Several soldiers who had been more seriously injured than Rust improved to the extent that they were discharged.

But Rust gained little or nothing.

The nurse and doctor both informed Carley that Rust brightened for her, but when she was gone he lapsed into somber indifference.

He did not care whether he ate or not, or whether he got well or died.
"If I do pull out, where'll I go and what'll I do ?" he once asked the nurse.
Carley knew that Rust's hurt was more than loss of a leg, and she decided to talk earnestly to him and try to win him to hope and effort.
He had come to have a sort of reverence for her.

So, biding her time, she at length found opportunity to approach his bed while his comrades were asleep or out of hearing.