"
The white cat purred. "Lucky girl to be the only one."
Derry's manner stiffened. "You are good to think so."
After Derry had gone, Hilda said, "You see, it is Jean McKenzie. The
Doctor said that he and Jean would be up in Maryland for a day or two.
She has a good time. She doesn't know what it means to be poor, not as
I know it. She doesn't know what it means to go without the pretty
things that women long for. You wouldn't believe it, General, but when
I was a little girl, I used to stand in front of shop windows and
wonder if other girls really wore the slippers and fans and parasols.
And when I went to Dr. McKenzie's, and saw Jean in her silk dressing
gowns, and her pink slippers and her lace caps, she seemed to me like a
lady in a play. I've worn my uniforms since I took my nurse's
training, and before that I wore the uniform of an Orphans' Home. I--I
don't know why I am telling you all this--only it doesn't seem quite
fair, does it?"
He had all of an old man's sympathy for a lovely woman in distress. He
had all of any man's desire to play Cophetua.
"Look here," he said. "You get yourself a pink parasol and a fan and a
silk dress.
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