ow that it will be better for me not to be going there every day,
now that he is out of danger. He belongs to someone else, and I would
rather die than that he should ever dream what a fool I am; and now I
know it myself it will be harder and harder as he gets better to be
talking to him indifferently." Accordingly the next morning, when she
went down, she told Dr. Swinburne that she felt that she must, at any
rate for a time, give up nursing.

"You are quite right, Miss Brander," he said, kindly, "you have taxed
your strength too much already, and are looking a mere shadow of what
you were two months ago. You are quite right to take a rest. I have
plenty of assistance, and there is not likely to be such a strain again
as that we have lately gone through. Paris cannot hold out many weeks
longer, and after the two failures I feel sure that there will be no
more attempts at a sortie, especially as all hopes that an army may come
to our relief are now at an end."

She found it more difficult to tell Cuthbert, but it was not necessary
for her to begin the subject, for he noticed at once that she had not
the usual nursing-dress on.

"You are going to take a holiday to-day, I suppose?" he said, as she
came up to his bedside.

"I am going to take a holiday for some little time," she said, quietly.
"They can do very well without me now. Almost all the patients in this
ward are convalescent, and I really feel that I need a rest."

"I am sure you do," he said, earnestly, "it has been an awful time for
you to go through, and you have behaved like a heroine. A good many of
us owe our lives to you, but the work has told on you sadly. I don't
suppose you know yourself how much. We shall all miss you at this end of
the ward--miss you greatly, but I am sure there is not one who will not
feel as I do, glad to know that you are taking a rest after all your
work. Of course you will look in sometimes to see how your patients are
progressing. As for myself I hope I shall be able to come up to see you
at the Michauds in another ten days or so. Now that the doctor has taken
to feeding me up I can feel that I am gaining strength every day."

"You must not hurry, Cuthbert," she said, gravely. "You must keep quiet
and patient."

"You are not in your nursing-dress now, Miss Brander, and I decline
altogether to be lectured by you. I have been very good and obedient up
to now, but I only bow to lawfully constituted authority, and now I
come