"I hope the poor fellow will soon recover," Lady Anselman declared.
"Please do not think anything more of the affair so far as we are
concerned. You must let me know later on how he is."

The maitre d'hotel retreated with a little bow. Geraldine turned to
Captain Granet.

"I think," she said, "that you must be very kind-hearted, for a
soldier."

He turned and looked at her.

"Why?"

"You must have been so many horrible sights--so many dead people, and
yet--"

"Well?" he persisted.

"There was something in your face when the man staggered back, a kind
of horror almost. I am sure you felt it quite as much as any of us."

He was silent for a moment.

"In a battlefield," he observed slowly, "one naturally becomes a
little callous, but here it is different. The fellow did look ghastly
ill, didn't he? I wonder what was really the matter with him."

"We shall know when Major Thomson returns," she said.