Dear Tiberius; (aka Nurse Nolan) Read Free Page B

might have been the merest suspicion of a smile in his eyes as he looked at her. “ I sent for you barely five minutes ago, and here you are! ”
    “ Naturally I came at once, since you wanted to see me, ” she replied.
    He studied her for a moment longer, with that expressionless look on his face that she so well remembered, and then he turned from her and stared into the fire.
    “ Miranda is about the same? ” he observed at last, rather shortly.
    “ Have you seen her? ” Lucy asked, countering the question.
    “ Since I returned last night? Yes, I saw her just before tea this afternoon. She seems to me remarkably fragile. ”
    “ She is remarkably fragile, ” Lucy agreed.
    Once more, he turned to look at her. He seemed to study her hard this time.
    “ And yet you tell me in your letter that the time has arrived for you to depart from Ketterings? And Miranda seems to be considerably upset because you propose to leave her so soon. Have you any very good reason for wishing to leave, Nurse Nolan? ”
    Nurse Nolan felt her face flush faintly as his eyes bored into her—eyes that were still quite cold, but full of a restrained sort of curiosity.
    “ Only the excellent reason that Miranda is as well as I think—for the time being—she is likely to be, and there is little point in her growing accustomed to having me with her, when sooner or later I shall have to leave her. And, frankly, Miss Fiske is quite capable of doing all the things I do for her at present. In fact, sometimes I feel that Miss Fiske is a little—well, unhappy, because she is not allowed to do more. ”
    “ Miss Fiske ’ s unhappiness, or her happiness, are not of particular interest to me at the moment, ” he observed, so d r yly that Nurse Nolan felt the color suddenly flame in her cheeks, and she felt almost too much abashed to meet his eyes.
    “ No, I suppose not, ” she agreed hastily, and then endeavored to make him recognize what it was she had been trying to press home to him. “ But all I meant by that is that Miss Fiske is completely devoted to Miranda, and so entirely trustworthy that you need have no fears about her taking the utmost care of Miranda once I have gone. And there seems little object in your employing two people when one would be more than sufficient. ”
     
    “ Meaning by that that you really are rather anxious to be gone yourself, and you would like us to discuss the actual date of your departure? ’ There was something so coldly sarcastic in his face that she felt anger begin to stir in her, and her blue eyes darkened. “ No doubt you find Ketterings rather dull, and when a patient ceases to respond to treatment that must also contribute to the dullness of a case? But as Miranda seems to have formed quite an attachment for you— ”
    “ It is not only Miranda who has formed an attachment, for me—I think that poor, wistful waif of a child would tie knots in anyone ’ s heartstrings! ” Lucy interrupted him, her voice actually shaking a little as emotion rose up in her and threatened to choke her. She got to her feet in order to confront him. Really, he was far, far less pleasant than on the three occasions when they had met before, she decided. Then she had suspected that he was merely indifferent, but now she felt certain he could be hostile—and with a kind of hostility it would be difficult to fight, because his most powerful weapon was the arctic chill he could introduce into his voice. “ And it ’ s not because I want to go that I ’ ve made up my mind I must go—I ’ d stay here forever if I thought it would do any good !”
     
    “ Ah! Then that, at least, is something! ”
    “ But what good would it do? ” She flung out her hands rather helplessly.
    “ It would, at least, make M iranda happy. ” He picked up a heavy silver cigarette box from a table and offered it to her. “ Do sit down again. Nurse Nolan, and don ’ t misunderstand anything I am likely to say. Being a young woman,