"He seems to be very ill. His temperature has gone up; he is in for a sharp attack of fever. Nothing will quiet him but your presence."
Mollie gave a sigh.
"I will go to him," she said. "Will you stay here until I return?"
Katherine nodded, and Mollie went slowly down the ward. One ward led into another. The dying men looked at her as she walked. She had a slow and dignified step; there was never any undue haste or hurry about her. It calmed the delirious men even to look at her. Her hand was always cool, too—her touch always firm. She entered the ward. Hudson was weak and very, very ill, but his face lit up when he saw the girl.
"Come here, you angel, come here," he said in a whisper, under his breath.
"Come here, come here," said Major Strause.
The face of the lad who was soon to see his Maker, and the face of the angry, worldly-minded major, were both visible to Mollie as she approached.
"Hush!" she said to Major Strause. She raised her finger warningly, and bent over Hudson.
"I am better," he said, with a smile.
"Yes, I think you are," she said. But as she spoke she swallowed something in her throat; for she had learned by this time to discern, and she saw on the white face, and on the worn brow which illness had made so prominent and thin, the unmistakable shadow. The great wings loomed above the dying man; soon he would be folded in their embrace, and all the sorrows of earth would pass away from him.