thinking, Nona had turned from the road into a side path which skirted the edge of the village. She was not afraid at being alone. For one thing, Duke was with her; for another, the soldiers had so far been universally courteous. One of General Pershing’s first requests to the American soldiers arriving in France was that they show entire respect to French women. They would surely not show less to American girls.

Running through the village which had been given over by France for the training grounds of the American soldiers, was a little river, which in this country would be thought of only as a stream. Here it curved and wound round to the left. Nona could see the lights and shadows on the water through the trees which separated her from it.

She believed the woods empty, then she thought for an instant that she saw the flutter of a woman’s dress going swiftly past in the opposite direction. There was[112] something oddly familiar about the figure, and yet, disappearing so swiftly, Nona not only did not recognize who it was, but was scarcely convinced she had seen anyone.

[112]

At some little distance farther on, however, she did discover an American soldier half sitting and half lying down under one of the trees. He was smoking, yet Nona recognized what his attitude of discouragement revealed. She had been doing war work too long not to know! Moreover, in these past few weeks she had been a witness to deeper if more self-contained homesickness than she had ever seen. But then no other soldiers have been forced to fight so far from their own people.

Nona wondered for an instant if there were anything she could do to help, just to talk to another human being is often a consolation.

But while she was hesitating the young man glanced in her direction. Then, jumping up, Lieutenant Kelley came toward her and Nona wondered for the shadow of a second how long he had been alone.

“Sorry to have you catch me loafing,[113] Miss Davis! I confess I am in a bad humor and trying to fight it off. An officer hasn’t any right to be homesick or have the blues; one must leave that privilege to a private, as he is still a human being. My, but it is good to see you standing there in that white gown with that great dog! It makes a fellow feel as if he were back in Kentucky, meeting unexpectedly some girl he likes in a country lane. The country about here isn’t so unlike Kentucky.”

[113]

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