"No, thank goodness," she answered cheerfully; "and I don't mean to be ill. I have come to be vaccinated."
"Ah. that is wise," I said.
"You have heard, I suppose, that small-pox has broken out in the barracks?" she said when she was going. "There are fifteen cases, four of them women, and one a child, and they are going to put them under canvas on the common, and I shall be obliged to go and see that they are properly nursed. That is why I am in such a hurry. Military nursing is of the most primitive kind in times of peace. Our doctor is all that he should be, but what can he do but prescribe? It takes all his time just to go round and get through his ordinary duties."
"Did I understand you to say that you are going to look after the small-pox patients?" I asked politely.
"Yes," she answered defiantly. "I am going to be isolated with them out on the common. My tent is already pitched. I shall not take small-pox, I assure you."
"I don't see how you can be so sure," I said.
She gave me one of her most puzzling answers, one of those in which I felt there was an indication of the something about her which I did not understand.
"Oh, because it is such a relief!" she said.
"How a relief?" I questioned.
"Oh—I shall not take the disease," she repeated, "and I shall enjoy the occupation."