You don’t want to go until you are strong enough, you know.”

“But I must!” said the girl firmly. “It’s absolutely imperative that I go out and see about a job at once. I was to have met a man early this morning, and it is really necessary that I keep my appointment.

“Well,” said Greg thoughtfully, “how would it be if I go and explain to him that you were taken ill?”

“No!” said the girl quickly. “He doesn’t know me. He would simply take somebody else. And I must get this position!”

“But my dear friend,” said Greg earnestly, “don’t you know that it is Saturday afternoon?” He glanced at his watch. “By the time you could get there, almost any office would be likely to be closed, if it didn’t close at noon. You can just as well lie here and rest till Monday at the earliest and get strength to carry you on through the week. You know you wouldn’t be in very good shape just now to take any job, not till you get a little stronger.

“Oh, but I must!” said the girl with a gray look of determination in her face. “I’ve got to get some position at once! There will be some places open yet.”

Her voice trailed off into a desperate little wail, and his heart ached for her.

“Look here, little friend,” he said earnestly, “we really couldn’t let you go out and hunt a job today. And what could you do over Sunday anyway? You see, here you will be cared for and have the right food and be made to rest—”

“Oh, but please,” interrupted the girl earnestly, “you don’t understand. I cannot afford to stay here. Even in the ward, I couldn’t afford to stay. I just haven’t a cent! And this is a private room with a special nurse. I don’t know how it ever came about that I was put here, but it will be a long, long time before I am able to pay for this one day here, and I simply cannot stay longer. I’m just as grateful as I can be for what you’ve done. But I ought to have been put in a ward if I had to be here at all.”

“Well, now there you are mistaken, Miss McLaren.” Greg spoke gladly, confidently. “This isn’t a regular private room, and it won’t cost you a cent. This room is a memorial room to my mother. I’ve been arranging it all with the officials of the hospital, and I’m just so glad to be able to tell you that it is for cases just like yours, where some stranger comes in and needs quiet and care for a little while. This room is yours for as long as the doctor says you should stay, without paying a single cent. It is just as free as the ward—freer, because in the ward I am told you pay if you can, but here you don’t pay anyway. And the nurse goes along with it. Isn’t that right, Miss Gowen?”

“It certainly is,” said the nurse brightly, not knowing whether Greg was just cheerfully lying or had some foundation to go on, but she determined to play up to whatever he said. She liked Greg.

Margaret McLaren lay there looking from one to the other of them, and then suddenly her great eyes filled with tears.

“Oh,” she said with a quiver of her lips, “I never heard of having rooms like this for nothing, but it’s heavenly wonderful!” Her lips trembled. “I hope someday there may be a way that I can do something for somebody like this. But now listen, please—wonderful as all this is, and as much as I would love to stay here and just rest”—the white lids quivered shut for just an instant over the big, dark eyes—“I just can’t! “I’ve got to get back to work. There are reasons why—” She paused.

“You needn’t try to explain,” he said pityingly. “You have a right to keep your reasons to yourself”—he felt a sudden pang of guilt that he had read that letter from the grandmother—“but listen to this. How about trusting your friends to look after a job? I really think I’m much more fit to do that than you are.”

“You are kind,” she said gently, “but you aren’t really even an acquaintance you know.