anding by the table talking to Mrs. Neville, who was persuading her
to swallow some of the brandy she had been at such pains to fetch. The
moment she caught sight of John's face, which had now turned ghastly
white, and saw the red line trickling down his boot, she took up her hat
that was lying on the table.

"You had better lie down on the old bedstead in the little room," she
said; "I am going for the doctor."

Assisted by Mrs. Neville he was only too glad to take this advice, but
long before the doctor arrived John had followed Jess's example, and
gone off into a dead faint, to the intense alarm of Mrs. Neville, who
was vainly endeavouring to check the flow of blood, which had now become
copious. On the arrival of the doctor it appeared that the bullet had
grazed the walls of one of the arteries on the inside of his thigh
without actually cutting them, which had now given way, rendering it
necessary to tie the artery. This operation, with the assistance
of chloroform, he proceeded to carry out successfully, announcing
afterwards that a great deal of blood had already been lost.

When at last it was over Mrs. Neville asked about John being moved up to
the hospital, but the doctor declared that he must lie where he was,
and that Jess must stop and help to nurse him, with the assistance of a
soldier's wife whom he would send to her.

"Dear me," said Mrs. Neville, "that is very awkward."

"It will be more awkward if you try to move him at present," was the
grim reply, "for the silk may slip, in which case the artery will
probably break out again, and he will bleed to death."

As for Jess, she said nothing, but set to work to make preparations
for her task of nursing. As Fate had once more thrown them together she
accepted the position gladly, though it is fair to say that she would
not have sought it.

In about an hour's time, just as John was beginning to recover from the
painful effects of the chloroform, the soldier's wife who was to assist
her in nursing arrived. As Jess soon discovered, she was not only a low
stamp of woman, but both careless and ignorant into the bargain, and all
that she could be relied on to do was to carry out some of the rougher
work of the sick-room. When John woke up and learned whose was the
presence that was bending over him, and whose the cool hand that lay
upon his forehead, he groaned again and went to sleep. But Jess did not
go to sleep. She sat by him there throughout the night,