THE WORKS OF
MARY ROBERTS RINEHART
LOVE STORIES
The Review of Reviews Company
Publishers New York
Published by Arrangement with George H. Doran Company.
Copyright, 1919, By George H. Doran Company
Copyright, 1912, 1913, 1916, by the Curtis Publishing Company
Copyright, 1912, by The McClure Publications, Inc.
Copyright, 1917, by The Metropolitan Magazine Co.
CONTENTS
ii
Jane
vii
The Game
LOVE STORIES
TWENTY-TWO
I
The Probationer's name was really Nella Jane Brown, but she wasentered in the training school as N. Jane Brown. However, she meantwhen she was accepted to be plain Jane Brown. Not, of course, thatshe could ever be really plain.
People on the outside of hospitals have a curious theory aboutnurses, especially if they are under twenty. They believe that theyhave been disappointed in love. They never think that they mayintend to study medicine later on, or that they may think nursing isa good and honourable career, or that they may really like to carefor the sick.
The man in this story had the theory very hard.
When he opened his eyes after the wall of the warehouse dropped, N.Jane Brown was sitting beside him. She had been practising countingpulses on him, and her eyes were slightly upturned and very earnest.
There was a strong odour of burnt rags in the air, and the mansniffed. Then he put a hand to his upper lip—the right hand. Shewas holding his left.
"Did I lose anything besides this?" he inquired. His littlemoustache was almost entirely gone. A gust of fire had accompaniedthe wall.
"Your eyebrows," said Jane Brown.
The man—he was as young for a man as Jane Brown was for anurse—the man lay quite still for a moment. Then:
"I'm sorry to undeceive you," he said. "But my right leg is off."
He said it lightly, because that is the way he took things. But hehad a strange singing in his ears.
"I'm afraid it's broken. But you still have it." She smiled. She hada very friendly smile. "Have you any pain anywhere?"
He was terribly afraid she would go away and leave him, so, althoughhe was quite comfortable, owing to a hypodermic he had had, hegroaned slightly. He was, at that time, not particularly interestedin Jane Brown, but he did not want to be alone. He closed his eyesand said feebly:
"Water!"
She gave him a teaspoonful, bending ove