At Love's Cost

When Ida came to she found the sister of the ward and a young nurse

bending over her with placid and smiling faces. Why a hospital nurse

should under any and every circumstance be invariably cheerful is one

of those mysteries worthy to rank with the problem contained in the

fact that an undertaker is nearly always of a merry disposition.

Of course Ida asked the usual questions: "Where am I?" and "How long have I been here?" and the sister told her

that she was in the Alexandria ward of the London Hospital, and that

she had been there, unconscious, for ten days.

The nurse smiled as if it were the best joke, in a mild way, in the

world, and answered Ida's further questions while she administered beef

tea with an air of pride and satisfaction which made her plain and

homely face seem angelic to Ida.

"You were knocked down by a cart, you know," said Nurse Brown. "You

weren't badly injured, that is, no bones were broken, as is very often

the case--that girl there in the next bed but two had one arm, one leg,

and two ribs broken: mail cart; and that poor woman opposite, got both

arms and a collar-bone broken--But I mustn't harrow you with our bad

cases," she said, quickly, as Ida seemed to wince. "Of course you feel

very strange--I suppose this is the first time you have been in a

hospital ward?"

"Yes," replied Ida, glancing round timidly.

"Ah, yes, of course," said Nurse Brown, nodding and smiling

encouragingly. "And you feel shy and nervous; but, if you only knew it,

you are better off here than you would be anywhere else; you have the

very best surgeons in the world--we are awfully proud of them; and,

though I ought not to say it, the best of nursing. You are watched

night and day, and you get the least wee little thing you want if it's

good for you. I daresay you won't care to stay here, but will like to

be taken away as soon as you are well enough to be moved; for, of

course, we all know that you are a lady. Oh, it isn't the first time we

have had a lady in the ward. A great many of them come down here

'slumming,' and sometimes they get run over, as you have been, or they

fall down some of the dark and rickety stairs, or hurt themselves in

some other way--it's wonderful what a choice of accidents you can have

in this busy and crowded part of London."