“I know,” she retorted with great mock severity, “that this is my case; you’re my patient, and I’m the doctor and the nurse. And that you’re talking, while I believe the proper thing for people who are sick is to lie still. Also, you’re not going to die of starvation now. When I heard you stir, I was just making some soup for you. For—I’m the cook, too!”
When she had come back with a smoking bowl of broth, she set the thing down upon the floor for a moment while she insisted on propping him up with pillows. She shook her head at him when he opened his lips to protest, and thrust a spoonful of the soup between them by way of further silencing him.
“Good?” she demanded, when she had set the empty bowl down on the floor. “And now, do you know I am afraid that I have about reached the end of my medical knowledge! I’ve forbidden you to talk, and I’ve fed you some broth. What next?”
“There’ll be nothing next. I’m going to be all right soon.”
“Of course you are! But we must do something for your poor, hurt side. I have some liniment——”
“Just the thing,” he assured her. “I’ll give myself a good rubbing——”
“You are very stupid,” she frowned at him. “You will do nothing of the sort. I haven’t dismissed my case yet, have I, Mr. Man?”
“You’re discharged, Miss Girl!” he grinned up at her. “And my other name is Farley—Dick Farley.”
“I won’t be discharged that way, and my name is Virginia Dalton, and you lie right still, Dick Farley!” she laughed at him.
And when she came back she made him lie upon his left side while she slit his shirt from the shoulder down and bathed the bruised muscles with the stinging oil. The wrist, swollen and ugly, she bandaged with soft white cloth. When she had finished she sat back, flushed but triumphant, and nodded at him approvingly.