.
Garth Dalmain had the iron strength to turn and go, without a protest,
when the woman who had owned him mate the evening before, refused him
on the score of inadequacy the next morning. I fear there is no
question of the view he would take of the situation as it now stands."

Jane's pale, startled face went to the doctor's heart.

"But Deryck--he--loves--"

"Just because he loves, my poor old girl, where you are concerned he
could never be content with less than the best."

"Oh, Boy, help me! Find a way! Tell me what to do!" Despair was in
Jane's eyes.

The doctor considered long, in silence. At last he said: "I see only
one way out. If Dal could somehow be brought to realise your point of
view at that time as a possible one, without knowing it had actually
been the cause of your refusal of him, and could have the chance to
express himself clearly on the subject--to me, for instance--in a way
which might reach you without being meant to reach you, it might put
you in a better position toward him. But it would be difficult to
manage. If you could be in close contact with his mind, constantly near
him unseen--ah, poor chap, that is easy now--I mean unknown to him; if,
for instance, you could be in the shoes of this nurse-companion person
I am sending him, and get at his mind on the matter; so that he could
feel when you eventually made your confession, he had already justified
himself to you, and thus gone behind his blindness, as it were."

Jane bounded in her chair. "Deryck, I have it! Oh, send ME as his
nurse-companion! He would never dream it was I. It is three years since
he heard my voice, and he thinks me in Egypt. The society column in all
the papers, a few weeks ago, mentioned me as wintering in Egypt and
Syria and remaining abroad until May. Not a soul knows I have come
home. You are the best judge as to whether I have had training and
experience; and all through the war our work was fully as much mental
and spiritual, as surgical. It was not up to much otherwise. Oh, Dicky,
you could safely recommend me; and I still have my uniforms stowed away
in case of need. I could be ready in twenty-four hours, and I would go
as Sister--anything, and eat in the kitchen if necessary."

"But, my dear girl," said the doctor quietly, "you could not go as
Sister Anything, unfortunately. You could only go as Nurse Rosemary
Gray; for I engaged her this morning, and posted a full and explicit
account of her to Dr. Macken