"Nothing! Pray, how often has it occurred?"
"Once or twice. I must take your advice, and be quiet, that is all."
Staines examined the housemaid; she lied instinctively at first, seeing
he was alarmed; but, being urged to tell the truth, said she had seen it
repeatedly, and had told the cook.
He went down-stairs again, and sat down, looking wretched.
"Oh, dear!" said Rosa. "What is the matter now?"
"Rosa," said he, very gravely, "there are two people a woman is mad to
deceive--her husband and her physician. You have deceived both."
CHAPTER X.
I suspect Dr. Staines merely meant to say that she had concealed from
him an alarming symptom for several weeks; but she answered in a hurry,
to excuse herself, and let the cat out of the bag--excuse my vulgarity.
"It was all that Mrs. Vivian's fault. She laughed at me so for not
wearing them; and she has a waist you can span--the wretch!"
"Oh, then, you have been wearing stays clandestinely?"
"Why, you know I have. Oh, what a stupid! I have let it all out."
"How could you do it, when you knew, by experience, it is your death?"
"But it looks so beautiful, a tiny waist."
"It looks as hideous as a Chinese foot, and, to the eye of science, far
more disgusting; it is the cause of so many unlovely diseases.
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