rsation between the
three.

A call from the other tent summoned Nurse Haley.

"Let me go instead," cried the little nurse eagerly. But, light-footed
as a deer, Mandy was already gone.

When the tent flap had fallen behind her Cameron pushed back his plate,
leaned forward upon the table and, looking the little nurse full in the
face, said:

"Now, it's no use carrying this on. What have you done to her?" And the
little nurse laughed her brightest and most joyous laugh.

"What has she done to us, you mean."

"No. Come now, take pity on a fellow. I left her--well--you know what.
And now--how has this been accomplished?"

"Soul, my boy," said the doctor emphatically, "and the hairdresser
and--"

But Cameron ignored him.

"Can you tell me?" he said to the nurse.

"Well, as a nurse, is she quite impossible?"

"Oh, spare me," pleaded Cameron. "I acknowledge my sin and my folly is
before me. But tell me, how was this miracle wrought?"

"What do you mean exactly? Specify."

"Oh, hang it! Well, beginning at the top, there's her hair."

"Her hair?"

"Yes."

"Then, her complexion--her grace of form--her style--her manner. Oh,
confound it! Her hands--everything."

"Well," said the little nurse with deliberation, "let's begin at the
top. Her hair? A hairdresser explains that. Her complexion? A little
treatment, massage, with some help from the doctor. Her hands? Again
treatment and release from brutalising work. Her figure? Well, you know,
that depends, though we don't acknowledge it always, to a certain extent
on--well--things--and how you put them on."

"Nurse," said the doctor gravely, "you're all off. The transformation
is from within and is explained, as I have said, by one word--soul. The
soul has been set free, has been allowed to break through. That is all.
Why, my dear fellow," continued the doctor with rising enthusiasm, "when
that girl came to us we were in despair; and for three months she kept
us there, pursuing us, hounding us with questions. Never saw anything
like it. One telling was enough though. Her eyes were everywhere, her
ears open to every hint, but it was her soul, like a bird imprisoned and
beating for the open air. The explanation is, as I have said just now,
soul--intense, flaming, unquenchable soul--and, I must say it, the
dressmaker, the hairdresser, and the rest directed by our young friend
here," pointing to the little nurse. "Why, she had us all on the job. We
all became devotee