LADIES-IN-WAITING
“Come,” my opposite neighbor slipped in and turned the key in the lock. It was an unconventional and amusing performance, but I did n’t mind. Somehow one could n’t mind anything with such a spoiled baby.
“Good-evening, Zuleika!” she said. “No, you need n’t smile and raise your finger at me as if you were dying to tell me your name is Abigail! Miss Blossom has gone for the night, has n’t she? I thought so. You know it’s the nurses’ ball this evening, and there’s only one attendant on duty in each corridor from now to half-past nine. May I have this big chair by the window? I am so bored with this place that it excites me even to think how stupid it is. I almost wish I had a symptom or two, just by way of sensation. Did you have Somnolina for supper? I did, and some time I shall make a scene in the dining-room when I watch the hundred and fifty dyspeptics simultaneously lifting cups of Teaette or Somnolina to their parched lips.”
“You ought to be ashamed,” I chided, “when you know almost every one who
310
