He had never been quite so near her before.

His face was not far from hers.

Now her breath fanned him.

As he bent his head for the bandaging, he could see the soft pulsing of her bosom, and hear the beating of her heart.
Her neck was so full and round and soft, and her voice--surely he had never heard a voice so sweet and strong, a tone so well poised, so resonantly pleasant.
When she had finished, he had an impulse to catch the hand as it dropped away from his forehead, and kiss it; not as he had kissed many a hand, hotly one hour and coldly the next, but with an unpurchasable kind of gratitude characteristic of this especial sort of sinner.

He was just young enough, and there was still enough natural health in him, to know the healing touch of a perfect decency, a pure truth of spirit.