Miss Kittredge," she said firmly. "It's time you
started cooperating a little."

Yes, that brought her back to reality. But she still didn't say
anything.

"Although we might as well not have let 'em out of quarantine," the
nurse grumbled. "They've just been living out there in the waiting room
for a solid week, buttonholing everybody from doctors down to orderlies
asking about you."

She gave a soft wolf whistle.

"Whew, imagine having not just one guy but two of 'em, absolutely crazy
about you. Just begging to see you, hold your hand a little. Two
beautiful men like that! You ready to see them soon?"

Miss Kitty felt a rush of shame again. In the cabin she would have been
forced to face them, but not now.

"No," she said firmly. "I _never_ want to see them again."

"Well, now, let me tell you something, Miss Kittredge," the nurse said,
and this time there was a note of seriousness. "One of the symptoms of
this sickness you picked up is that it makes you talk. Gal, you have
talked a blue streak for the last week. We know everything, everything
that happened, everything you thought about. The doctor understood how
you might feel about things. So he told the lieutenant and Mr. Eade that
you had got bitten about the time you were up in the rice swamp, and
that you hadn't been responsible for anything you'd said for the last
three days back there on New Earth."

Miss Kitty felt a flood of relief.

"Did they believe the doctor?" she asked hesitantly.

"Sure they believed him," the nurse answered. "Sure they did. But you
wanna know something? I've talked to those two men. And I've just got
myself an idea that it wouldn't have made a particle of difference in
the way they feel about you even if they didn't believe it. You're tops
with those two guys, lady. Absolutely tip-top tops. The way you pitched
in there, carried your share of things...."

She slipped the pan out from under the sheets, and put it into a
compartment of the cart.

"You wanna know something else? I don't think you were out of your head
at all when you propositioned those two guys. I think you were showing
some good female sense, maybe for the first time in your life. And I
think they know you were.

"You think it over, Miss Kittredge. If I know you--and I ought to after
listening to you rave day after day--you've got what it takes. You want
my advice? You go right on being a normal female. Don't you be silly
enough to get back into that war