I wonder how long you will keep your sympathy and your imagination?
Nurses work a lot, often living on a border of exhaustion - not to mention that the amount of suffering and pain they have to deal with can easily drain all energy from them. Margaret proves to be an exception. In spite of her tiredness, the nurse doesn’t lose her love for life and people, her cheerfulness. Even Miss Hemphill is intrigued. She can’t help wondering “how long” Margaret will keep her “sympathy” and her “imagination.” She remembers herself at Margaret’s age and knows that this transformation is bound to happen sooner or later.
Of course, I was a fool – no one knows this better that I do.
“Ten years ago,” before “hard nursing had taken so much” out of her, Margaret blushed “very easily.” She was aware at the moment when she crossed Doctor Maradick’s study that her “cheeks were the colour of peonies.” She was “a fool” back then, she admired the man she knew nothing about. However, as soon as she saw his true face, discovered his horrible secret, her love and admiration were replaced with fear. He was “almost a god” for her and she felt she “would have died for him.” The meeting with Mrs. Maradick turned out to be sobering; otherwise she wouldn’t have learned the truth about the man.
If you weren’t good you couldn’t have seen her.
Mrs. Maradick paid a terrible price for short-lived happiness. She agreed to marry Doctor Maradick because she loved the man with all her heart and soul, believing that he did the same. The reality proved to be different. The only one reason why Doctor Maradick wanted to marry her was money. To get the money, he had to get rid of both Mrs. Maradick and her daughter, which he did. The only one consolation Mrs. Maradick had was her daughter’s ghost that kept visiting her. When she learned that Margaret saw her too, she understood that it was a sign. If Margaret “weren’t good,” she “couldn’t have seen her.”
