Betty Trevor | Page 9

"Wouldn't influenza do as well? There is no need to be quite so brutal,
Jill," her father reminded her. "Besides, it is hardly my usual custom to
tell you `all about' my cases, is it? I should be very glad to find new
patients nearer here for my own sake; which reminds me, dear, that I
have to go a long drive after dinner, and shan't be home for the evening,
as I hoped. It is unfortunate having so many late nights this week."
Mrs Trevor's brow shadowed for a moment, but she recovered herself,
and smiled bravely at her husband, while Betty cried emphatically--
"I shall never marry a doctor!"
"Lucky beggar! He's had an escape anyway!" growled Miles beneath
his breath, quite unable to resist paying Betty back for her attack on
him a few moments before, and Betty laughed as merrily as the rest at
the joke against herself.
"Well, I shall have an escape too! I don't like ill people or having
anything to do with them; it's not my vocation!" she announced
grandiloquently, and her face fell with dismay when her father said

cheerily--
"Oh, come, you don't do yourself justice, dear. I always find you a very
acceptable little nurse. Mrs Ewen was asking for you only to-day. I
should be glad if you would make a point of going to see her some
afternoon this week, and trying to amuse her for an hour or two. She
has had a very sharp attack, poor soul."
"Yes, father," assented Betty meekly, but mentally she ground her
teeth.
Mrs Ewen was an old patient, a tiresome patient from Betty's point of
view, who never grew better, but was frequently worse, who spent all
her life in her bedroom and an upstairs sitting-room, her chief subject
of conversation being the misdemeanours of her hardly-worked nurses.
She had taken a fancy to the doctor's young daughter, and liked to be
visited by her as often as possible in convalescent periods; but Betty
did not return the liking.
"She doesn't understand girls," she grumbled to herself. "I don't believe
she ever was a girl herself. She must have been born about forty, with
spectacles and a cap. I can't think why she wants to see me. I do
nothing but say `Yes' and `No' while she abuses other people, and yawn
my head off in that stifling room. And I did so want to get on with my
blouse. Seems as if I could never do as I like, somehow!"
She sat looking such an image of meekness and resignation, with her
smoothly-braided locks and downcast lids, that her father's lips
twitched with amusement as he glanced at her, and quickly averted his
eyes. He knew just as well as she did how distasteful his request had
been, but he was none the less anxious to enforce it. Betty's horizon
was blocked with self at the present moment, and anything and
everything was of gain which forced her to think of something besides
that all- important personage Miss Elizabeth Trevor.
CHAPTER FOUR.
A PIECE OF LOOKING-GLASS.

"Such a joke, Jill! The sun is shining, and the Pet is sitting reading, in
the drawing-room window, and I've found a broken piece of looking-
glass in the street.--There's luck! Let's hide behind the curtains and
flash it in her eyes!"
Jill's book fell down with a crash, and she leapt to her feet, abeam with
anticipation. It was Saturday, and she had announced her intention of
"stewing hard" all the afternoon, but the claims of examinations sank
into the background before the thrilling prospect held out by her twin.
"Break it in two! Fair does, Jack! Give me a bit, and let us flash in
turns!" she cried eagerly; but Jack would not consent to anything so
rash.
"How can I divide it, silly?" he replied. "I haven't a diamond to cut it,
and if I crunch it with my foot it may all go to smithereens, and there
will be nothing left. I'll lend it to you for a bit now and then, but you
won't aim straight. Girls never do!"
"I do! I do!" Jill maintained loudly. "I will! I will! Come along, be
quick! She might move away, and it would be such a sell. I'll kneel
down here and keep the curtains round me. I wonder what she's reading.
Something awfully dry and proper, I expect! What heaps of hair! It
hangs over her face, so that we shan't be able to dazzle her a bit."
"Yes, we will," contradicted Jack. "She'll see the light dancing about on
the page, and look up to see what's the matter! You watch, but mind
you don't bob up your head and let her see you!"
"Mind you don't let her