"Not at all. I came with proper company."
"Proper company wouldn't have brought you," Preston growled.
"I think you want something to eat, Preston," I said. "You will feel better when you have had some refreshment."
It was just the time for a meal and I saw the supplies coming in. And Preston's refreshment, as well as that of some others, I attended to myself. I think he found it pleasant; for although some growls waited upon me even in the course of my ministering to him, I heard from that time no more remonstrances; and I am sure Preston never wrote his letter. A testimonial of a different sort was conveyed in his whispered request to me, not to let that horrid Yankee spinster come near him again.
But Miss Yates was a good friend to me.
"You are looking a little pale," she said to me at evening. "Go and lie down a spell. All's done up; you ain't wanted now, and you may be, for anything anybody can tell, before an hour is gone. Just you go away and get some rest. It's been your first day. And the first day's rather tough."
I told her I did not feel tired. But she insisted; and I yielded so far as to go and lie down for a while in the room which Dr. Sandford had given to me. When I came back, I met Miss Yates near the door of the room. I asked her if there were any serious cases in the ward just then.
"La! half of 'em's serious," said she; "if you mean by that they might take a wrong turn and go off. You never can tell."
"But are there any in immediate danger, do you think?"
She searched my face before she answered.