If she didn’t have the opportunity to do that on her arrival in San Francisco, she would be fretful until she did, and that would make any love affair between Collis and herself both irritating and unstable. That was why she wanted Collis to go to San Francisco ahead of her; so that when she came on a later ship, she would be able to go to the store on Montgomery Street at once, unruffled by arguments, and discover among the ribbons and the laces and the button hooks whether there was anything left of her once-rebellious marriage but a steady income, worthiness, and duty.

Collis turned away for a moment, looking down the lines of sick and dying women towards the afternoon sunlight.

‘I don’t know what we have between us, Hannah,’ he said reflectively, ‘but whatever it is, I don’t want to lose it yet.’

‘I don’t, either,’ said Hannah. ‘But you will give me time, won’t you?’

He nodded. ‘Yes.’

Sister Rosa came limping into the ward then, with flowers she had picked from the hospital garden. ‘Mrs West,’ she ordered, ‘you must take a sleep now. You are still very ill.’

‘I must go,’ Collis told Hannah. ‘I’ve been overtaxing you.’

‘No, no,’ she whispered. ‘You’ve been marvellous. You couldn’t have been better. My mind will be at rest now.’

‘If you’re better tomorrow morning, we’ll talk some more,’ he said, and gently squeezed her hand. He turned to Sister Rosa and asked, ‘May I kiss her?’

Sister Rosa frowned. ‘That is up to you, Mr Edmonds. The doctors would not disapprove, but I am not so sure about the Almighty.’

Collis bent over Hannah’s bed and brushed his lips against hers. ‘As long as the doctors are happy, I’ll take my chances with the Almighty.’

Then he left the ward, and walked out into the garden, and stood with his hands on his hips, elated, and breathing as if he had run all the way up from the railroad depot.

He saw Hannah briefly at six on Monday morning, attended by Sister Rosa and Sister Hilda. The ward was still in the twilight of pre-dawn, and the nuns walked to and fro like ghosts. Hannah was weak and exhausted, but Sister Rosa told Collis grudgingly that she had eaten a bowl of gruel the night before, and that her condition was much improved.

‘I shall leave my address at the post office when I get settled in San Francisco,’ Collis said softly. ‘In any case, if I don’t hear from you in a month, I shall call around at the store.’

‘I won’t fail you,’ whispered Hannah. ‘I promise I won’t fail you.’