"
He shrugged his shoulders very slightly.
"You forget," he observed, "that a man does not look at his best after
such an illness as Phillips has had. You find him, perhaps, a little
insignificant. You are probably aware of his vocation and station
in life."
"I am."
"And these things," he went on, "make it difficult for you to believe
that there is any great tie between us two. Yet it is the exception
which proves the rule, you know. I will not say that your patient has
ever saved my life or performed any immortal action, yet believe me
he has courage and a grit you would scarcely believe in, and I am
speaking seriously when I tell you that not only I but others are
under deep obligations to him."
He rose to his feet with the air of one who has closed the subject.
Katharine also threw off her rugs.
"You are going to walk?" she asked. "Please take me with you. I don't
know why, but I feel restless this evening."
They paced side by side up and down the deck, pausing now and then to
watch the destroyers and indulging in a very spasmodic conversation.
At their fourth promenade, as they reached the stern extremity of
their deck, the woman paused, and, holding to the railing with one
hand, looked steadily back towards New York.
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