ed balefully, while she tossed her auburn
curls coyly at Peter. "It's really too bad, for she's a wonderful surgical
nurse. All the best surgeons want her on their cases. That's why they put
her on with you; that's really why they let her come back at all."

A look in Peter's eyes stopped her and made her look back over her
shoulder. Sheila O'Leary stood in the open doorway. For an instant the
perpetual assurance of Miss Jacobs was shaken, but only for an instant.
She smiled tolerantly. "Hello, Leerie! I've been telling Mr. Brooks what a
wonderful surgical nurse you are."

The gray eyes of the girl in the doorway looked steadily into the green
eyes of the girl by the bed. "Thank you, Coppy, I heard you." And she
stepped aside to let the other pass out.

"Well?" she asked when the two were alone.

"Well!" answered Peter, emphatically. "Everything is very, very well. Do
you know," and he smiled up at her like a happy small boy--"do you know
that all the while you were building that dam I was building something
else?"

"Were you?"

"I was building my life over again--building it fresh, with the fear gone
and everything sound and strong and fine. And into the chinks where all
the miserable empty places had been--the places where loneliness and
heartache eternally leaked through--I was fitting love, the love I never
dared dream of."

"Yes?"

The girl's lips looked strangely hard--almost bitter, Peter thought; and
this time he reached out both arms to her.

"Hang it all! It's tough on a man who's never dared dream of love to have
it take him, bandaged and tied to his bed. Leerie--Leerie! You wouldn't
have the heart to blow out the lamp now, would you?"

The lips softened, she gave a sad little shake of her head. "No, but
you've got to keep it burning yourself. You're a man; you can do it.
Sorry--can't help it. And please don't say anything more. Don't spoil it
all, and make me say things I wish I hadn't and send you off to pay your
bill and leave the San to-night." She smiled wistfully. "Dear, grown-up
boy! Don't you know that it's the customary thing for a man to think he's
fallen in love with his nurse when he's convalescing? Just get well and
forget it--as all the others do." She turned toward the door.

"I'm not going to pay my bill to-night, and I'm not going to forget it. I
guess all those chinks haven't been filled up yet. I'm going to stay until
they are. Good plan, don't you think?" And Peter Brooks smil