"It was a beastly motor omnibus—poor old Pilot bolted. We had a fight—I'd nearly got him under—and a fool of a boy came tearing round a corner yelling and waving a hoop in the air. Pilot bolted straight into a shop window—had to be shot."
She shivered. "And you?"
"Oh, I broke a leg, and cracked my skull, and broke a few ribs. Went to bed for a while. Then got up—went out for a walk—got drenched through—pneumonia and pleurisy—eternal bed. Hard lines, wasn't it?"
"Who nursed you?"
"Two of 'em. When I was a bit off my head you wouldn't believe how they worried me. You see, one had a red face and a blaze of red-gold hair, and the other had a great, pale moon-face and black hair, and the red-gold one was the night nurse, and the pale one the day nurse. I got sort of mixed and thought one was the sun and the other the moon, and I yelled and shouted and made such a row that they had to change! I couldn't stand having the sun blazing at night, and the moon by day. Funny, wasn't it?"
Nell was looking into the fire.
"Where were you?"
"House in Gowan Square, you know."
"But who—nursed you?"
"Those two poor things. I believe I led them an awful life—when I wasn't off my head, too! I got so beastly sick of it—" He stopped abruptly.