And Dan was off, not because he didn't want to stay, but because he knew his chum would want to see the most of Belle. As for that young woman, who held none too positive hopes of Darrin's recovery after what the doctors had told her, she forced herself to be calm and smiling and sat close by, her hand on Dave's forehead when he dropped off into a feverish, troubled sleep.
The next day Belle chatted with her husband a little, in a cool, steady voice. Two days after that Dave was actually permitted to sit up.
On the sixth day after he had been taken to the hospital Dave was mending so rapidly that Belle, who was obliged to leave that afternoon for her Red Cross post in France, felt wholly easy in mind as to his condition.
"It was a lucky chain of events, my two swims in the channel," Darrin told her before they parted.
"Lucky, when the experience nearly cost you your life?" exclaimed Belle.
"It gave you an excuse for coming to me, and gave me the time and leisure to be with you."
"Dave Darrin, you don't mean any such thing! You are needed aboard your ship, and I am needed for my work in France, and nothing can be called really good luck that takes either of us away from his post of duty in war-time."
"You little patriot!" Dave laughed, jestingly.
"You believe it just as much as I do," Belle maintained stoutly. "I'm glad to have been here with you, dear, but I shall be glad to find myself back at my post. And you know you are glad that you will return to your ship tomorrow."
"If she comes in," Darrin amended.