They decided on the following Thursday, provided Madame Claire had no other engagement, and soon Noel and Judy, for fear of tiring their victim, got up to go.
"But you'll come and see me again, won't you?" asked Chip, then added, "but dash it all, I forgot! I'll be up soon."
They laughed, and his regret that they might not come again was so real that Judy said as they shook hands:
"Don't forget; Madame Claire's on Thursday, at four."
Major Stroud went out with them, leaving Chip looking after them rather wistfully.
Talking to her had been strangely easy as he lay there. It might never be the same again. He had looked at her to his heart's content, a thing he wouldn't have dared to do had they been talking in the ordinary way. His recollections of the accident were very confused. He had been conscious of some one at intervals—a sort of delightful presence. Major Stroud had filled in the rest for him—badly enough. The Major did not excel in word pictures.
Was she pretty . . . beautiful? He searched for the right word. She was lovely, that was it . . . lovely. She had taken off her gloves and
