“I have made it mine,” he responded quickly.  “Oh,” he exclaimed sharply, striking the back of the chair with his open palm, “why must we always be at cross-purposes with each other?  I’m not good at talking.  What is the use of tangling ourselves with phrases?  I love you, and I’ve come out here to ask you, to beg you, you understand, to leave this house, where you are foolishly risking your life.  You must do it,” he went on rapidly.  “I love you too well.  Your life is too much to me to allow you to hazard it senselessly, foolishly.  There are other women, other nurses, who can take your place.  But you are not going to stay here.”

Lloyd felt her indignation rising.

“This is my profession,” she answered, trying to keep back her anger.  “I am here because it is my duty to be here.”  Then suddenly, as his extraordinary effrontery dawned upon her, she exclaimed, rising to her feet:  “Do I need to explain to you what I do?  I am here because I choose to be here.  That is enough.  I don’t care to go any further with such a discussion as this.”

“You will not leave here, then?”

“No.”

Bennett hesitated an instant, searching for his words, then: 

“I do not know how to ask favours.  I’ve had little experience in that sort of thing.  You must know how hard it is for me, and you must understand to what lengths I am driven then, when I entreat you, when I beg of you, as humbly as it is possible for me to do so, to leave this house, now—­at once.  There is a train to the City within the hour; some one else can take your place before noon.  We can telegraph; will you go?”

“You are absurd.”

“Lloyd, can’t you see; don’t you understand?  It’s as though I saw you rushing toward a precipice with your eyes shut.”

“My place is here.  I shall not leave.”

But Bennett’s next move surprised her.  His eagerness, his agitation left him upon the instant He took out his watch.

“I was wrong,” he said quietly.  “The next train will not go for an hour and a quarter.  There is more time than I supposed.”  Then, with as much gentleness as he could command, he added:  “Lloyd, you are going to take that train?”

“Now, you are becoming a little more than absurd,” she answered.  “I don’t know, Mr. Bennett, whether or not you intend to be offensive, but I think you are succeeding rather well.  You came to this house uninvited; you invade a gentleman’s private residence, and you attempt to meddle and to interfere with me in the practice of my profession.  If you think you can impress me with heroics and declamation, please correct yourself at once.  You have only succeeded in making yourself a little vulgar.”

“That may be true or not,” he answered with an indifferent movement of his shoulders.  “It is all one to me.  I have made up my mind that you shall leave this house this morning, and believe me, Miss Searight, I shall carry my point.”