An Interlude

All things by immortal power,
Near or far,
Hiddenly.
To each other linked are
That thou canst not stir a flower
Without troubling a star.

A. QUILLER-COUCH.

Life is so largely a thing of intermingling currents, of interwoven
threads, of reacting forces, that it is well-nigh impossible
understandingly to portray the life story of one person without
occasionally pausing to review, at least briefly, incidents in the lives
of others with which it is closely bound up.

So it is with the story of the pilgrimage of Smiles.

While, following her graduation, she was taking a course in district
nursing, giving freely of her new powers to the poor and suffering of a
great city, and taking, and passing, the State examination which gave
her the right to place the epigrammatic letters "R.N." after her name,
something was happening more than three thousand miles away, of which
she had no inkling, and yet which was closely linked with her
existence.

Donald had, indeed, written in a manner to minimize his illness, which
had been a prolonged and serious one; so much so that he had, greatly
against his will, finally come to realize the necessity of his taking a
rest from his unremitting toil, and he had agreed to return home for a
vacation as soon as he should be well enough to make the long trip.

Depressed by his wholly unaccustomed weakness the doctor sat, a
convalescent in his own hospital in Toul, one stifling July day. To his
physical debility was added the dragging distress of mind which comes at
times to those who are far away and receive no word from home. No
letters had reached him for weeks. Removed from the sphere of the
abnormal activity which had been his, and with nothing to do but sit and
think, Donald had, for some time, been examining his own heart with an
introspective gaze more searching than ever before. He felt that he had
been, above the average, blessed with happy relationships, deep
friendships and a highly trained ability to serve others--and he knew
that he could honestly say that he had turned this to full account.