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ventured.
    “ I came back. ”
    “ Yes, ” agreed Jessa foolishly, “ you did. ”
    Another shy silence, then— ” My glasses—suggested the Professor.
    “ I—well—you see, they ’ re not finished. ”
    “ Not finished? ” There was no censure in the two words, but there was a disappointment. All this time and only needing some cotton. Jessa gave a nervous gulp.
    “ Well, it doesn ’ t matter, anyway, ” said the Professor. He paused then mumbled, “ Good evening, Nurse. ”
    “ Good evening, sir. ” She watched his daddy-long-legs legs make only six strides of the long corridor—then she found her tongue.
    “ Hi! ” she called, forgetting that that was not the way to address a professor. “ Hi! ”
    He turned at once. She could almost have said he turned eagerly. But of course they were probably his favourite glasses, that was all.
    “ I—well, when you were away so long, I decided to have them smartened up properly. I—I took off the cotton again and left them at the opticians. You ’ re going to have new rims, ” Jessa said.
    He l o oked down at h er—he had retraced the six long strides—and from his height it was a rather steep descent. He said, “ You did that—? ”
    Somewhere a baby cried. Jessa remembered her first prem squeak and how excited she had been. She blurted shyly, “ Yes, Professor Gink. ”
    “ You shouldn ’ t have, you know. ”
    “ I broke them. ”
    “ Then you should have mended them, not someone else. Do you think ” —he looked at her, and it was definitely eagerness this time, she was sure of it— “ that you can get them back and do it yourself? ”
    “ If you w ant it like that— ”
    “ I do want it, I want it very much. ”
    There was a pause. It was an odd sort of pause. It was almost a breathless pause. Margaret, Jessa was trying to remember, Margaret, Margaret, MARGARET. Dear dedicated Margaret for deal dedicated Professor Gink.
    But of course he meant nothing by that answer, only that he had become familiar with his old glasses, with the way their rims went crookedly, that he did not care about a change. That was all.
    She did not think the spectacles would be started yet. She told him this.
    “ Then you ’ ll do that for me? ”
    “ Yes, sir. ”
    “ Thank you, Nurse Jess. ”
    Jessa said, “ Thank you, Professor Gink. ”
    She did her work in a daze that night. Luckily they were not busy. Before she went to bed the next day she called around at the optician ’ s.
    The man was not pleased at losing the commission. “ You ’ ll never make a good job of them yourself with thread; besides, we don ’ t refund deposits. ”
    “ Could I buy something else with the money? ”
    There were spectacle cases in the display window. The attendant saw a way of making profit even though he had lost a commission. He drew out a tray.
    Jessa chose a brown leather one. It was dark and soft and good, and somehow it looked like a professor.
    In an expansive mood the assistant said he would add initials free.
    “ I don ’ t know the initials, but could you engrave the full name, Professor Gink? ”
    The assistant said yes, but added ten shillings to the price he had intended asking for the case. After all, that meant a lot more letters than was usual, he reminded himself, so he was entitled to the extra charge.
    Jessa waited for it to be done, then took it, and the glasses, back to Belinda.
    She sat on the bed doing a second repair job on the spectacles, even neater than before. But she knew she would never summon the nerve to put them in the spectacle case. What had possessed her to presume in such a manner? Personal gifts were a privilege reserved strictly for fellow dedicators like Margaret—or future wives, of course.
    She put the case in the bottom of her drawer. She wrapped the glasses in a handkerchief then put them in her uniform pocket in readiness.
    Then she got into bed—but it was a long time before she fell asleep.

 
    CHAPTER VI
    THE f