Would she throw back the curtain? If
so--what would happen next? Then it would become necessary to take the
new nurse into confidence, otherwise----Fanny did not put the
remainder of this sentence into words. It remained a terror: it meant
that if Vimpany found out where she had been and what she had seen and
heard, there would be two, instead of one, cast into a deep slumber.
The nurse turned from the bed, however, attracted by the half-open door
of the cupboard. Here were the medicine bottles. She took them out one
by one, looked at them with professional curiosity, pulled out the
corks, smelt the contents, replaced the bottles. Then she went to the
window, which stood open; she stepped out upon the stone steps which
led into the garden, looking about her, to breathe the soft air of noon
among the flowers.
She came back, and it again seemed as if she would examine the bed, but
her attention was attracted by a small book-case. She began to pull
down the books one after the other and to turn them over, as a
half-educated person does, in the hope of finding something amusing.
She found a book with pictures. Then she sat down in the armchair
beside the sofa and began to turn over the leaves slowly.
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