k me in a whisper if I was quite sure
that I could control myself, and though my heart was thumping against my
breast, I answered Yes.

Then I called for a hand-glass and made my hair a shade neater, and
after that I closed my eyes (God knows why) and waited.

There was a moment of silence, dead silence, and then--then I opened my
eyes and saw him standing in the open doorway.

His big, strong, bronzed face--stronger than ever now, and marked with a
certain change from the struggles he had gone through--was utterly
broken up. For some moments he did not speak, but I could see that he
saw the change that life had made in me also. Then in a low voice, so
low that it was like the breath of his soul, he said:

"Forgive me! Forgive me!"

And stepping forward he dropped to his knees by the side of my bed, and
kissed the arms and hands I was stretching out to him.

That was more than I could bear, and the next thing I heard was my
darling's great voice crying:

"Sister! Sister! Some brandy! Quick! She has fainted."

But my poor little fit of hysterics was soon at an end, and though
Martin was not permitted to stay more than a moment longer, a mighty
wave of happiness flowed over me, such as I had never known before and
may never know again.

ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTH CHAPTER

I had such a beautiful convalescence. For the major operations of the
Great Surgeon an anaesthetic has not yet been found, but within a week I
was sitting up again, mutilated, perhaps, but gloriously alive and
without the whisper of a cry.

By this time Father Dan had gone back to Ellan (parting from me with a
solemn face as he said, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in
peace"), and Sister Mildred had obtained permission to give up one of
her rooms to me as long as I should need it.

Martin came to see me every day, first for five minutes, then ten, and
finally for a quarter and even half an hour. He brought such an
atmosphere of health with him, that merely to hold his hand seemed to
give me new strength--being so pale and bloodless now that I thought the
sun might have shone through me as through a sea-gull.

I could scarcely believe it was not a dream that he was sitting by my
side, and sometimes I felt as if I had to touch him to make sure he was
there.

How he talked to keep up my spirits! It was nearly always about his
expedition (never about me or my experiences, for that seemed a dark
scene from which he would not