o-day," she went on, turning again to Archdale, "and we are short
of hands. If you don't mind, and will come, we shall be glad of your
help."

Captain Archdale playing at nurse with private soldiers! The young man
did not fancy the idea at all; he would much rather have led a forlorn
hope.

But no forlorn hope offered, and this did. Of course he would do
anything for Mistress Royal, but this was not for her at all. He had
half a mind to excuse himself. As the suggestion came to him, he looked
into the steady eyes that were watching him fathoming his reluctance,
ready for approval or for scorning as the answer might be. His look took
in her whole appearance, and set him wondering if the privates, some of
whom had been even his neighbors and his boyish playfellows, could
offend his dignity more than hers? He began to wonder how her eyes would
change if they looked at him approvingly.

"I will go with pleasure, if you'll put up with an awkward fellow," he
answered. And Colonel Vaughan who was looking on was not aware that he
had hesitated.

Elizabeth's eyes darkened. She smiled and nodded her head slightly, as
if to say, "I knew you would do it." But after this the trace of a smile
lurked for a moment in the corners of her mouth, as if she might have
added: "I know, too, what it has cost you." But she said nothing at all
to Archdale. She bade good-by to Colonel Vaughan who protested that he
wished he was not upon duty, and turned again toward the hospital.
Suddenly Archdale thought that she might have been asking the same thing
of Edmonson when she had been talking with him just before. If she had,
it was very certain that Edmonson had found an engagement immediately.
Upon the whole, Archdale was satisfied to have done what the other would
not do. So that it was just as well he did not know that that other had
not been asked.

Was there ever another woman in the world like this one, he asked
himself late that night, recalling that she had been for hours beside
him, treating him just as if he were a crook to raise a soldier's head,
if she wanted to rearrange his pillow, or a machine to reel off bandages
round that poor Melvin's shattered arm, or to do any other trying
service, and never even imagine that he would like to be thanked or
treated humanely, while every look and word and thought of hers was for
the soldiers. It was so different from what he had always found, and yet
there was the nobleness of self-forgetful