“ ‘Mrs. Yeverley is here,’ I said. ‘The mother of one of the kids he saved. She wants to see him.’
“ ‘Out of the question,’ snapped Purvis. ‘I absolutely forbid it.’
“ ‘But you mustn’t forbid it, Doctor.’ We both swung round, to see the girl herself standing behind us. ‘I’ve got to see him. There are other reasons besides his having saved my baby’s life.’
“ ‘They must wait, Mrs. Yeverley,’ answered the Doctor. ‘In a case of this sort the only person I would allow to see him would be his wife.’
“ ‘If I hadn’t been a fool,’ she said deliberately, ‘I should have been his wife,’ and Purvis’s jaw dropped.
“Without another word she swept past him into the ward, and Purvis stood there gasping.
“ ‘Well, I’m damned!’ he muttered, and I couldn’t help smiling. It was rather a startling statement to come from a woman stopping with the G.O.C. about a sergeant in a cavalry regiment.
“And then, quite suddenly and unexpectedly, came the final turn in the wheel. I was strolling up and down outside with Purvis, who was a sahib as well as a Doctor and had asked no questions.
“ ‘If his back is broken it can’t hurt him,’ he had remarked, ‘and if it isn’t it will do him good.’
“At that we had left it, when suddenly, to my horror, I saw Giles himself going into the hospital.