The listener was at first sight utterly bewildered, looked incredulous, and only when certain details had been repeated and emphasized began to grasp the reality of what she heard.
"Oh!" she exclaimed at length in profound agitation, "that explains so many things! I never thought of this, but I've often wondered.

I understand now." She paused, struggling to control herself.

Then, not without dignity, in the tone and with the face that are natural at such moments only to a woman here and there; the nobler of her sex, she added: "I can't go to the hospital.

Someone else must tell me about him.

I can't go." "I shall have time to call on my way," said Gammon, "and I could send you a wire." "Will you?
I can't go." She sobbed, but quietly, hiding her face in her hands.