that,” she murmured finally. “Why, Nona was so entirely on[26] your side, so completely in sympathy with you, that she would never have forgiven me if she had realized how I really felt in this matter. You see, you and Nona always did sympathize with each other and you were almost in love with her, Dick Thornton, instead of with me. You need not deny it, for you know you were! There is no use arguing about it now. So I suppose if you were Nona’s husband at present, instead of mine, she would be buckling on your armor and urging you to France, instead of being selfish and just loving you and wanting to keep you here with me, in spite of your duty and country and all the other things which may be more important.”

[26]

Bab’s funny mixed speech ended with a catch in her breath and by dropping her face down upon her husband’s shoulder.

“But I won’t discuss the subject with you any more, Dick, because, of course, I know you are right to do your duty even when I pretend to disagree with you. After all, you could not act any differently. So I suppose your mother and father and[27] baby will have to get on without us. I realized all along that you would never allow the fact that the old trouble with your eyes would make you exempt from military service, to keep you at home when you know there is so much work to be done in beautiful wounded France that you are able to do. Your mother has been braver over your volunteering for ambulance work again than I have this time, dear. It is funny how being happy so often makes one selfish. I realized the difference between Nona Davis and me just this afternoon, and yet I was just as devoted to the Red Cross nursing as Nona, before I married you.”

[27]

Richard Thornton had placed his arm about his wife’s shoulders and was smiling at her with the expression Bab frequently invoke. One could never be perfectly sure whether she were wholly or only half-way in earnest, whether her big, wide-open eyes would be filled with laughter or tears. For whatever one might be with Bab, angry, hurt or pleased one could not be bored with her.

[28]“I always knew what you expected of me in your heart, Bab, that is why I went on with my plans when you seemed to be objecting,” Dick answered. “Now it has been arranged that, because of my previous experience, I am to do the first line ambulance work in France. I am sorry I am not fit enough to be a real soldier, fighting in the first line as I should like. But my eyes do not seem to have recovered from that old 

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