“Wouldn’t you like some tea, Nurse?” Evangeline suggested. “Strickland is sure to be making some if it is eleven o’clock.”
“I don’t mind leaving you for half an hour if that is what you want,” said the nurse with a smile. “But don’t talk about any worries, there’s a dear, or you will get your temperature up again. You’ll not let her tire herself, will you?” she said to Teresa. “And I’ll leave this little bell here in case you want anything.”
“Everything is quite all right, you know,” she said soothingly, as she arranged the bedclothes before departing. “Your husband sent you his best love when he went off this morning, only you were asleep and he wouldn’t disturb you. And everything is ready for the little boy when he comes. He will be pleased to see his Mummy again, won’t he?”
“Oh yes, yes,” said Evangeline, “it is all right. Do go and get your tea, Nurse; we won’t do anything.”
“Well, did you see him?” she asked eagerly, when the nurse had gone.
“Yes, I did. He was very nice about you. He asked me to write and tell him how you are, and I said I would.”
“Forgive me, Dicky, for not telling you what I meant to do,” said Evangeline. “But I knew it would make you miserable, and I couldn’t stand discussion.”
“I don’t mind that a bit,” she answered, “but if you get into a mess again, Chips, do tell Father. I think Mother’s way of deceiving men on principle is a mistake, apart from whether it is right or wrong. I think you could have got Evan to do anything you liked if you had told Father, because, after all, it was quite reasonable, only I expect he didn’t in the least understand. You told me once that if you want to make him see your side of the argument you have to translate it into different terms, because he uses other ways of expressing the same things. You see, Father would probably have used very bad language and said that the school Evan wanted was kept by a lot of damned tea-drinking, blanketty-blank-I-don’t-know-what’s, and then Evan would have understood that it wasn’t really a good plan.”
“Well, it is done now and he is gone,” said Evangeline. “I shall never see him again. I’ve deceived him and that is the end. But if he hadn’t told Mrs. Vachell what he meant to do I should never have found out. I knew nothing about the school until she told me.”
“Didn’t you! Oh, Chips, how horrid! But then, he must have deceived you, too, so it is rather like what Mother says about being ‘taught to be wicked.’ It is so odd if you come to think of it that what she says should really come true, perhaps for the first time; though it is too near the bone to be so funny as it might be.”