His glance flashed into hers delightedly. For hours and hours the constant wonder where she was, why no one mentioned her, why they evaded his apparently casual questions. To burst upon his vision in the nadir of his boredom and loneliness like this! She was glorious, this American girl. She made him think of a golden scabbard housing a fine Toledo blade. Hadn't she saved his life? More, hadn't she assumed a responsibility in so doing? Instantly he purposed that she should not be permitted to resign the office of good Samaritan. He motioned toward the nurse's chair; and Kitty sat down, her errand in total eclipse. “Just when I never felt so lonely! Ripping!” His quick smile was so engaging that Kitty answered it--kindred spirits, subconsciously recognizing each other. Fire; but neither of them knew that; or that two lonely human beings of opposite sex, in touch, constitute a first-rate combustible. Quietly the nurse withdrew. There would be a tonic in this meeting for the patient. Her own presence might neutralize the effect. She had not spent all those dreadful months in base hospitals without acquiring a keen insight into the needs of sick men. No harm in letting him have this pretty, self-reliant girl alone to himself for a quarter of an hour. She would then return with some broth. “How--how are you?” asked Kitty, inanely. “Top-hole, considering. Quite ready to be killed all over again.” “You mustn't talk like that!” she protested. “Only to show you I was bucking up. Thank you for doing what you did.” “I had to do it.” “Most women would have run away and left me to my fate.” “Not my kind.” “Rather not! Your kind would risk its neck to help a stray cat. I say, what's that you have in your hand?” “Good gracious!” Kitty extended the wallet. “It is yours, isn't it?” “Yes. I wanted you to bring it to me the way you have. If I hadn't come back--out of that--it was to be yours.” “Mine?”--dumfounded. “But----” “Why not? Gregor gone, there wasn't a soul in the world. I was hungry, and you gave me food. I wanted that to pay you. I'll wager you've never looked into it.” “I had no right to.” “See!” He opened the wallet and spread the contents on the counterpane. “I wasn't so stony as you thought. What? Cash and unregistered bonds. They would have been yours absolutely.” “But I don't--I can't quite,” Kitty stammered--“but I couldn't have kept them!” “Positively yes. You would have shown them to that ripping guardian of yours, and he would have made you see.” “Indeed, yes! He would have been scared to death. You poor man, can't you see? Circumstantial evidence that I had killed you!”