"Yes, older and better—altogether different. You'd never believe how clever Prin is, and pretty too—I call her the Princess."
"I hope she is good to you?"
"I should think she is," said Bert stoutly; "when she is at home," he added, as an afterthought.
The claims of duty prevented the nurse from pursuing her inquiries. She hastily bid Bert good-bye, and he walked away with a very serious face, striving hard to keep the tears from his eyes.
A pleasant sense of freedom came to him, however, when he found himself outside the walls of the hospital. After all it was good to be able to move about and go where he listed. Bert was not conscious of weakness. A broken bone is not like a disease; he had eaten and slept well during his stay in the hospital, and having had much more nourishing food than he was able to provide for himself, he had gained rather than lost strength since his accident. He felt in no hurry to reach the miserable street in which he lived, though he anticipated with pleasure the welcome he would receive from the old sailor.
Had he known the hour of his dismissal, Mr. Corney might have come to the hospital to fetch Bert; but probably the old man would have found it impossible to leave his sister, whom he needed to watch constantly, if he would save her from the intemperance that threatened to prove fatal to her.
It was in the afternoon that Bert came out of St. George's Hospital, and the gay traffic which distinguishes Hyde Park Corner was at its greatest height. He stood for a while to watch the smart equipages that went by, half expecting to catch sight of Prin seated in one of them. Presently, he crossed the road and examined with interest the place where his accident had occurred.
"It was just here I caught sight of the Princess," he said to himself. "I could hardly believe my eyes, at first, and even now it seems to me like a dream. I wonder where she is. Is she still in London? Surely if she were, she would try to see me."
With the thought, a sudden fear smote Bert.
What if Prin had been to the street to seek him, while he was in the hospital, and, not finding him, had given up the search! "But surely I should have heard of it if she had been there," thought Bert. "Mr. Corney would have told me."