"I wish you wouldn't sit just round the corner," said Mr. Jonstone presently. "If you sat before the window, sideways, I could see your profile against the sky." "I'm doing very well where I am, thank you." "But, please, why shouldn't I see you? Why are you so embarrassed at me?" "Wouldn't you be embarrassed if you were a girl and had been through the adventure I went through? Wouldn't you be a little embarrassed to see the man who helped you, and look him in the face?" "Don't you ever want me to see you? Because, if you don't, I will go away from this place in the morning and never come back." "Somehow, that doesn't appeal to me very much either." "I am glad," said Mr. Jonstone quietly. "How does your hand feel?" "Which hand?" "The one you hurt." "It feels very happy, and the other hand feels very jealous of it." "Seriously--are you having a pretty bad time?" "I am having the time of my life--seriously--the time that lucky men always have once in their lives." "Are you very impatient for the morphine?" "I shall not take it when it comes. It is far better knowing what one knows, remembering what one remembers, and looking forward to what a presumptuous fool cannot help but look forward to--it is far better to keep awake; to lie peacefully in the dark, knowing, remembering, and looking forward." "And just what are you looking forward to?" "To a long life and a happy one; to the sounds of a voice; to a sudden coming to life of the whole 'Oxford Book of Verse'; to seeing a face." There was a long silence. "Are you there?" "Yes; but you mustn't talk." "I think you are tired. Please don't stay any more if you are tired." "I'm not tired." "Then perhaps you are bored." "I'm not bored." "Then what are you?" "You keep quiet." When, at last, Colonel Meredith came, important with morphine and the doctor's instructions, he found his cousin Mr. Bob Jonstone sleeping very quietly and peacefully, a much dog-eared copy of the "Oxford Book of Verse" clasped to his breast. Unfortunately the colonel, after putting out the light again, bumped into a table, and Mr. Jonstone waked. "That you, Mel?" "Yes, Bob; sorry I waked you. Did Miss Darling send word explaining that I should be quite a while coming back?" "Which Miss Darling?" "Which? Why, Miss Eve." "Yes, she sent word." "And how have you been?" "I took a turn for the better shortly after you left. A little while ago I lighted a candle, and read a little and got sleepy. And now I think I'll go to sleep again." "You don't need the morphine?" "No, Mel. Thank you. Good-night." "Good-night." "Mel?" "What is it?" "Isn't Eve about the oldest name you know?" "Oldest, I guess, except Adam and Lilith. You go to sleep." And Colonel Meredith tiptoed out of the room, murmuring: "Seems to be a little shaky in his upper stories." XXVIII