unwaveringly, with glittering eyes that seemed to
smile, whereupon the matron picked up her dog, gathered up her train, and
swept out of the ward, saying:

"Nurse, you can leave me at the end of your term; and you need never
cross the doors of this institution again."

Then Glory, who had all night wanted to cry, burst into laughter. The
ward Sister reproved her, but she laughed in the woman's fat face, and
would have given worlds to slap it.

There was not a nurse in the hospital who showed more bright and cheerful
spirits when the patients were being prepared for the night. But next
morning, in the gray dawn, when she had dragged herself to bed, and was
able at length to be alone, she beat the pillows with both hands and
sobbed in her loneliness and shame.

XX.

But youth is rich in hope, and at noon, when Glory awoke, the thought of
Drake flashed upon her like light in a dark place. He had compelled Lord
Robert to assist Polly in a worse extremity, and he would assist her in
her present predicament. How often he had hinted that the hospital was
not good enough for her, and that some day and somewhere Fate would find
other work for her and another sphere. The time had come; she would
appeal to him, and he would hasten to help her.

She began to revive the magnificent dreams that had floated in her mind
for months. No need to tell the people at home of her dismissal and
disgrace; no need to go back to the island. She would be somebody in her
own right yet. Of course, she would have to study, to struggle, to endure
disappointments, but she would triumph in the end. And when at length she
was great and famous she would be good to other poor girls; and as often
as she thought of John Storm in his solitude in his cell, though there
might be a pang, a red stream running somewhere within, she would comfort
herself with the thought that she, too, was doing her best; she, too, had
her place, and it was a useful and worthy one.

Before that time came, however, there would be managers to influence and
engagements to seek, and perhaps teachers to pay for. But Drake was rich
and generous and powerful; he had a great opinion of her talents, and he
would stop at nothing.

Leaping out of bed, she sat down at the table as she was and wrote to
him:

"Dear Mr. Drake: Try to see me to-night. I want your advice immediately.
What do you think? I have got myself 'noticed' at last, and as a
consequence I am to leave at th