show the
wounded officers a list of hospitals, and perhaps give them a certain
measure of choice."

They did not say much during the short drive to the Close; they simply
held each other's hands. And Rose's feeling of indignation against
Jervis's father grew and grew. How could he be impatient, still less
unkind, to this sweet, gentle woman?

There followed a time of anxious waiting at the Trellis House, and,
reluctantly, Rose began to understand why Sir John Blake was impatient
with his wife. Lady Blake could not sit still; and she made no effort to
command her nerves. In her gentle voice she suggested every painful
possibility, from the torpedoing of the hospital ship in the Channel to
a bad break down, or even a worse accident, to the motor ambulances
which were to convey Jervis and four other wounded officers to
Witanbury.

But at last, when even Sir Jacques himself had quite given them up for
that night, three motor ambulances drove into the Close, and round to
the temporary hospital.

And then such a curious, pathetic scene took place in the courtyard of
"Robey's." Improvised flares and two electric reading-lamps, brought
hurriedly through the windows of the drawing-room, shone on the group of
waiting people--nurses ready to step forward when wanted; Sir Jacques
Robey and a young surgeon who had come up from the Witanbury Cottage
Hospital; Lady Blake trembling with cold and excitement close to Mrs.
Otway and Rose; and a number of others who had less reason and excuse
for being there.

From a seat by one of the drivers there jumped down Sir John Blake. He
looked round him with a keen glance, and then made his way straight to
where his wife was standing. Taking no notice of her, he addressed the
girl standing by her side. "Is this Rose," he said--"Rose Otway?" and
taking her hand gripped it hard. "He's borne the journey very well," he
said quickly, reassuringly; and then, at last, he looked at his wife.
She was gazing at him with imploring, anxious eyes. "Well," he said
impatiently, "well, my dear, what is it you want to say to me?"

She murmured something nervously, and Rose hurriedly said, "Lady Blake
wants to know where Jervis was wounded."

"A fragment of shell struck his left arm--but the real mischief was done
to his right leg. When the building in which he and his company were
resting was shelled, a beam fell on it. I should have thought myself
that it would have been better to have kept him, for at