In a few words the nurse gathered Dorothy’s meaning.

Then she told the matron, speaking through the transmitter, to hold the applicant.

“Would you like to come with me?” she asked Dorothy, as she prepared to interview the prospective patient.  “Miss Pumfret will be here for some time yet.”

Down the broad marble steps, that seemed to exude everything antiseptic and sterilized, Dorothy hurried along after the head nurse.  Into a large hall, then across this into a small waiting-room they passed.

“The patient is only ill from neglect and nervous exhaustion,” explained the nurse, “or I would not invite you down.”

A second white-capped and white-robed attendant opened the door.  Dorothy stepped in first.  A woman sat on a leather chair in the far corner of the room.

“She is very weak,” explained the second nurse to the first, “and I really was afraid to let her go.”

The woman raised her head.

“Miss Dearing!” exclaimed Dorothy, too surprised to suppress her astonishment, “Why, I am so—­glad I have found you!”

The woman tried to open her lips, but a sudden movement of her head showed that she had fainted.

“And you know her?” asked the nurses, quickly restoring the woman to consciousness with simple restoratives.

“Slightly,” replied Dorothy.  “I will wait to see how she gets along.”

From the scene in the waiting-room Dorothy hurried back to the side of Captain Mayberry.  She wanted to ask Miss Pumfret about the bed.

“Oh, here you are!” exclaimed the little woman pleasantly.  “I was just telling Nick what a girl you are.  Perhaps you can tell us how to go about getting him into the private ward.  He liked it first-rate here,” she hurried to explain, “but there’s no sense in keeping this bed from some one who may need it.”

Dorothy touched the button at the door to call an attendant.  It was the head nurse who answered.

“We can have this bed,” stammered Dorothy, scarcely able to speak through her excitement.  “Miss Pumfret wishes Captain Mayberry removed to the private wing.”

“That will do nicely,” answered the nurse, smiling.  “Your friend has been taken into the observation ward.  She will remain there until her case is diagnosed.  It was providential that you spoke when you did, or she might have fainted in the street if we had turned her away, and we are not allowed to take patients who apply as she did, unless they are vouched for.  You see, it was well you happened to know her.”

“Could I speak with her?” asked Dorothy timidly.

“That is precisely what I came up for.  She wants very much to speak with you.”

CHAPTER XXVII

ALL IS WELL

“No, I’m not a bit excited,” pleaded Miss Dearing when the nurse cautioned her to keep quiet.  “I’m only happy.  I was dying long before I came here, and now I can rest in a bed, and perhaps I will have the courage to get well again.”