After some thought the answer came:
"You may have Miss Gemmell to-morrow afternoon, and two hours on Sunday."
"That will not suit me at all! Now, please forget all that has been said, and I will tell you that I Mrs. David Gemmell of Lake City, Michigan, am a poor tired woman, threatened with nervous prostration, have already chills of apprehension running down my back, coupled with flushes of expectation to my head." By this time Mary, the Lady Superintendent, and two other nurses present were all attention, and Belle added gravely:
"I want one of your best private rooms on Corridor B, where Miss Gemmell is on duty, and I should like to see the House Surgeon at once."
So Belle was comfortably and luxuriously established in the hospital, and the only drawback was that she had to be served with her meals in her room.
"What feasts we had—Mary and I," she said. "What fun! Before I left I had demoralized that whole hospital staff, and broken every rule in the institution. It did them all good."
"I hope you haven't been indiscreet," said I.
"Indiscreet?"
"You must remember that Mary braced herself up to go to the hospital when she was 'out' with you. Now you've gone and made so much of her that she'll think, whenever things become too hot for her, she has only to march straight back here again."
"She assures me she will graduate."