occupation. It
must have been about this time that a long cogitation with myself led
to the following conversations with Nurse Bundle and my father:--

"How old are you, Nurse?" I inquired, one forenoon, when she had
neatly arranged the tray containing my chop, wine, etc., by my chair.

"Five-and-fifty, love, come September," said Nurse Bundle.

"Do people ever marry when they are five-and-fifty, papa?" I asked
that evening, as I lay languid and weary on the sofa.

"Yes, my dear boy, sometimes. But why do you want to know?"

"I think I shall marry Nurse Bundle when I am old enough," I said,
with almost melancholy gravity. "She's a good deal older than I am;
but I love her very much. And she would make me very comfortable. She
knows my ways."

My father has often told me that he would have laughed aloud, but for
the sad air of utter weariness over my helpless figure, the painful,
unchildlike anxiousness on my thin face, and in my old-fashioned air
and attitude. I have myself quite forgotten the occurrence.

At last this most trying time was over, but the fever had left me
taller, weaker, and much in need of what doctors call "tone." All
concerned in the care of me were now unanimous in declaring that I
must have a "change of air."

There was some little difficulty in deciding where to go. Another
visit to Aunt Maria was out of the question. Even if London had been a
suitable place, the fear of infection for my cousins made it not to be
thought of.

"Where would _you_ like to go, Nurse?" I inquired one evening, as we
all sat in the boudoir discussing the topic of the day.

"I should like to go wherever it's best for your good health, Master
Reginald," was Nurse Bundle's answer, which, though admirable in its
spirit, did not further the settlement of the matter we found it so
difficult to decide.

"But where would you like to go for yourself?" I persisted. "Where
would you go if it was you going away, and nobody else?"

"Well, my dear, if it was me just going away for myself, I think I
should go to my sister's at Oakford."

This reply drew from me a catechism of questions about Oakford, and
Nurse Bundle's sister, and Nurse Bundle's sister's husband, and their
children; and when my father came to sit with me I had a long history
of Oakford and Nurse Bundle's relatives at my fingers' ends, and was
full of a new fancy, which was strong upon me, to go and stay for
awhile at Oakford with Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Bu