ABSTRACT
In her own room, Gina seemed to hear the ticking of the nurse’s wrist watch. An absurd fancy; it was her own traveling clock, of course; but her mind was elsewhere. She had ventured to pass by Mrs. Siddall’s door at six o’clock, when the night nurses came on duty. The slight stir of the exchange roused Mrs. Siddall’s curiosity; she was extremely bored after twenty-four hours of darkness and silence; and restless with discomfort. “Who is there?” she demanded. Mrs. Perry, already admitted, informed her, and Mrs. Siddall bade Gina come in. Since Mrs. Siddall ignored the surgeon’s general instructions as soon as he was gone, the nurses did not know how to enforce them. She had refused to go to a hospital, and in her own house she was used to exercising unquestioned authority. It seemed inadvisable to give her any more sedatives.
