I walked over to the foot of the bed.

"They're here," I said.

She sat up, and some letters slid to the floor.

"THEY'RE here!" she repeated. "Do you mean Dorothy?"

"She and her husband. They came last night at five minutes to twelve.
Their train was held up by the blizzard and they won't come in until
they see you. They're hiding in the shelter-house on the golf links."

I think she thought I was crazy: I looked it. She hopped out of bed and
closed the door into her sitting-room--Mrs. Hutchins' room opened off
it--and then she came over and put her hand on my arm.

"Will you sit down and try to tell me just what you mean?" she said.
"How can my sister and her--her wretch of a husband have come last night
at midnight when I saw Mr. Carter myself not later than ten o'clock?"

Well, I had to tell her then about who Mr. Pierce was and why I had
to get him, and she understood almost at once. She was the most
understanding girl I ever met. She saw at once what Mr. Sam wouldn't
have known in a thousand years--that I wanted to save the old place not
to keep my position--but because I'd been there so long, and my father
before me, and had helped to make it what it was and all that. And
she stood there in her nightgown--she who was almost a princess--and
listened to me, and patted me on the shoulder when I broke down, telling
her about Thoburn and the summer hotel.