ll the time. If you had any idea
what it is to live in a flat this size, with five small children
tumbling over each other all day long, laughing and quarrelling and
getting into mischief on every conceivable occasion, behaving like
perfect little fiends one hour and angels straight from heaven the
next--well, you would realise that there isn't much time left over to
sit down and nurse a private woe!"

He smiled. He smiles, as the Scotch say, "with deefficulty". The lines
of his face are all set for gravity and reserve.

"That is so. But at night? After such a tornado the solitary evenings
must seem lonelier than ever."

"I don't imagine there is much time for reflection. There is generally
some work to keep him going. Rupert has a weakness for dropping things
down the sinks. Last week, for a change, he drove a nail into a
gas-pipe. And there are the bills to pay, and new things to order, and
endless notes of inquiry and arrangements to be written. His evenings
are well filled up."

"I see you are a believer in counter-irritants." The deep-set eyes
rested on me with a speculative glance. A practical, unimaginative
woman, who has neither understanding nor sympathy for romance--that was
obviously the verdict. If he only knew! If he only knew!

Presently Mr Thorold came back and said the doctor would come round
almost at once. Would I be so very good as to stay to hear his verdict?
Miss Brown was not much use in cases of illness. She lost her head.
The trouble to me seems to be that she has lost her heart--if she ever
had one to lose!

The doctor said that Billie had bronchitis, and that his lungs were not
quite clear. Someone must sit up with him, keep a bronchitis kettle
going, and see that he did not kick off the clothes. His temperature
must be taken at certain hours. A great deal might depend upon the next
few hours. He was afraid it might be difficult to get in a nurse before
morning. Was there anyone who could--

Miss Brown promptly put herself out of the running, so what was there
left for me to do but modestly to confess that I had passed two Red
Cross examinations, could flick a thermometer with the best, and baffle
the tricks of the most obstinate bronchitis kettle that ever
overbalanced itself, or spat hot water instead of steam.

The three men stood round looking at me with big, grateful eyes, and
though I was honestly sorry about Billie, deep down at the bottom of my
heart I _gl