it's as
plain as these four walls and the ceiling above us. No woman pleads for a
man that way unless she loves him better than anything else on God's
earth."

"I think you're wrong."

"Why?" Peter strode over to the superintendent's desk like a man after his
reprieve. "I'm not just curious. I've the biggest excuse in the world for
wanting to know why she has asked this. I love Sheila O'Leary. I love her
well enough to leave her to-night with the man she loves, provided he
loves her. But if he doesn't--if he's just playing with her, accepting her
as a sop to his vanity, as a lot of near-famous men will with a
woman--then, by thunder! I'm going to stay and fight him for her!
Understand?" And Peter's fist pounded the desk.

The superintendent smiled again. This time there was no pathos in it. "I
understand--and I'd stay. You ought to know Leerie well enough by this
time to know that she can fight for the right of anything, whether she
cares personally or not, and more than that, even if she has to suffer
for it herself. She's the only woman I have ever known who had that
particular kind of heroism. If she felt Doctor Brainard needed some one to
stand up for him, I believe she could plead better if she didn't care. And
I've another, a better reason for thinking she doesn't love him. She
refused at first to be his surgical nurse. She didn't consent until she
knew that he had made that one of the conditions of his coming here; he
stipulated that he must be allowed to bring his own anesthetist, operate
without an assistant, and choose his own operating nurse."

"And he choose her?"

"She is the best we have. Not using an assistant throws a tremendous
responsibility and strain on the nurse, and Doctor Brainard naturally
wanted the most expert one he could get."

"Then there was nothing personal--"

"I don't think so. Doctor Brainard has a strong influence over Leerie, but
I believe it is only what any surgeon with distinction and power would
have. If she really cared for Doctor Brainard, she wouldn't have said
what she did when I asked her to take the appointment."

"What did she say?" Peter leaned forward eagerly and gripped the edge of
the desk.

"She said she would rather be suspended for three more years than do it,
but if there was no one else, she guessed she could manage it for the
honor of the San."

"What did she mean?"

"Oh, that's just a by-phrase among those of us who have worked here a long
while a