come to see me die?" asked Steele in a deep and hollow voice.
Miss Sampson gave me a lightning glance of terror.

"He's only off his head," I said. "Soon as we wash and bathe his head,
cool his temperature, he'll be all right."

"Oh!" cried Miss Sampson, and dropped to her knees, flinging her gloves
aside. She lifted Steele's head into her lap. When I saw her tears
falling upon his face I felt worse than a villain. She bent over him for
a moment, and one of the tender hands at his cheeks met the flow of
fresh blood and did not shrink. "Sally," she said, "bring the scarf out
of my coat. There's a veil too. Bring that. Russ, you get me some
water--pour some in the pan there."

"Water!" whispered Steele.

She gave him a drink. Sally came with the scarf and veil, and then she
backed away to the stone, and sat there. The sight of blood had made her
a little pale and weak. Miss Sampson's hands trembled and her tears
still fell, but neither interfered with her tender and skillful dressing
of that bullet wound.

Steele certainly said a lot of crazy things. "But why'd you come--why're
you so good--when you don't love me?"

"Oh, but--I do--love you," whispered Miss Sampson brokenly.

"How do I know?"

"I am here. I tell you."

There was a silence, during which she kept on bathing his head, and he
kept on watching her. "Diane!" he broke out suddenly.

"Yes--yes."

"That won't stop the pain in my head."

"Oh, I hope so."

"Kiss me--that will," he whispered. She obeyed as a child might have,
and kissed his damp forehead close to the red furrow where the bullet
cut.

"Not there," Steele whispered.

Then blindly, as if drawn by a magnet, she bent to his lips. I could not
turn away my head, though my instincts were delicate enough. I believe
that kiss was the first kiss of love for both Diane Sampson and Vaughn
Steele. It was so strange and so long, and somehow beautiful. Steele
looked rapt. I could only see the side of Diane's face, and that was
white, like snow. After she raised her head she seemed unable, for a
moment, to take up her task where it had been broken off, and Steele lay
as if he really were dead. Here I got up, and seating myself beside
Sally, I put an arm around her. "Sally dear, there are others," I said.

"Oh, Russ--what's to come of it all?" she faltered, and then she broke
down and began to cry softly. I would have been only too glad to tell
her what hung in the balance, one way or another, ha