Page:By Sanction of Law.pdf/59



There was one place, however, where the scenes of that day were never forgotten and among the girls of Miss Gregory's school the incidents were told and retold with romantic variations and speculations. To Lida mention of the day's events were becoming seemingly distasteful for she would never speak of them; but away from her studies and in her room, alone, the pictures of that scene ever recurred and with the picture came the image of her hero of the occasion.

She wondered what had become of him; whether he had died of his wounds, whether he had recovered; who he was and why she had never met him again to thank him in person. Often she pictured to herself scenes in which they met and she had thanked him for his bravery. At such times a crimson flush tinted her cheeks and suffused her neck clear to the shoulders as she shyly thought of actions her heart told her she might be led to perform in her gratitude. Constant picturing of these scenes had created in her a shy distrust of herself and a constant conflicting struggle for and against such a meeting. If they ever did meet again she hoped it would be by accident and she would be taken unawares for otherwise she felt she would run from the meeting.

As thoughts of his condition came to her she would be filled with pity at the memory of his wounds. This pity more and more often awakened tender thoughts and she wished she might have been near to nurse him, to care for