Barbara raised herself on one elbow in her small bed and answered irritably: "I most certainly was not mistaken, Nona Davis. I ought to know Robert Hume perfectly well after our meeting in Paris and his visit at the chateau. Besides, though he dared not speak, he showed that he recognized me. I even promised him that you would write him a note to the prison if it were possible." Then Barbara relaxed and sank down on her pillow again. She and Nona and Mildred were in her small room at the hospital. It was time for them all to have been in bed and asleep,[Pg 122] since they chanced not to be engaged in night nursing. But Barbara had retired early, as she was extremely tired. Then, some time after, Nona and Mildred had crept in to find out what had become of her. They had missed her during the afternoon, but had not known of her expedition with Dr. Mason. [Pg 122] Now Nona looked annoyed. "What an extraordinary thing, Barbara, for you to promise! I am sure I see no reason in the world why I should write Lieutenant Hume. We are only acquaintances. Of course, I am sorry to know he is in hard luck. But for me to begin writing him under the circumstances would look as if we were intimate friends." Barbara slipped her arms up over her head, making a kind of oval frame for her face. Nona and Mildred were seated on either side the foot of her bed. "I think you are absurd, Nona," she commented, in the frank fashion which was not always either advisable or pleasant. "I really don't believe I did say you would[Pg 123] write, only that one of us would. Naturally, I thought as you knew Lieutenant Hume best you would prefer it. I don't consider he would think you were being too friendly with him. He is too much of a gentleman. He would understand that you were sorry for his hard luck and pitied his loneliness. I wonder if it was because you were brought up in the south that you are so conventional? You don't seem to be so all the time, only when it suits you. I am sure I will write the note to Lieutenant Hume with pleasure if I find he is allowed to receive letters except from his family." [Pg 123] Evidently Barbara was in a mood when it made but little difference to her whether or not she made Nona Davis angry. Yet she and Nona had once seemed to be devoted to each other and appeared to
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