t while we talk. I'll sit
here by you on the window seat."

No one was very ill in this upper ward, which was kept for
convalescents. Some of the men had been given cigarettes to smoke. Some
were having their supper. It was generally known that Monsieur Mars and
the Demoiselle Irlandaise had been friends in England; and the news
having run round the wards that Monsieur Mars had practically discharged
himself as a patient, we were allowed to talk in peace. Not an errand
was found for me, not a nurse looked--or allowed us to see that she
looked--our way.

"I didn't mean to remind you of my existence, you know, Peggy, till I
had something to say about myself worth saying," Eagle began, speaking
lightly, yet with a nervousness he couldn't quite hide. "I told you that
in my last letter. But Providence has stage-managed things differently."

"Yes. We didn't expect to act together in a continental theatre, did
we?" I was deliberately flippant. "But I'm glad to be in this great play
with you, even in one scene, and such a little part!"

"Maybe the part seems little to you. It doesn't to me! You've helped me
to get well twice as soon as I should have done among strangers.
Heavens! But I was glad to see your little face! I'd have told you that
first morning when I waked up what I'm going to tell you now, if you had
let me then. Things were rather mixed in my brain. I thought I was in
London, and you'd found me at a sort of nursing home I retired into for
a couple of days to get patched up, after that--er--that little accident
I had. I suppose you heard something of it at the time, though I don't
think you were on the spot to see."

"Tony told me you were in church, and that it was you who stopped the
horses when they started to run away," I said, without beating round the
bush, for I thought he was bidding for my frankness on this sore
subject.

"I hoped I might have passed unrecognized; but I feared that was too
much to expect. I was tempted to break my resolution and write to you
after all, explaining why I went to Lady Diana's wedding. But I stuck it
out because--well, because it _was_ a resolution. Silly maybe! all the
same, I had it a good deal at heart to find a new place for myself in
the world before I made a sign to any of my friends, even loyal Peggy.
Besides, I had a safe sort of feeling you wouldn't misjudge me."

"I'm glad you felt that," I said. "Almost glad enough to be glad you
didn't write. Though--I shou