," she said. "He will need no surgeon."
In her room she had a small store of simple remedies, sweet oil, a pot
of balsam, old linen carefully rolled up in little bundles, a precious
ointment made from the fat of vipers, which was a marvellous cure for
rheumatism in the joints, some syrup of poppies in a stumpy phial, a box
of powdered iris root, and another of saffron. She took the sweet oil,
the balsam, and some linen. She also took a small pair of scissors which
were among her most precious possessions. She threw her large black
kerchief over her head and pinned it together under her chin.
When she came back to Marietta's room, her mistress was wrapped in a
dark mantle that covered hear thin white dress entirely, and one corner
of it was drawn up over her head so as to hide her hair and almost all
her face. She was waiting by the door.
"I am going with you," she said, and her voice was not very steady.
"But you will be seen--" began Nella.
"By the porter."
"Your brother may see you--"
"He is welcome.
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