When Ida came to she found the sister of the ward and a young nurse
bending over her with placid and smiling faces. Why a hospital nurse
should under any and every circumstance be invariably cheerful is one
of those mysteries worthy to rank with the problem contained in the
fact that an undertaker is nearly always of a merry disposition.
Of course Ida asked the usual questions: "Where am I?" and "How long have I been here?" and the sister told her
that she was in the Alexandria ward of the London Hospital, and that
she had been there, unconscious, for ten days.
The nurse smiled as if it were the best joke, in a mild way, in the
world, and answered Ida's further questions while she administered beef
tea with an air of pride and satisfaction which made her plain and
homely face seem angelic to Ida.
"You were knocked down by a cart, you know," said Nurse Brown. "You
weren't badly injured, that is, no bones were broken, as is very often
the case--that girl there in the next bed but two had one arm, one leg,
and two ribs broken: mail cart; and that poor woman opposite, got both
arms and a collar-bone broken--But I mustn't harrow you with our bad
cases," she said, quickly, as Ida seemed to wince. "Of course you feel
very strange--I suppose this is the first time you have been in a
hospital ward?"
"Yes," replied Ida, glancing round timidly.
"Ah, yes, of course," said Nurse Brown, nodding and smiling
encouragingly. "And you feel shy and nervous; but, if you only knew it,
you are better off here than you would be anywhere else; you have the
very best surgeons in the world--we are awfully proud of them; and,
though I ought not to say it, the best of nursing. You are watched
night and day, and you get the least wee little thing you want if it's
good for you. I daresay you won't care to stay here, but will like to
be taken away as soon as you are well enough to be moved; for, of
course, we all know that you are a lady. Oh, it isn't the first time we
have had a lady in the ward. A great many of them come down here
'slumming,' and sometimes they get run over, as you have been, or they
fall down some of the dark and rickety stairs, or hurt themselves in
some other way--it's wonderful what a choice of accidents you can have
in this busy and crowded part of London."