Maggie wrote
regularly to Edward; but since the note inquiring about the agency, she had
never heard from him. Whether her mother received letters she did not know;
but at any rate she did not express anxiety, though her looks and manner
betrayed that she was ill at ease. It was almost a relief to Maggie when
some change was given to her thoughts by Nancy's becoming ill. The damp
gloomy weather brought on some kind of rheumatic attack, which obliged the
old servant to keep her bed. Formerly, in such an emergency, they would
have engaged some cottager's wife to come and do the house-work; but now it
seemed tacitly understood that they could not afford it. Even when Nancy
grew worse, and required attendance in the night, Maggie still persisted in
her daily occupations. She was wise enough to rest when and how she could;
and, with a little forethought, she hoped to be able to go through this
weary time without any bad effect. One morning (it was on the second of
December; and even the change of name in the month, although it brought no
change of circumstances or weather, was a relief--December brought glad
tidings even in its very name), one morning, dim and dreary, Maggie had
looked at the clock on leaving Nancy's room, and finding it was not yet
half-past five, and knowing that her mother and Nancy were both asleep, she
determined to lie down and rest for an hour before getting up to light the
fires.
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