"We have very young children in the wards."
"And perhaps to be dangerously ill!"
"You must try to hope for the best."
"Ah, you speak like the hospital nurse to me!" he cried; "I was remembering the woman."
"I speak as what I am," she returned coldly; "I am one of the nurses. I have no remembrances, myself."
"You could remember this week, when we met again. And once you wouldn't have found it so impossible to spare a minute's kindness to my boy!"
She moved towards the door, paler, but self-contained.
"I must go now," she said; "I can't stay away long."
"You choose to forget only when something is asked of you!"
"I have told you," she said, turning, "that it is out of my power to do anything."