I am often ashamed of myself.

You see--" Lucy hesitated again for a longer period.

Rose waited.
"Mother has times of being very nervous," Lucy said, in a whisper.

"I sometimes think, when she follows me about so, that she is not for the time being quite herself." Rose started and looked at the other girl in horror.

"Why don't you have a doctor ?" said she.
"Oh, I don't mean that she--I don't mean that there is anything serious, only she has always been over-anxious about me, and at times I fancy she is nervous, and then the anxiety grows beyond limit.