He gulped, and the expression drained from his face, leaving it blank, and helpless. Suzy's heart went out to him, as her voice had gone to him through space.

"I know, the wheel chair, the rug to cover my knees, the brace on my arm. There wasn't any other way, Whit. I couldn't tell you. My voice, Whit, was all that counted, up there. Down on earth, other things count, too. Forgive me, Whit."

His head seemed to swim, and his unsteady feet fumbled with the floor as he came to her.

"You could have told me. I'd have loved you, I'd have loved you anyway."

"Would you?" Her face turned away from him as he came to her. "Would you, Whit? Would you have stayed alive for a broken girl like me? Would you have waited out your trip for the sake of a cripple in a wheel chair? I know you, Whit, I know your heart and your soul, and I know you'd have never loved me if I had told you what I was from the beginning."

Whit didn't speak, and Suzy continued.

"It was a job for me, Whit. I had to bring you down. I lied to you and I deceived you, and now you're free, and you can go away, to live a better life than I can give you."

"Suzy, you're saying that. You've thought it out, and you've written it down, and it's what you planned to say to me. Is it the truth, Suzy?"

"Whit, go away. I've said my piece. I've turned you loose. Now go! Go away, and don't ever come back to me again."

Whit's body seemed to straighten up, and he put his little green package down on the desk in front of her, then moved away.

"Open it up, Suzy. It's a gardenia that I brought you. Sick or well, crippled or sound, I'll bring you another every day, until you say you love me."

Then he went away.

Suzy rose slowly, kicking the rug from her knees. She folded the wheel chair into a compact bundle, and stretching up on her toes, put it back on the highest shelf in the closet. Quietly, she put her hat and coat on, and went out of the office, locking the door behind her. The click of her high heels echoed bravely in the silence as she felt her way along the vacant hallway.

"Sheila, Sheila, come to me, girl," she called.

The big German shepherd shook 

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