distasteful it might be on
the palate, and place blind faith in everyone else, especially nurses.
It was very good for a beginner; indeed, her experience of this sort of
thing was almost _nil_. But all she got for it was:--"Don't be
irritating, Gwen dear! Sit down there, where you are. Yes, that far off,
because I've something to say I want to say.... No--more in front, so
that I needn't move my head to see you.... Oh no--my _head's_ all right
in itself; only, when I move it, the pain won't move with it, and it
drags.... Suppose I shuffle off this mortal coil?"

Gwen immediately felt it her duty to point out the improbability of
anyone dying, but was a little handicapped by the circumstances
attendant on Typhus Fever. She had to be concise in unreason. "Don't
talk nonsense, Clo dear." The patient ignored the interruption. "Oh
dear!--give me another grape to suck without having to open my eyes....
Ta!--now I can talk a little more." The obliging nurse headed Gwen off
to a proper distance, and herself supplied the grape. In doing this she
smiled so hard that the tooth got a good long look at Gwen, who looked
another way. The patient resumed, speaking very much from her lofty
position of lecturer by her own bedside.

"You see, a percentage of cases recovers, but this one may not be in it.
However, the constitution is good.... No, Gwen dear, you know perfectly
well I may die, so where _is_ the use of pretending?" Whereupon Gwen
conceded the possibility of Death, and the patient seemed to be easier
in her mind; saying, as one who leaves trivialities, to settle down to
matters of business:--"I want to talk to you about my small boy, Dave
Wardle."

"Shall I go and see him at Sapps Court?"

"Yes--that's what I want. And then come back here and tell me ...
promise!" She was getting very indeterminate in speech, and the nurse
was signalling for the interview to close. So Gwen cut it short. But she
felt she had made a binding promise. She must go to Sapps Court.

Said Gwen to Dr. Dalrymple, a few minutes later, in the
sitting-room:--"I hope she hasn't talked too much." The doctor appeared
to have taken temporary possession, and to have several letters to
write.

"It makes very little difference," he said. "At present the decks are
only being cleared for action. In a few days we shall be in the thick of
it--pulse over a hundred--temperature a hundred and four--then a crisis.
When it's all over, we shall be able to see how ma