"You mean your temporary infirmity," she said calmly. But her cheeks reddened and she bent lower over her work. A dull colour stained his face, too, but he merely shrugged his comment.
She said in a low voice: "I want you to volunteer with me for overseas service in the Army Intelligence Department…. You and I, together…. To prove what you have surmised concerning the German operations beyond Mount Terrible…. And first I want you to go with me to Dr. Langford's hospital …. I want you to go this afternoon with me. … And face the situation. And see it through. And come out cured." She lifted her head and looked at him. "Will you?" And in his altering gaze she saw the flicker of half-senseless anger intensified suddenly to a flare of hatred.
"Don't ask anything like that of me," he said. She had grown quite white.
"I do ask it…. Will you?"
"If I wanted to I couldn't, and I don't want to. I prefer this hell to the other."
"Won't you make a fight for it?"
"No!" he said brutally.
The girl bent her head again over her knitting. But her white fingers remained idle. After a long while, staring at her intently, he saw her lip quiver.
"Don't do that!" he broke out harshly. "What the devil do you care?"
Then she lifted her tragic white face. And he had his answer.