ouse him from unconsciousness, and
his face was white as death where he lay on the heap of dry reeds and
grasses. She began to feel fear of that lengthened syncope; a chill,
tight, despairing fear that she had never known in her life before. She
knelt silent a moment, drawing through her hand the wet locks of his
hair with the bright threads of gold gleaming in it.

Then she started up, and, leaving him, found a match, and lighted the
died-out wood afresh; the fire soon blazed up, and she warmed above
it the soup that had grown cold, poured into it some red wine that was
near, and forced some, little by little, down his throat. It was with
difficulty at first that she could pass any though his tightly locked
teeth; but by degrees she succeeded, and, only half-conscious still, he
drank it faster; the heat and the strength reviving him as its stimulant
warmed his veins. His eyes did not unclose, but he stirred, moved his
limbs, and, with some muttered words she could not hear, drew a deeper
breath and turned.

"He will sleep now--he is safe," she thought to herself, while she stood
watching him with a curious conflict of pity, impatience, anger, and
relief at war within her.

Bah! Why was she always doing good services to this man, who only cared
for the blue, serene eyes of a woman who would never give him aught
except pain? Why should she take such care to keep the fire of vitality
alight in him, when it had been crushed out in thousands as good as he,
who would have no notice save a hasty thrust into the earth; no funeral
chant except the screech of the carrion-birds?

Cigarette had been too successful in her rebellion against all weakness,
and was far too fiery a young warrior to find refuge or consolation in
the poet's plea,

"How is it under our control to love or not to love?"

To allow anything to gain ascendancy over her that she resisted,
to succumb to any conqueror that was unbidden and unwelcome, was a
submission beyond words degrading to the fearless soldier-code of the
Friend of the Flag. And yet--there she stayed and watched him. She
took some food, for she had been fasting all day; then she dropped down
before the fire she had lighted, and, in one of those soft, curled,
kitten-like attitudes that were characteristic of her, kept her vigil
over him.

She was bruised, stiff, tired, longing like a tired child to fall
asleep; her eyes felt hot as flame; her rounded, supple limbs were
aching, her throa