"

And Peter answered from an overwhelmingly full and troubled heart, "Oh
yes, I understand."

"I knew you would." Sheila raised starry eyes to the man who had never
failed her. "Those boys will need all the sympathy, all the wholesome
tenderness we can send across to them, and they'll need our hands at their
backs until they get their foothold again. I've served my apprenticeship
at that so long I can do it."

Peter gathered her close in his arms. "God and I know how well."

It was not until they were leaving the gardens that Peter asked the
question that had been in his mind all through the evening. "What about
the wedding? I suppose you're not going to marry me, now."

"Can't. Haven't the courage. Man of mine, don't you know that after I once
belonged to you I couldn't leave you? I've only had sips of happiness so
far. If I once drained the cup, only God's hand could take it from me."

"And the wedding? The old San's just set its heart on that wedding."

The radiant smile crept back to Sheila's lips. Even in the dark Peter
could tell that the old luminous Leerie was beside him once more. "Why,
that's one of the nicest parts of it all. We're going to pass our wedding
on to those children--make them a sort of wedding-present of it. Won't
that be splendid?"

"Oh yes," said Peter, without enthusiasm. "Does it suit them?"

"They don't know yet. Guess I'd better go and tell them."

It is doubtful if anybody but Sheila O'Leary could have managed such an
affair and left every one reasonably happy over it--two of them
unreasonably so. She accepted the wedding collation bestowed by the
wealthy old ladies of the sanitarium and passed it over to the boy and his
betrothed as if it had been as trivial a gift as an ice-cream cone. In a
like manner she passed on the trousseau, kissed all the nurses rapturously
for their work, and piled it all into Clarisse's arms with the remark that
it was lucky they were so nearly of a size. When she brought the
wedding-dress she kissed her, too, and said that she was going to make the
prettiest picture in it that the San or the soldier had seen in years. She
placated the management; she wheedled Miss Maxwell into a good humor; she
even coaxed Doctor Fuller into giving away the bride. Only Hennessy
refused to be propitiated.

"Are ye thinkin' of givin' Mr. Brooks away with everythin' else?" he
asked, scornfully; and then, his indignation rising to a white wrath, he
shouted, "I'll not p