Indeed she knew that had she not flung herself and her all upon the altar at that moment when he was brought wounded into her ward, Frank would not have known her heart, or fully revealed his own.
No. She was the wicked one, and was not all this peril that threatened them both, the punishment for their sin?
Ah, an uneasy mind is harder to bear than physical ills! Whether she deserved it or not, Belinda Melnotte bore a burden on her heart that seemingly nothing in the future could lift.
Save death. They could die together—she and Frank. Indeed, she felt she should die if Sanderson were stood up and shot as poor Erard had been. Without doubt she would have no choice in the matter. The Herr Doktor's evidence against the aviator would convict her as well.
But to have the decision postponed—to wait in this wretched uncertainty on the pleasure of the Prussian surgeon!
That is exactly what Belinda was forced to endure. She rose, coming heavy-eyed and with dragging limbs to the operating ward at the hour appointed. Doctor Herschall met her as though he saw none of the misery in her face, and by no word or look displayed interest in anything but the eternal operations.
The battle went on, and went on with unabated ferocity. The hospital was crowded as it never had been crowded before.
Day after day dragged by. Belinda did not see her cousins. Few able-bodied soldiers remained at the hospital. All were hurried to the very front to stem the rising tide of British and French success. The Allies' great push was going forward, causing the sacrifice of many Germans, and that in spite of von Hindenburg's counter attacks.
Of Sanderson, interned in the château, she heard no word. She knew that every wounded man in her old ward that could be moved, save Ernest Spiegel, had been sent to the rear. The Herr Doktor evidently had use yet for his spy.
Suddenly the burdened ambulances ceased rolling into the hospital enclosure. They passed on to the rear. The cessation of new cases, however, did not relieve the anxious expression upon the faces of most of the surgeons.