“I never saw one I wanted to marry till my cousin grew up,” he said.
“I belave in marryin’, meself. I was first married at sivinteen.”
“How long ago was that, Mrs. Barnes?”
“It’s long ago, Mr. Curtis. I’m an old woman now. I was thirty-five last birthday.”
Curtis came near laughing outright, for he suspected—what was true—that the nurse would never see her fiftieth birthday again.
“Then you are just my age,” he said.
“If I make him laugh he won’t suspect nothing,” soliloquized the wily nurse. “That’s a pretty big lie, even for me.”
“Shure I look older, Mr. Curtis,” she said, aloud. “What wid the worry of losin’ two fond husbands, I look much older than you.”
“Oh, your are very well preserved, Mrs. Barnes.”
Curtis went into his uncle’s chamber.