ed cold
and oftentimes dreary, but the American Army of Occupation was growing
more accustomed and more reconciled to their new way of life.

Then there were occasional spring days when the winds blew from the
south bringing with them scents and fragrances of gentler lands.

At the American Red Cross hospital high up on the hill overlooking the
Rhine the conditions were reflected from the army. The Red Cross staff
also became more contented and more amenable to discipline than in the
early weeks succeeding the close of the war.

There were a good many patients constantly being cared for at the
hospital, but they were simply suffering from ordinary illnesses. Only
now and then a wounded American prisoner, only partially recovered,
would come wandering in from some German hospital in the interior,
preferring to be looked after by his own people until he was well enough
to be sent back home.

Therefore, although there was sufficient work for the entire corps of
physicians, nurses and helpers, there was no undue strain.

However, one member of Dr. Clark's former staff was freed from all Red
Cross responsibility. Even before her arrival in Coblenz, Bianca Zoli
had showed the effects of the nervous strain of the last months of her
war work. Moreover, Sonya had always considered that Bianca was too
young and too frail for what she had undertaken and had wished to leave
the young girl at school in New York until her own and her husband's
return from Europe. But as Bianca had been so determined and as Sonya
had dreaded leaving her alone in the United States, she had finally
reluctantly consented.

And Bianca had done her full duty. Never once in the terrible months
before the close of the war had she flinched or asked to be spared in
any possible way. Nor was it by Bianca's own request that she was idle
at the present time. It was Sonya who first had noticed the young girl's
listlessness, her occasional hours of exhaustion and sometimes of
depression. And it was Sonya who had called her husband's attention to
Bianca's condition, although afterwards it was Dr. Clark who had ordered
that Bianca have a complete rest.

During the first weeks in Coblenz, Bianca had been bored and sometimes a
little rebellious over this new state of her existence. She had no
friends of her own age in Coblenz, the Red Cross nurses at the hospital
were too much engaged with their work and in their leisure with other
interests in which Bianca had