I picked up all the ’rice and rose leaves,’ every bit of it by hand, and then I went and told the girl I work with in the scullery. She collapsed into the coal box, saying, ’You’ll be shot at dawn,’ when a hand cautiously opened the scullery window and a voice said,— ’I’ll be waiting outside the gate when you go home at one o’clock, and if you would kindly hurry I think it would be better, for I’m very much afraid I shall explode.’ So at one o’clock I went outside the gate, whereupon there appeared the unseemly spectacle of the latest V.A.D. hugging the Visiting Committee! ’Oh, Toby, it’s such pure bliss to see you. I wish I could shake hands,’ I said, ’but I really am so filthy.’ ’A kiss of yours is good enough for any man,’ said Toby. So of course I kissed him, as I always have, and at that moment matron caught us! Somehow, my luck’s dead out. However, I felt as I was not on duty I could hug Generals if I chose, and, anyway, I was to be shot at dawn on Friday, so nothing mattered. So the Visiting Committee came home to lunch with me and stayed to tea, which it hadn’t meant to do, and then stayed on for dinner, but it couldn’t stop the night, or else it would have. It was delightful to see Toby. When he went he said,— ’Darling, you don’t look too frightfully well, are you being taken care of properly? You ought not to be going to that beastly hospital when they’ve got influenza. You’re not strong enough. Do you ever faint now?’ ’Never, except once last Thursday.’ But I don’t think he heard, for he went down to the car and drove away. *CHAPTER XXVII* Ross wired to say that he was delayed till Tuesday, and then came on Saturday after all. I was in the hall wondering why I felt so tired and whether I’d bother to change for dinner, when my brother let himself in at the front door, followed by Brown. ’Why, Ross, this is a surprise. I didn’t expect you to-day!’ He had, however, somehow grown deaf during his absence, and merely said,— ’Good-evening, Margaret. See to the luggage, will you, Brown,’ and walked upstairs, followed by all the dogs. ’Has anything happened, Sam?’ I asked. ’Not in London, miss,’ and he handed me the evening paper. Obviously a storm was brewing, so I decided that it was worth while to dress. I put on my best and latest frock. At dinner I was sparkling, and told my brother all about the hospital in my most vivid style. Somehow he didn’t think any of it the least amusing. I asked him then if he wasn’t sorry to miss Toby, and he informed me that he had had lunch with him at the club in London. Ross was, however, quite polite and civil, more so than he’d been for years, but as to rowing me as I had thought, oh, dear, no; he quite obviously was not interested in me at all, the whole subject of the hospital bored him stiff. I thought I’d see if the date would warm the atmosphere.