that I'd seen look like paper roses. And this was the real thing.

But even here I had little time taking things in, for at about the same moment that I stepped from the elevator a woman in the full uniform of a trained nurse stepped through a door in the opposite wall.

I looked her over with a good deal of care, for I felt that I might see considerable of her, before that night was over. And she, too, looked me over quickly and sharply, although her eyes were about as non-committal as anything I'd seen for some time. She was not as young a woman as I had expected. And the moment I clapped eyes on her I knew that she had a mind of her own and a brain that could work overtime if it had to. She was an inch or two taller than I was, and much better-looking. I suppose it was her uniform that made her seem so cool and calm and full of that cleared-for-action-and-what-comes-next air of hers.

"Are you Miss Ledwidge?" I meekly inquired.

Her nod told me that she was.

"Well, I was sent here for certain work which I was told you would explain to me," I announced.

"What is your name?" she asked. She spoke