yes glittering, his cheeks ghastly with
the high lights of fever upon them.

Shocked, startled and filled with a poignant mothering pity, Kathleen
struggled with a longing to take him in her arms and comfort him as the
mother was the little wailing child upstairs.

"Excuse me just a moment," she cried, and ran out into the living room
and then outside the door and stood for a moment in the dark, drawing
deep breaths and struggling to get control of the pity and of the joy
that surged through her heart. "Oh, God," she cried, lifting her hands
high above her head in appeal, "help me to be strong and steady. He
needs me and he wants me too."

From the darkness in answer to her appeal there came a sudden quietness
of nerve and a sense of strength and fitness for her work. Quickly she
entered the house and went again to the sick room.

"Thank God," cried Jack. "I thought I was fooled again. You won't go
away, Kathleen, for a little while, will you? I feel just like a kiddie
in the dark, do you know? Like a fool rather. You won't go again?" He
raised himself upon his arm, the weak voice raised to a pitiful appeal.

It took all her own fortitude to keep her own voice steady. "No, Jack, I
am going to stay. I am your nurse, you know, and I am your boss too. You
must do just as I say. Remember that. You must behave yourself as a sick
man should."

He sank back quietly upon the pillow. "Thank God. Anything under heaven
I promise if only you stay, Kathleen. You will stay, won't you?"

"Didn't you hear me promise?"

"Yes, yes," he said, a great relief in his tired face. "All right, I am
good. But you have made me suffer, Kathleen."

"Now, then, no talk," said Kathleen. "We will look at that arm."

She loosened the bandages. The inflamed and swollen appearance of the
arm sickened and alarmed her. There was nothing she could do there. She
replaced the bandages. "You are awfully hot. I am going to sponge your
face a bit if you will let me."

"Go on," he said gratefully, "do anything you like if only you don't go
away again."

"Now, none of that. A nurse doesn't run away from her job, does she?"
She had gotten control of herself, and her quick, clever fingers, with
their firm, cool touch, seemed to bring rest to the jangling nerves of
the sick man. Whatever it was, whether the touch of her fingers or the
relief of the cool water upon his fevered face and arm, by the time the
bathing process was over, Jack was lying quietly