Page:Wiggin--Ladies-in-waiting.djvu/309

  {|
 * Mrs. D. || rowspan=3| ||“Horrors!”
 * Mrs. E. ||“Dreadful!”
 * Mrs. C. ||“Heavens!”
 * }
 * Mrs. C. ||“Heavens!”
 * }
 * }
 * }

Mrs. G. (bravely). “Just after my youngest child was three—”

Mrs. X. “A man patient was brought on to our floor this morning.”

Mrs. S. “Our floor? I wish they would have separate corridors for male patients.”

Mrs. X. “This gentleman is an old friend of Dr. Levi’s. His wife has been here four weeks, and now he’s been taken ill, so they’ve put him next her on the first floor.”

Mrs. S. “I don’t care, I hate to have him near us.”

Mrs. B. “Why? He’s perfectly harmless; he is too ill to move.”

Mrs. C. “I’m sure I wish he could! Anything to relieve this hideous dullness. What’s the matter with him, I wonder!”

Mrs. D. “I’ll ask Miss Oaks when I have my hot fomentations this afternoon; she knows everything and she’s as generous as a prince with her knowledge.”