She gave a deep sigh and sank back in her chair. There was a minute of dead silence while she lay with her head upon her breast. Then with another sigh and a shiver she opened a pair of very bewildered blue eyes.
“Well, has he been?” she asked in a gentle feminine voice.
“Indeed, yes!” cried the patient. “He was great. He says I shall be in the class-room in two months.”
“Splendid! Any directions for me?”
“Just the special message as before. But he is going to put on two new spirit batteries if I can stand it.”
“My word, he won’t be long now!” Suddenly the girl’s eyes lit on Challenger and she stopped in confusion.
“This is Nurse Ursula,” said Miss Delicia. “Nurse, let me present you to the famous Professor Challenger.”
Challenger was great in his manner towards women, especially if the particular woman happened to be a young and pretty girl. He advanced now as Solomon may have advanced to the Queen of Sheba, took her hand and patted her hair with patriarchal assurance.
“My dear, you are far too young and charming for such deceit. Have done with it for ever. Be content to be a bewitching nurse and resign all claim to the higher functions of doctor. Where, may I ask, did you pick up all this jargon about cervical vertebræ and posterior foramina?”
Nurse Ursula looked helplessly round as one who finds herself suddenly in the clutches of a gorilla.