"

"No," says he, "but I'm sorry for the ghost that would run up against
you, Jessop--honestly, I am!"

"Much obliged, I'm sure," I said, "but why doesn't she take her sleep
in the daytime? That would fool the ghost from her point of
view--wouldn't it?"

I'll never forget the look he gave me. "Listen to me, my girl," he
said, running out his jaw in the way he does when he's in dead earnest
and means you to know it, "listen to me, now. If that young woman ever
takes to living by night and sleeping by day, on that account, _she's a
gone goose_!"

"What do you mean?" said I.

"I mean it's all up with her, and she might as well engage a permanent
suite in Jarvyse's little hotel up the river," he says, very sharp and
gruff. "I've staved that off for a month now, but they can't see it
and they're bound to try it: Jarvyse himself half advises it. And I'll
risk my entire reputation on the result. If she can't fight it
out--she's gone."

He waited a moment and put out his jaw.

"_She's gone,_" he said again, and I felt creepy when he said it, and I
tell you I believed him.

"Well, I'll try my best," I said, and I went on the case the next
morning.

As soon as I saw her I got the idea of her I've always had since:
that's me, all over. I went to a palmist's once with a lot of the
other nurses and that's the first thing he said to me.

"It's first impressions with you, young woman," he said. "Take care to
trust 'em and act on 'em, and you'll never need to count on the old
ladies' home!"

Well, as soon as I saw Miss Elton she put me in mind of one of Mr.
C----r's heroines, looks and clothes and ways, and all, and I've never
changed my mind. Her things were all plain, but they had the loveliest
lines, and she always looked as if she'd been born in them, they suited
her so! Her hair was that heavy, smooth blond kind that makes a Marcel
wave look too vulgar to think about, and her eyes and complexion went
with it. And with all her education she was as simple as a child:
there were any number of things she didn't seem to know. She took to
me directly, her mother said, and I could see she liked me, though she
hardly spoke. She had big rings under her eyes and seemed very tired.

She got a nap after lunch--only two hours, by the doctor's orders--and
it did seem a shame to wake her, she was off so sound, but of course I
did, and then we walked for an hour in the park. I didn't talk much at
first, but I saw th