dollman who declared
it was perfectly scandalous, and she had come out in the middle.
Whereupon Glory, not being delivered that day from all evil and mischief,
said, 'Quite right, ma'am, and you were not the only one who had to leave
the church in the middle of that sermon.' 'Why, who else had to go?' said
this female Pharisee. 'The devil, ma'am!' said Glory, and then left her
with that bone to gnaw.

"It turns out that the old girlie in the dollman is a mighty patron of
this hospital, so everybody says I am in for nasty weather. But hoot! My
heart's in the Hielan's, my heart is not here; my heart's in the
Hielan's, sae what can I fear!

"John Storm is in for it too, and they say his vicar waited for him in
the vestry, but he looked like forked lightning coming out of the pulpit,
so the good man thought it better to keep his rod in pickle awhile. It
seems that the Lords of the Council and all the nobility were there, and
it is a point of religious etiquette in London that in the hangman's
house nobody speaks of the rope; but our poor John gave them the gibbet
as well. It was a fearful thing to do, but nobody will make me believe he
had not got his reasons. He hasn't been here since, but I am certain he
has his eye on some fine folks, and, whoever they are, I'll bet 'my
bottom dollar' they deserved all they got.

"But heigho! I haven't left myself breath to tell you about the ball. I
was there! You remember I was lamenting that I hadn't got the necessary
finery. In fact, I had put in a bit at the end of my prayers about it. 'O
God, be good to me this once and let me look nice.' And he _was_. He put
it into the heads of the nabobs of this vineyard that nurses should
'appear at the Nurses' Ball in regulation uniform only.' So my cloak and
my bonnet and my gray dress and my apron covered a multitude of sins.

"You should have seen Glory that night, grandfather. She was a redder
young lobster than ever somehow, but she put a white rose in her carroty
curls, and, Gough bless me, what a bogh [* Dear] she was, though! Of
course, she made the acquaintance of the 'higher ranks of society,' and
danced with all the earth. The great surgeon of something opened the ball
with the matron of Bartimaeus's, and she went round on his arm like a
dolly in a dolly-tub; but he soon saw what a marvellous and miraculous
being Glory was, and after I had waltzed so beautifully with the ancient
personage I had the hearts of all the young men fl