"
"What a fool!" cried Garth. "Are you and he engaged?"
Nurse Rosemary hesitated. "Well--not exactly engaged," she said,
"though it practically amounts to that. Neither of us would give a
thought to any one else."
Garth knew there was a class of people whose preliminary step to
marriage was called "keeping company," a stage above the housemaid's
"walking out," both expressions being exactly descriptive of the
circumstances of the case; for, whereas pretty Phyllis and her swain
go walking out of an evening in byways and between hedges, or along
pavements and into the parks,--these keep each other company in the
parlours and arbours of their respective friends and relations. Yet,
somehow, Garth had never thought of Nurse Rosemary as belonging to
any other class than his own. Perhaps this ass of a fellow, whom he
already cordially disliked, came of a lower stratum; or perhaps the
rules of her nursing guild forbade a definite engagement, but
allowed "an understanding." Anyway the fact remained that the kind-
hearted, clever, delightful little lady, who had done so much for
him, had "a young man" of her own; and this admitted fact lifted a
weight from Garth's mind.
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