When Carol returned she looked suspiciously from the stern white face on the pillow to the disturbed one of her caller.

“David is tired, Mrs. Sater,” she said gently.  “Let’s go out in the other room and visit.  I have made him laugh too much to-day, and he is weak.  Come along and maybe I can sell you some more furniture.”  Then to David, brightly, “It was Mrs. Adams, David, she wanted to know if we needed any nice fresh eggs.”  She flashed a smile at him and his lips answered, but his eyes were mute.  Carol looked back at him from the doorway, questioning, but finally followed Mrs. Sater into the next room.

“Mrs. Sater, you will excuse me now, won’t you?” she said.  “But I have a feeling that David needs me.  He looks so tired.  You will come in again, and—­”

“Certainly, my dear, David first by all means.  Run right along.  And if you need any more fresh eggs, just let me know.”

“Yes, thank you, yes.”

“Carol,” whispered the kindly woman earnestly, “why don’t you go home and stay with your father until David is better?  They will take such good care of him at the hospital, and he will need you when he is well, and it isn’t safe, Carol, it positively is not safe.  Why won’t you do as he tells you?”

Carol stood up, very straight and very tall.  “Mrs. Sater,” she said, “you know I am an old-fashioned Methodist.  And I believe that God wanted David to have me in his illness, when he is idle.  If He hadn’t, the illness would have come before our marriage.  But I think God foresaw it coming and thought maybe I could do David good when he was laid aside.  I know I am a silly little goose, but David loves me, and is happy when I am with him, and enjoys me more than anything else in the world.  I am going with him.  I know God expects me to do my part.”

And Mrs. Sater went away, after kissing Carol’s cheek, which already was paling a little with anxiety.

Carol ran back to David and sat on the floor beside him, pulling his hand from beneath the cover and kissing the white, blue-veined fingers.  She crooned and gurgled over him as a mother over a little child, but did not speak until at last he turned to her and said abruptly: 

“Carol, won’t you go home until I get well?  Please dear, for my sake.”

Carol kissed the thumb once more and frowned at him.  “You want to flirt with the nurses when you get out there, and are trying to get me out of the road.  Every one says nurses are dangerous.”

“Carol, please.”

“Mrs. Sater has been talking to you.  Oh, I knew it.  She is a nice, kind, Christian woman, and loves us both, but, David, why doesn’t God teach some people to mind their own business?  She is a good Christian, I know, dear, but I do believe there is still a little work of grace to be done in her.”

David smiled a little, sadly.

“Carol, it would break my heart if you got this from me.”