A little wistfully the White Linen Nurse stepped forward. "The hospital?" she said. "Oh,--the hospital? Do you think that perhaps you could come home a little bit earlier than usual--to-night--and--and help me catch--just one of the canaries?" "What?" gasped the Senior Surgeon. Incredulously with a very inky finger he pointed at his own breast. "What? I?" he demanded. "I? Come home--early--from the hospital to help--you--catch a canary?" Disgustedly without further comment he turned and stalked back again into the house. The disgust was still in his walk as he left the house an hour later. Watching his exit down the long gravel path the Little Crippled Girl commented audibly on the matter. "Peach! Peach!" called the Little Crippled Girl. "What makes Fat Father walk so--surprised?" People at the hospital also commented upon him. "Gee!" giggled the new nurses. "We bet he 's a Tartar! But isn't his hair cute? And say--" gossiped the new nurses, "is it really true that that Malgregor girl was pinned down perfectly helpless under the car and he wouldn't let her out till she'd promised to marry him? Isn't it _awful?_ Isn't it _romantic_?" "Why! Dr. Faber 's back!" fluttered the senior nurses. "Isn't he wonderful? Isn't he beautiful? But, oh, say," they worried, "what do you suppose Rae ever finds to talk with him about? Would she ever dare talk _things_ to him,--just plain every-day _things_,--hats, and going to the theater, and what to have for breakfast?--breakfast?" they gasped. "Why, yes, of course!" they reasoned more sanely. "Steak? Eggs? Even oatmeal? Why, people had to eat--no matter how wonderful they were! But evenings?" they speculated more darkly. "But evenings?" In the whole range of human experience--was it even so much as remotely imaginable that--evenings--the Senior Surgeon and--Rae Malgregor--sat in the hammock and held hands? "Oh, Gee!" blanched the senior nurses. "Good-morning, Dr. Faber!" greeted the Superintendent of Nurses from behind her austere office desk. "Good-morning, Miss Hartzen!" said the Senior Surgeon. "Have you had a pleasant trip?" quizzed the Superintendent of Nurses. "Exceptionally so, thank you!" said the Senior Surgeon. "And--Mrs. Faber,--is she well?" persisted the Superintendent of Nurses conscientiously. "Mrs. Faber?" gasped the Senior Surgeon. "Mrs. Faber? Oh, yes! Why, of course! Yes, indeed--she's extraordinarily well! I never saw her better!" "She must have been--very lonely without you--this past month?" rasped the Superintendent of Nurses--perfectly politely. "Yes--she was," flushed the Senior Surgeon. "She--she suffered--keenly!" "And you, too?" drawled the Superintendent of Nurses. "It must have been very hard for you." "Yes, it was!" sweated the Senior Surgeon. "I suffered keenly, too!"