It was Eugenia who spoke first.
“I am glad to have this moment here with you, Captain Castaigne,” she began, with a return to her former manner. “Because I wish to tell you and have you explain to your mother that Nona and Barbara and I may be leaving this part of the country in a little while. The truth is, our services as nurses are not needed here as they were some months ago. There is little fighting going on and several new French nurses came down from Paris the other day. Besides this, Mrs. Thornton and Judge Thornton have grown very nervous and unhappy over Mildred, as well as the rest of us, in the last few weeks. They have both written to urge me to persuade the other girls to join me and go into Belgium to help with the relief work there. You are almost well now, so I shall be able to say good-by with much greater satisfaction.”
This last speech Eugenia made in a gracious tone and yet her companion received it ungraciously. And this in spite of the fact that his manner was usually charming.
“There is no time when you would not say good-by to me with satisfaction, Miss Paybodé,” he returned. “However, if I am spared perhaps I may some day show my appreciation of your great kindness. I have written my colonel to say that I shall be able to rejoin my command in another week or ten days. I have wasted much valuable time with two illnesses. Perhaps the third may be my lucky one!” he finished, casting his dark eyes upward with dramatic intensity.
In reply Eugenia actually patted his knee in a comforting, motherly fashion.
“Don’t be absurd. You cannot return to your command for two or three months at least,” she admonished.
“Two or three weeks shall be the limit to my patience,” her companion repeated, still talking like a sulky boy.
Eugenia frowned. “I shall speak to your mother. She will never allow it.” Again her manner was that of a New England school teacher. Nevertheless Captain Castaigne did not smile. Yet he seemed to have forgotten his age and dignity as well as rank in the army, for you see he had been a good many weeks under Eugenia’s discipline.
“The day you go to Belgium I shall return to my post,” he muttered.
Eugenia would like to have shaken him. Had he been in the little “Farmhouse with the Blue Front Door,” she would simply have gotten up at this instant and left her patient until he had learned to behave himself. But at present the circumstances were different, and besides she might not have a chance to talk to him again. So somehow he must be made to behave sensibly.