"Oh, I don't know," she replied. "Men have done this sort of thing
before--but it isn't often," she went on, "that a man has done it for
the sake of another man."

He smiled.

"You have the old-fashioned idea of man's devotion to woman. Can't you
believe that there may be ties between two men stronger even than
between a man and the woman he loves?"

"I can believe that," she assented, "but the men must have something
in common. I should find it hard to believe, for instance, that they
existed between you and the man downstairs."

He shrugged his shoulders very slightly.

"You forget," he observed, "that a man does not look at his best after
such an illness as Phillips has had. You find him, perhaps, a little
insignificant. You are probably aware of his vocation and station
in life."

"I am."

"And these things," he went on, "make it difficult for you to believe
that there is any great tie between us two. Yet it is the exception
which proves the rule, you know. I will not say that your patient has
ever saved my life or performed any immortal action, yet believe me
he has courage and a grit you would scarcely believe in, and I am
speaking seriously when I tell you that not only I but others are