But Barbara seemed to have her entire attention engaged in straining her ears to the noise of the bombarding. Now and again there was a faint lull and then the noise broke out with added fury. Sometimes the sound came from one side of the line and sometimes from the other. There could be no disputing the fact, fighting had indeed begun again.
Dr. Milton swung around and looked at Nona.
“Miss Davis,” he began. “I know it is a great deal to ask of you and Miss Meade. We are several miles this side of the hospital and the walk will be a long one; nevertheless, won’t you both attempt it? Of course, you have guessed, just as we have, that trouble has broken out afresh in our neighborhood and if our ambulance goes on much farther we may at any moment be in the midst of it. We are flying the Red Cross flag, but that does not always save us, and couldn’t save us in any case from the bursting of a shell. Yet Martin and I feel we must go on toward the battlefield, as we are needed now more than any other time. We must not take you into such danger, so if you will leave us----”
Nona’s golden brown eyes wore almost an exalted look, they were so free from thought of self.
“But won’t nurses also be more needed?” she asked, although not requiring an answer to so self-evident a question.
“Dr. Milton, I entirely appreciate your feeling, but honestly I am not afraid. I don’t exactly know why, but I don’t believe anything will happen to me. If it does, why of course when one comes here for the Red Cross work, one expects to take chances.” Again Nona glanced toward Barbara, who still had not spoken. “Do you think there would be any danger if Miss Meade should walk back to the hospital alone?” she asked.
Really Nona had not the least idea of the insult her words implied to the other girl. Not for worlds would she have wounded or offended her! Neither did she believe Barbara a coward because she felt that the work ahead of them might be too much for her. This business of nursing is often a matter of sensibility. The people with the finest nerves and tenderest hearts are least fitted for the profession. So it had become almost a matter of course in the past few weeks for the three American Red Cross girls to regard the fourth of their number in this light.