Bonny Jean, and A Severe Threat — page 194: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A SEVERE THREAT. 187 ‘‘Sir John,” he said, as he caught sight of the baronet’s bulky figure coming down the long corridor, ‘‘is there no responsible person whom you can procure to nurse Lady Sydney? ‘The women who are with her now are well enough, but I would rather see her in charge of an intelligent person, if possible, for all now depends upon the way in which she is nursed. ‘‘T Know of no such one as you describe,” returned the baronet. ‘‘If you chance to find a nurse suitable you will do me a favor by securing her at any price.” And then the baronet bowed the physician out to his carriage. Dr. Denzil went straight back to his office at Waltham, and sat down to muse over the case, and how Lady Sydney’s life hung by the frailest of threads, when suddenly a faint tap on the door of the office aroused him, and in response to his ‘‘come in,” a little old woman made her appearance.- Gray, and wrinkled, and bent, she was, with huge spectacles hiding her eyes; but spotlessly neat, and with an air of refinement. : ‘‘T have called to apply for the situation of nurse to Lady Sydney,” she began, in a low, fluttered tone. ‘‘Is the vacancy yet filled, doctor?” Dr. Danzil started. It seemed like an answer to his prayer ; for the worthy physician had been more troubled upon the sub- ject than any one could have imagined. He set himself to work to examine the applicant as to her capability, and her answers pleased him. He found her sensible, with strong nerves, and practical common sense—a born nurse. ‘The con- sequence was that Martha Winters, as she called herself, was immediately engaged, and sent up to Sydney House. In her lofty chamber, hung with rose-colored silk, with rare pictures on its tinted walls, anda few bits of statuary, worth their weight in gold ; with rich lace draperies at the long win- dows, and a carpet of softest white velvet, strewn with pink rose- buds—a very bower of beauty—lay Geraldine, Lady Sydney, comicbooks (ale)