bestowed upon him her raptures. "Wouldn't it be dreadful if we had
loveless days, Daddy, as well as meatless ones and wheatless?"

That night, after Jean had gone to bed, the Doctor, having dismissed
his last patient, came out of his inner office. Hilda, in her white
nurse's costume, was busy with the books. He stood beside her desk.
His eyes were dancing. "Jean told me about the steak."

"I knew she would--I suppose it was an awful thing to do. But I was
hungry, and I hate fish--" She smiled at him lazily, then laughed.

He laughed back. He felt that it would be unbearable for Hilda to go
hungry, to spoil her red and white with abstinence.

"My dear girl," he said, "what did you mean when you spoke of going
away?"

"Haven't you been thinking of going?"

The color came up in his cheeks. "Yes, but how did you know it?"

"Well, a woman knows. Why don't you make up your mind?"

"There's Jean to think of."

"Emily Bridges could take care of her. And you ought to go. Men are
seeing things over there that they'll never see again. And women are."

"If my country needs me--"