s of comfort--the two dainty little maidens in
their sublime innocence of untoward happening. Lorna had acquired two
new pieces of "poentry"--"Oh, Mary, go and call the kettle home," and
"anozzer one" called, "Twice ones is two"--which she must needs recite
without delay. Joyce developed earache, and remembering former help in
need, expressed a wailing desire to sleep in "Wanna's bed," for "Wanna
to _stwoke_ me!" The little, soft, warm body clinging to her, the touch
of the baby lips were unspeakable comfort to Vanna during those long
wakeful hours when every moment carried Piers farther and farther away.

A week later Vanna returned to the hospital where she had been trained,
to fill a temporary vacancy for a few months. Hard work was her best
medicine--hard, incessant work, which left no time for thought, and sent
her to bed so weary that sleep came almost as soon as her head touched
the pillow. A nurse by instinct, it was not in her nature to perform
her duties in mechanical fashion. The human aspect of a case made a
direct appeal to her heart, and, surrounded on every hand by suffering
and want, she was forced into a realisation of her own blessings. She
was alone, but youth, health, and money remained to help her on her way,
and Piers's letters arrived by each mail--long, closely written sheets,
detailing every day of his life, drawing word-pictures of home
surroundings, new acquaintances; above all, breathing the tenderest,
most faithful love. Each letter was read and reread until it was known
by heart, was answered with a length equal to its own, and by the time
this was dispatched--wonderfully, surprisingly soon--another letter was
due. She read of the arrival of the mail at Brindisi, and counted over
the hours.

The first shock of parting was over, six months had already passed by.
Six months was half a year, a quarter of the time of Piers's probable
absence! When the half was over, what joy to strike off the months
which must elapse before his return; and meantime could any other man in
the world have written such delightful, heart-satisfying letters?

Vanna was keenly interested also in the changes in hospital treatment
which had taken place during the four years since she had finished her
course, and felt that the six months' experience had been valuable from
a medical as well as a mental point of view. Nevertheless, it was with
no regret that she saw the nurse return whose place she had taken, a