"Claire, I have just had a telephone call from the doctor," he said. "He wants to see me. Will you come? I think you had better."
"Of course, daddy!" said Claire at once. She got up. "At what time does our train go?"
"I thought we might drive over," said the Colonel. "It would be so hot on a train a day like this. Will you come too, Rosanna?"
"I would love to," answered Rosanna.
"Just tell Chang to get ready, will you, dear?" asked the Colonel of his daughter. She left the room, and they heard her calling to Chang in the distance.
"Rosanna, the time has come," said the Colonel in a voice which shook a little. "We won't tell Claire until we reach Cincinnati, but this weather is undoing all the weeks of preparation, and the doctor says the operation must take place immediately. Mrs. Maslin has been feeling so well that he is very anxious to try the experiment when she is at her strongest and best. He promises nothing. It may result in her death, but we must try it, Rosanna, if only for Claire's sake."
"Does she—Mrs. Maslin know about it?" asked Rosanna.
"She knows nothing, my dear," said the Colonel sadly. "Just sits and looks into space all day long. And she was the gayest, brightest, happiest creature. They called her the most popular woman in the Army. I can't tell you what she was to us." He bent his fine head and a sigh that was nearly a sob shook his shoulders. "We may lose her," he whispered.
"No, indeed!" said Rosanna. "I know Dr. Branshaw is going to make her perfectly well again. I don't feel worried at all. I feel so happy I don't know what to do. So glad! Oh, Colonel, just think! Claire will have her mother again. You can't think how a person wants her mother. It doesn't matter how many other people are good to you no one is like a mother. I am sure this is so, because you know my mother is dead, and I feel so lonely and empty, even when I have my grandmother and Cita and Uncle Bob. Somehow nobody's shoulder feels the same as a mother's. My mother died when I was a baby, but I know it, just the same."
Tears started to Colonel Maslin's eyes as he listened to the brave, uncomplaining little girl.