Her voice trembled a little, and her eyes were fixed eagerly upon the doctor's face.
He turned square about, the withered, purple-veined hands clutching the arms of his chair tightly, a kind of choking sound issuing from his bandaged throat.
"Will you say that again?" he asked abruptly, staring with raised eyebrows at the pale, earnest face.
Lilly repeated what she had said, more firmly.
"Good heavens!" ejaculated the old man, measuring the girl from head to foot slowly.
"Child," he said, after a pause, "do you know what you are talking about?"
"I think so," the girl answered, quietly.
"No, you do not!" the old man said, almost brusquely. "It is a place to try the nerves of the strongest man, to say nothing of a woman's. It is no place for a girl—no place."
"I am not afraid," the girl said, her voice breaking. "They say I am good in sickness, and I will do any kind of work. It is dreadful to think of those poor little children and women, with no one to do anything for them but men. Oh, do not refuse!" she cried, coming nearer and holding out her hands entreatingly.