noon
A scant half-dozen hours before , that hospital had held what was all the world to him . Now , without warning , that all had proved to be naught . The blow had come crashing upon him , straight between the eyes and so suddenly that there had been no time for him to brace himself to meet it . From the moment of his facing Ethel in the doorway of the hospital , that noon , he had been sure that the talk which he would have with her , that evening , could bring but the one ending . At sight of the soiled and haggard man before her , her blue eyes had lighted with something far more than pleased surprise . His appearing had been quite unexpected ; her meeting with him had been the naked impulse of her girlish heart . And , all that endless day , her grief for the Captain had in no way hidden her evident pleasure in his own presence .