p, coming back
from France, Nona had discovered Lieutenant Martin, now Captain Martin,
blinded through a gallant action on the battlefields of France.

It was then that their former positions were reversed, for Captain
Martin would not accept a devotion which he believed born of pity and
declined marrying Nona unless his sight were restored. A short time
before a letter from New York announced that after an operation, Captain
Martin had the right to believe his sight would be fully regained.
Therefore would Nona marry him as soon as it could be arranged? And
Nona's answer had been to cable, "Yes."[B]

However, both Mildred Thornton and Nona Davis having already sacrificed
so much to their four years of Red Cross service in Europe, had decided
to make this ultimate sacrifice in the postponing of their happiness.
Yet here during the temporary pause of their Red Cross unit in
Luxemburg, Sonya was able to see that the two girls were finding their
self-surrender harder to accept bravely than they had anticipated.
Whenever it was possible without neglecting their duties they were apt
to wander off for mutual sympathy and confidences. Even Sonya found
herself often ignored or forgotten. Sometimes she feared that they might
harbor a slight resentment, because it was her husband, Dr. David Clark,
who had asked the personal sacrifice.

With two other of her Red Cross nurses Sonya had neither much sympathy
nor understanding. Ruth Carroll had never interested her particularly;
she was a large, quiet girl, ordinarily a dutiful and fairly reliable
nurse, but without special gifts, although as a matter of fact, Dr.
Clark had not shared in his wife's disparaging opinion.

However, Sonya knew herself to be prejudiced and not so much by Ruth
herself as by reason of her close friendship with Theodosia Thompson and
the younger girl's undoubted influence upon her.

Thea had been right in her supposition that Mrs. Clark neither liked nor
trusted her particularly, although Sonya herself had scarcely been aware
of her own point of view until after the beginning of the journey of her
Red Cross unit toward Germany. Since then Sonya was not at all sure that
Thea might not prove an uncomfortable if not an actually mischievous
influence.

One of Dr. Clark's old students at a prominent New York Medical
University and afterwards his assistant, Dr. Hugh Raymond, was a young
physician in whom the older man had extraordinary confidence and for
wh