Nurse Hopkins snorted. "Maybe she did. But there's many would have forgotten conveniently afterward. Relations are like that. I've seen a few things, I can tell you! People dying and saying they know they can leave it to their dear son or their dear daughter to carry out their wishes. Nine times out of ten, dear son and dear daughter find some very good reason to do nothing of the kind. Human nature's human nature, and nobody likes parting with money if they're not legally compelled to! I tell you, Mary, my girl, you've been lucky. Miss Carlisle's straighter than most." Mary said slowly, "And yet - somehow - I feel she doesn't like me."

"With good reason, I should say," said Nurse Hopkins bluntly. "Now, don't look so innocent, Mary! Mr. Roderick's been making sheep's eyes at you for some time now."

Mary went red.

Nurse Hopkins went on: "He's got it badly, in my opinion. Fell for you all of a sudden. What about you, my girl? Got any feeling for him?" Mary said hesitatingly, "I - I don't know. I don't think so. But, of course, he's very nice."

"H'm," said Nurse Hopkins. "He wouldn't be my fancy! One of those men who are finicky and a bundle of nerves. Fussy about their food, too, as likely as not. Men aren't much at the best of times. Don't be in too much of a hurry, Mary, my dear. With your looks you can afford to pick and 65

choose. Nurse O'Brien passed the remark to me the other day that you ought to go on the films. They like blondes, I've always heard." Mary said, with a slight frown creasing her forehead, "Nurse, what do you think I ought to do about Father? He thinks I ought to give some of this money to him."

"Don't you do anything of the kind," said Nurse Hopkins wrathfully. "Mrs. Welman never meant that money for him. It's my opinion he'd have lost his job years ago if it hadn't been for you. A lazier man never stepped!" Mary said, "It seems funny when she'd all that money that she never made a will to say how it was to go."

Nurse Hopkins shook her head. "People are like that. You'd be surprised. Always putting it off."

Mary said, "It seems downright silly to me."

Nurse Hopkins said with a faint twinkle, "Made a will yourself, Mary?" Mary stared at her. "Oh, no."

"And yet you're over twenty-one."

"But I - I haven't got anything to leave - at least I suppose I have now." Nurse Hopkins said sharply, "Of course you have. And a nice tidy little sum, too."

Mary said, "Oh, well, there's no hurry."

"There you go," said Nurse Hopkins dryly. "Just like everyone else. Because you're a healthy young girl isn't a reason why you shouldn't be smashed up in a charabanc or a bus, or run over in the street, any minute."

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