The tears trickled down and splashed saltly against her lips, but she kept her sobs under control, for crying was a luxury which was forbidden by the authorities, and could only be indulged in by stealth.
The night nurse thought that the patient had fallen asleep, but when she went off duty, and her successor arrived, she cast a suspicious glance at the humped-up bedclothes, and turned them down with a gentle but determined hand.
“Crying again?” she cried. “Oh, come now, I can’t allow that! What are you crying about on such a lovely, bright morning, when you have had such a good night’s rest?”
“I had a horrid night. I couldn’t sleep a bit. I feel so mum-mum-miserable!” wailed the patient dolefully. “I’m so tired of being in bed.”
“You won’t have very much longer of it now. Your temperature is lower than it has ever been this morning. You ought to be in good spirits instead of crying in this silly way. Come now, cheer up! I am not going to allow such a doleful face.”
“I’m very cheerful when I’m well. Ask Aunt Margaret if I’m not. I’ve a most lively disposition. Everyone says so,” whined Sylvia dismally. “I’m tired of everything and everybody. So would you be if you’d been in bed for two months.”
“Tired of me as well as the rest?”
“Yes, I am. You are a nasty, horrid, strict, cross thing.” But a smile struggled through the tears, and a thin hand stole out from beneath the clothes and pressed the white-sleeved arms in eloquent contradiction. Whatever Sylvia was tired of, it was certainly not this gentle, sweet-faced little woman who—humanly speaking—had brought her back from the verge of the grave. She snoodled her head along the pillow so as to lean it against the nurse’s shoulder, and said in weak, disconnected snatches, “I’m sorry—I’m so horrid. I feel so cross and low-spirited. I want—a change. Can’t you think—of something nice?”
“You are going to have some beautiful chicken-soup for your lunch. It is in a perfect jelly.”
“Hate chicken-soup! Hate the sight of soup! Want to have salmon and cucumber, and ice creams, and nice rich puddings.”