Belinda of the Red Cross

by Robert W. Hamilton

"Oh, Cousin! Cousin 'Linda!" begged the corporal, at length moved by her tears. "I am sorry. To offend you so——"

She heeded him not at all, but went within and the door swung shut. She crouched in her own little booth at the end of the ward, seeking to recover her self-control before Sanderson should see her.

Belinda still sat there when a soldier brought Ernest Spiegel to the hut from the Herr Doktor's office. The boy was very pale and subdued. He had nothing to say for himself.

"It is an order, most gracious Fräulein," said the soldier, passing her a paper.

The order read, in the Herr Doktor's chirography:

"Put him back in Cot Thirty-three."

CHAPTER XXVII

RENAUD

Belinda saw no more of her cousins that day. Indeed, she felt that she never wished to see them again.

And yet—Belinda was forced to confess it—the quarrel between Carl and Paul had arisen because of her. She had brought their boyish bickerings to this desperate pass.