Man and Maid

"What can I do, dear friend--If you knew how much I want to do

something!"

"Your first duty is to get well.--Have yourself patched

together--finished so to speak, and then marry and found a family to

take the place of all who have perished. It was good taste when I was

young not to have too many--but now!--France wants children--and

England too. There is a duty for you, Nicholas!"

I kissed her hand--.

"If I could find a woman like you!" I cried--"indeed then I would

worship her--."

"So--so--! There are hundreds such as I--when I was young I lived as

youth lives--You must not be too critical, Nicholas."

She was called away then, back to one of the wards, and I hobbled down

the beautiful staircases by myself--the lift was not working. The

descent was painful and I felt hot and tired when I reached the ground

floor, it was quite dusk then, and the one light had not yet been lit. A

slight wisp of a figure passed along the end of the corridor. I could

not see plainly, but I could have sworn it was Miss Sharp--I called her

name--but no one answered me so I went on out,--the servant, aged

ninety, now joining me, he assisted me into my one horse Victoria beyond

the concierge's lodge.

Miss Sharp and the Duchesse!--? Why if this is so have I never been told

about it?--The very moment Maurice returns I must get him to investigate

all about the girl--In the meantime I think I shall go to Versailles--.

I cannot stand Paris any longer--and the masseur can come out there,

it is not an impossible distance away.