But he only called "No" curtly through the door,
and asked me to take that infernal dog away.
I went back to bed and tried to sleep, for the water had dropped an
inch or so on the stairs, and I knew the danger was over. Peter came,
shivering, at dawn, and got on to the sofa with me. I put an end of
the quilt over him, and he stopped shivering after a time and went to
sleep.
The dog was company. I lay there, wide awake, thinking about Mr.
Pitman's death, and how I had come, by degrees, to be keeping a cheap
boarding-house in the flood district, and to having to take impudence
from everybody who chose to rent a room from me, and to being called
a she-devil. From that I got to thinking again about the Ladleys, and
how she had said he was a fiend, and to doubting about his having gone
out for medicine for her. I dozed off again at daylight, and being
worn out, I slept heavily.
At seven o'clock Mr. Reynolds came to the door, dressed for the store.
He was a tall man of about fifty, neat and orderly in his habits, and
he always remembered that I had seen better days, and treated me as a
lady.
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