Page 574 - of-human-bondage-

Presently the time came for her to move to the nursing-
home where she was to be confined. Philip was then able to
visit her only in the afternoons. Mildred changed her story
and represented herself as the wife of a soldier who had gone
to India to join his regiment, and Philip was introduced to
the mistress of the establishment as her brother-in-law.
‘I have to be rather careful what I say,’ she told him, ‘as
there’s another lady here whose husband’s in the Indian
Civil.’
‘I wouldn’t let that disturb me if I were you,’ said Philip.
‘I’m convinced that her husband and yours went out on the
same boat.’
‘What boat?’ she asked innocently.
‘The Flying Dutchman.’
Mildred was safely delivered of a daughter, and when
Philip was allowed to see her the child was lying by her side.
Mildred was very weak, but relieved that everything was
over. She showed him the baby, and herself looked at it cu-
riously.
‘It’s a funny-looking little thing, isn’t it? I can’t believe
it’s mine.’
It was red and wrinkled and odd. Philip smiled when he
looked at it. He did not quite know what to say; and it em-
barrassed him because the nurse who owned the house was
standing by his side; and he felt by the way she was looking
at him that, disbelieving Mildred’s complicated story, she
thought he was the father.
‘What are you going to call her?’ asked Philip.
‘I can’t make up my mind if I shall call her Madeleine or