"It's true, dear," said Lucy, leaving the window open; "I promised to
make you come down. They're all calling us now."
Rose slowly and painfully left the chest.
"I'm coming down; I'm coming down," she whispered. "It's very certain
she no longer needs me. They're going to send in a Sister of Mercy."
And she turned round, searching for her hat and shawl. Mechanically she
filled a basin of water on the toilet table and while washing her hands
and face continued:
"I don't know! It's been a great blow to me. We used scarcely to be nice
to one another. Ah well! You see I'm quite silly over it now. Oh! I've
got all sorts of strange ideas--I want to die myself--I feel the end of
the world's coming. Yes, I need air."
The corpse was beginning to poison the atmosphere of the room. And after
long heedlessness there ensued a panic.
"Let's be off; let's be off, my little pets!" Gaga kept saying. "It
isn't wholesome here."
They went briskly out, casting a last glance at the bed as they passed
it. But while Lucy, Blanche and Caroline still remained behind, Rose
gave a final look round, for she wanted to leave the room in order. She
drew a curtain across the window, and then it occurred to her that the
lamp was not the proper thing and that a taper should take its place.
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