“You don’t kid me,” said the boy knowingly.
“Twenty! I shall be extremely annoyed if, whilst you are in the ward, you couple my name with Mr. West’s.”
“Shouldn’t think of doing so, Sister,” he said seriously. “If there’s one thing I can do better than another it is keeping a secret. Once I make up my mind to shut my mouth, wild ’orses wouldn’t open it.”
“I like him,” she went on (it appeared that the Sister was not averse to speaking of Myddleton West), “I like him very much, but it is possible to like a person, Twenty, without going so far as to become engaged.”
“Depends!”
“There are several courses open nowadays to women,” she said half to herself, and with something of enthusiasm. “It is no longer marriage or nothing for them. There are certain duties in the world—public duties—that a woman can take upon herself, and marriage would only interfere with their performance. The old idea of woman’s place in the world was, to my mind, not quite decent. We are getting away from all that, and we are coming to see that the possibilities—”
“Don’t he mind your taking up with this nonsense?” asked Bobbie. The boy’s interruption stopped the argumentative young woman. She laughed brightly at finding herself lecturing to Twenty on this subject, and, smoothing his pillow before she went, asked him with a smile whether he did not agree with her.
“I call it a silly ass of an idea,” he said frankly.
This was not the last talk that he had with the tall young Sister of the ward, and for some days in that week the ward inclined to mutiny on account of the disproportionate time that she gave to Twenty and to little Nineteen. It almost seemed that Nineteen showed signs of improvement under the combined influence of her visits and the companionship of Bobbie his neighbour; Bobbie’s predecessor had been a gloomy boy, with his own views in regard to details of eternal torments, and Bobbie’s optimism cheered the white-faced boy so much that when his tearful mother came to see him, being by special permission admitted at any time, she found herself debating with him on his walk in life when he should grow up, and discussing the relative advantages of the position of engine-driver as compared with that of policeman. Nineteen introducing his neighbour, Nineteen’s mother gave Bobbie two oranges and an illuminated card bearing minatory texts. Bobbie enjoyed the oranges.
“I think he’s better, nurse,” said Nineteen’s mother respectfully. “Seems to have got more colour, and—”