"Doctor," said Preston when we came round to him, "won't you
send away Miss Randolph out of a place that she is not fit
for?"
"I will," said Dr. Sandford grimly, "when I find such a
place."
"Out of this place, then, where she ought not to be; and you
know it."
"It would be your loss, my friend. You are exercising great
self-denial, or else you speak in ignorance."
"She might as well go on the stage at once!" said Preston
bitterly. "Singing half the night to sixty soldiers, - and
won't give one a thing from Norma, then!"
The doctor gave one quick glance of his blue eye at me; it was
a glance inquiring, recognising, touched, sympathising, all in
an instant; it surprised me. Then it went coolly back to his
work.
"What does she sing?"
"Psalms" - said Preston.
"Feverish tendency?" said the doctor.
Preston flung himself to one side, with a violent word, almost
an oath, that shocked me. We left him and went on.
Or rather, went over; for at the instant Dr. Sandford's eye
caught the new occupant of the opposite bed. I was glad to
find that he did not recognise him.
The examination of Mr. Thorold's wounds followed. They were
internal, and had been neglected. I do not know how I went
through it; seeing how he went through it partly helped me,
for I thought he did not seem to suffer greatly. His face was
entirely calm, and his eye clear whenever it could catch mine.
But the operation was long; and I felt when it was over as if
I had been through a battle myself. I was forced to leave him
and go on with my attentions to the other sufferers in the
ward; and I could not get back to Mr. Thorold till the dinner
hour. I managed to be at his side to serve him then. But he
had the use of his arms and hands and did not need feeding,
like some of the others.
"It is worth being here, Daisy," said Mr. Thorold, when I came
with his dinner; which was, however, a light one.
"No," said I. Speaking in low tones, which I was accustomed to
use to all there, we were in little danger of being overheard.
"Not to you," said he with a laughing flash of his eye; "I
only spoke of my own sense of things. That is as I tell you."
"How do you do now?" I asked tremblingly.
His eye changed, softened, lifted itself to mine with a
beautiful glow in it. I half knew what was coming before he
spoke.
"We know in whose hands I am," he said. "I have earned the
'right to my name,' Daisy."
Ah, that was hard to bear! harder than the surgeon's probe
which had gone before. It was hard at the same time not to
fall on my knees to give thanks; or to break out into a shout
of glad praise. I suppose I showed nothing of it, only stood
still - and pale by the side of the bed; till Mr. Thorold
asked me for something, and I knew that I had been neglecting
his dinner. And then I knew that I was neglecting others; and
flew across to Preston, who needed my services.