intently that Georgiana had some
difficulty in maintaining this attitude of cool detachment. The young
girl shook her head. "He couldn't have changed his face," she insisted.
"He's not a bit handsome, but he's stunning just the same. Oh, how
astonished Jean will be when she finds out who's saved her life! When do
you suppose he'll let Jimmy Stuart see her? He'll die if he doesn't make
sure she's alive pretty soon."

CHAPTER XX

FIVE MINUTES

It was not many hours before Doctor Craig himself led Georgiana and
James Stuart together into the room where Jeannette lay. She had asked
to see them together, he said, and they might remain for precisely five
minutes. He immediately left the room again and took the nurse with him.

The five minutes were spent by Stuart with Jeannette's hand in both his
own, as he knelt beside the the bed where she lay, no pillow under her
head, her face very white but her eyes glowing.

Jeannette's look met Georgiana's. "Is it all right?" she said very low.

"Of course it's all right, dear; and I'm perfectly happy over it,"
whispered Georgiana.

Jeannette smiled. "I couldn't be happy till I was sure," she breathed.
"I thought--I might die, even yet--and I wanted it like this--first."

An inarticulate murmur from Stuart answered this, but Georgiana assured
her very gently: "You're going to be happy with Jimps for years and
years, Jean darling."

They were silent then, as they had been bidden, but the silence was
eloquent. Doctor Craig, coming in to put an end to the little interview,
saw the unmistakable tableau. As Stuart, catching sight of him, rose
slowly to his feet, the surgeon's fingers closed upon his patient's
pulse. He nodded.

"As a heart stimulant you have done very well, Mr. Stuart," he said.
"But small doses, frequently repeated, are better than large ones."

Jeannette's hand weakly caught his. "Isn't it queer, Georgiana," she
murmured, "that it should be your Mr. Jefferson who has saved my life?"

In spite of herself, Georgiana could not prevent the rich wave of colour
which swept over her face. She knew, without venturing to look at him,
that Doctor Craig's eyes flashed toward her with a smile in them. She
stooped over Jeannette with a gay reply:

"And he began his acquaintance with you by snowballing you till you
almost had need of his surgery on the spot!"

Then she and Stuart were out in the wide, bare hospital corridor, and
Stuart was saying with a shiver