“Why are you going to the library?” he asked her. It was in Lancaster.
“To look at the papers and magazines.”
“Ha-a! To find a job, eh?”
His cuteness startled her for a moment.
“If I found one I should take it,” she said.
“Hé! I know that,” he said.
It so happened that that very morning she saw on the notice-board of the library an announcement that the Borough Council wished to engage the services of an experienced maternity nurse, applications to be made to the medical board. Alvina wrote down the directions. Ciccio watched her.
“What is a maternity nurse?” he said.
“An accoucheuse!” she said. “The nurse who attends when babies are born.”
“Do you know how to do that?” he said, incredulous, and jeering slightly.