"May I ask how you know all this?"
"As I told you, I'm a nurse, or rather going to be one. Oh, don't look so astonished and stare at my clothes. I'm very frivolous and expensive-looking, I know; but once I get to work, away goes all this into portmanteaux, and, with it, the world, the flesh, and the devil."
"I don't think he'll remain long in the portmanteau," said Graeme, looking at her mouth and dancing eyes.
"I don't mean him to; he goes with me when I have my day out, or whatever nurses have. Then I shall become frilly and pretty again, and make a night of it, see all the wickedness I can. That's my idea of life, Colonel Graeme, austerity or debauch. I love the veldt, I can saddle my own pony, shoot buck and koran, and cook as well as most chefs, but I must have a break-out sometimes; not a lady-like break-out—tea, dancing and flirtation—but the real thing."
Hector frowned. "You don't know what you're talking about," he said shortly.
"I do, perfectly. I said see the wickedness, Colonel Graeme, not take part in it. I'm not a man."
"You certainly could not go out by yourself; it wouldn't be—safe or—right," answered Hector, the value of social conventions dawning upon him for the first time.
"Nor proper, I suppose. Thank you for telling me, but, as it happens, I can take excellent care of myself, and if you've got a pair of foils on board I think it possible I might surprise you, though you are a soldier. Oh, listen, that's the 'Matschish,' which always thrills me, makes me feel I should like to have a lover. Oh, please, don't be obvious, I should hate it really, I only like to think about it, like Madeleine de Maupin, though that's not quite a parallel case either," she added, reflecting.
"Who was Madeleine de Maupin?"
"Oh, you've not read the book, that's all right then. I can talk about her. I'm afraid Madeleine was not a very correct person, like me. She too wanted to see life, and, if she could, find a perfect lover—not one who pretended to be, like most men, and talk afterwards when they're drunk, but someone she could trust when away from her. So she put on men's clothes, which I should hate, though in my fencing kit, white satin ... but perhaps you'll see me in that if you're nice and don't make love except when I want you to. That time is not now, Colonel Graeme," another look from the grey eyes arresting the movement of his hand towards hers.