Page:Twilight.djvu/102

 "You only had one-quarter grain twice a day for the inside of a week, and there was atropin in it. If it had really had a deadening effect upon you you would not have refused it, but just gone on. Not that I believe anything would ever dull your brain."

I wished Ella could have heard him, it would have confirmed her in her folly and made for my amusement. He left shortly after paying me that remarkable compliment, but stopped on his way out to speak to Benham. The immediate effect of his words was to make her silent and perhaps sullen for a few hours. After which, but still under protest, she gave me whatever I asked for, and began to be more like other nurses in the time she took off duty for exercise, sleep, and meals. She even yawned in my face on the rare occasions when I summoned her in the night. I tried to chaff her back into good humour, but without much success.

"Do you find me any worse for having got out of leading strings?" I asked her. "Have pencils and MS. paper sent up my temperature?"

"You are not out of the wood yet," she retorted angrily.

"No, but I am enjoying its unbrageous rest," I returned. "Reading my papers in the shadows."

"Shadow enough!"

"That's right. Mind you go on keeping up my spirits." She did smile then, but she was obviously dissatisfied, both with me and Dr. Kennedy. I was