Then came the smash of Lord Roberts A, and I found myself with a
bandaged face in a bedroom in the Bedley Corner dower-house with
Beatrice presiding over an inefficient nurse, Lady Osprey very pink and
shocked in the background, and my aunt jealously intervening.
My injuries were much more showy than serious, and I could have been
taken to Lady Grove next day, but Beatrice would not permit that, and
kept me at Bedley Corner three clear days. In the afternoon of the
second day she became extremely solicitous for the proper aeration of
the nurse, packed her off for an hour in a brisk rain, and sat by me
alone.
I asked her to marry me.
All the whole I must admit it was not a situation that lent itself to
eloquence. I lay on my back and talked through bandages, and with
some little difficulty, for my tongue and mouth had swollen. But I was
feverish and in pain, and the emotional suspense I had been in so long
with regard to her became now an unendurable impatience.
"Comfortable?" she asked.
"Yes."
"Shall I read to you?"
"No.
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