Until now he had sturdily refused to be inveigled into occupational therapy. Those guys that were done for could learn to knit, he said, and to make silly little mats, and weave things on a loom. If he couldn't do a man's work he'd be darned if he was going to do a woman's. But now all was changed. He announced his intention of making the classiest bead chain that had ever been achieved in 2 C. He insisted upon the instructor getting him the most expensive beads in the market, regardless of size or color. Now, for Quin, with his big hands and lack of dexterity, to have worked with beads under the most favorable conditions would have been difficult, but to master the art lying flat on his back was a _tour de force_. He pricked his fingers and broke his thread; he upset the beads on the floor, on the bed, in his tray; he took out and put in with infinite patience, "each bead a thought, each thought a prayer." "Don't you think you had better give it up?" asked the instructor, in despair, after the fourth lesson. "You don't know me," said Quin, setting his jaw. "You been trying to get me into this for two weeks--now you've got to see me through." It did not take long for the other patients to discover Quin's state of mind. "How about your heart disease, Graham?" they inquired daily; "think it's going to be chronic?" But Quin had little time for them. The distinction he had enjoyed as the champion poker-player in 2 C. began to wane as his popularity with the new ward visitor increased. "I like your nerve!--keeping her up there at your bed all the time," complained Michaelis. "She's an old friend of mine," Quin threw off nonchalantly. "Aw, what you tryin' to put over on us?" scoffed Mike. "Where'd you ever git to know a girl like that?" "Well, I know her all right," said Quin. The little mystery about Miss Bartlett's first name had been a fruitful topic of conversation between a couple whose topics were necessarily limited. She had teased Quin to tell her how he knew, and also how he knew she wanted to go on the stage; and Quin had teased back; and at last it had resolved itself into a pretty contest of wits. This served to keep her beside him often as long as four minutes. Then he would gain an additional two minutes by showing her what progress he had made with his chain, and consulting her preference for an American flag or a Red Cross worked in the medallion.