Men are always fidgety."
Gyp looked at her, and said quietly:
"Yes. You see, my mother died when I was born."
The nurse, watching those lips, still pale with pain, felt a queer pang.
She smoothed the bed-clothes and said:
"That's nothing--it often happens--that is, I mean,--you know it has no
connection whatever."
And seeing Gyp smile, she thought: 'Well, I am a fool.'
"If by any chance I don't get through, I want to be cremated; I want to
go back as quick as I can. I can't bear the thought of the other thing.
Will you remember, nurse? I can't tell my father that just now; it might
upset him. But promise me."
And the nurse thought: 'That can't be done without a will or something,
but I'd better promise. It's a morbid fancy, and yet she's not a morbid
subject, either.' And she said:
"Very well, my dear; only, you're not going to do anything of the sort.
That's flat."
Gyp smiled again, and there was silence, till she said:
"I'm awfully ashamed, wanting all this attention, and making people
miserable. I've read that Japanese women quietly go out somewhere by
themselves and sit on a gate."
The nurse, still busy with the bedclothes, murmured abstractedly:
"Yes, that's a very good way. But don't you fancy you're half the
trouble most of them are. You're very good, and you're going to get
on splendidly." And she thought: 'Odd! She's never once spoken of her
husband.
Pages:
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165