nable--yet Alvina got fat on it. The air was
filthy--and yet never had her colour been so warm and fresh, her
skin so soft. Her companions were almost without exception vulgar
and coarse--yet never had she got on so well with women of her own
age--or older than herself. She was ready with a laugh and a word,
and though she was unable to venture on indecencies herself, yet she
had an amazing faculty for _looking_ knowing and indecent beyond
words, rolling her eyes and pitching her eyebrows in a certain
way--oh, it was quite sufficient for her companions! And yet, if
they had ever actually demanded a dirty story or a really open
indecency from her, she would have been floored.

But she enjoyed it. Amazing how she enjoyed it. She did not care
_how_ revolting and indecent these nurses were--she put on a look as
if she were in with it all, and it all passed off as easy as
winking. She swung her haunches and arched her eyes with the best
of them. And they behaved as if she were exactly one of themselves.
And yet, with the curious cold tact of women, they left her alone,
one and all, in private: just ignored her.

It is truly incredible how Alvina became blooming and bouncing at
this time. Nothing shocked her, nothing upset her. She was always
ready with her hard, nurse's laugh and her nurse's quips. No one was
better than she at _double-entendres._ No one could better give the
nurse's leer. She had it all in a fortnight. And never once did she
feel anything but exhilarated and in full swing. It seemed to her
she had not a moment's time to brood or reflect about things--she
was too much in the swing. Every moment, in the swing, living, or
active in full swing. When she got into bed she went to sleep. When
she awoke, it was morning, and she got up. As soon as she was up and
dressed she had somebody to answer, something to say, something to
do. Time passed like an express train--and she seemed to have known
no other life than this.

Not far away was a lying-in hospital. A dreadful place it was. There
she had to go, right off, and help with cases. There she had to
attend lectures and demonstrations. There she met the doctors and
students. Well, a pretty lot they were, one way and another. When
she had put on flesh and become pink and bouncing she was just their
sort: just their very ticket. Her voice had the right twang, her
eyes the right roll, her haunches the right swing. She seemed
altogether just the ticket. And yet she