A little nervously the White Linen Nurse began to fumble through the pages of her memorandum book. "I've always had money enough to 'go slow and make things perfectly right,'" she confided a bit wistfully. "Never in all my life have I had a pair of boots that weren't guaranteed, or a dress that wouldn't wash, or a hat that wasn't worth at least three re-pressings. What I was hoping for now, sir, was that I was going to have enough money so that I could go fast and make things wrong if I wanted to,--so that I could afford to take chances, I mean. Here's this wall-paper now,"--tragically she pointed to some figuring in her note-book--"it's got peacocks on it--life size--in a queen's garden--and I wanted it for the dining-room. Maybe it would fade! Maybe we'd get tired of it! Maybe it would poison us! Slam it on one week--and slash it off the next! I wanted it just because I wanted it, sir! I thought maybe--while you were way off in Canada--" Eagerly the Senior Surgeon jerked his chair a little nearer to his--fiancée's. "Now, my dear girl," he said. "That's just what I want to explain! That's just what I want to explain! Just what I want to explain! To--er--explain!" he continued a bit falteringly. "Yes, sir," said the White Linen Nurse. Very deliberately the Senior Surgeon removed a fleck of dust from one of his cuffs. "All this talk of yours--about wanting to be married the same day I start off on my--Canadian trip!" he contended. "Why, it's all damned nonsense!" "Yes, sir," said the White Linen Nurse. Very conscientiously the Senior Surgeon began to search for a fleck of dust on his other cuff. "Why my--my dear girl," he persisted. "It's absurd! It's outrageous! Why people would--would hoot at us! Why they'd think--!" "Yes, sir," said the White Linen Nurse. "Why, my dear girl," sweated the Senior Surgeon. "Even though you and I understand perfectly well the purely formal, business-like conditions of our marriage, we must at least for sheer decency's sake keep up a certain semblance of marital conventionality--before the world! Why, if we were married at noon the first day of June--as you suggest,--and I should go right off alone as usual--on my Canadian trip--and you should come back alone to the house--why, people would think--would think that I didn't care anything about you!" "But you don't," said the White Linen Nurse serenely. "Why, they'd think," choked the Senior Surgeon. "They'd think you were trying your--darndest--to get rid of me!" "I am," said the White Linen Nurse complacently. With a muttered ejaculation the Senior Surgeon jumped to his feet and stood glaring down at her. Quite ingenuously the White Linen Nurse met and parried the glare.