. I'll have to make her believe the operation will be free. I can
fool her in that, dear, innocent, trusting Mother Bab! She'd believe me
against half the world. But I'm afraid I can't fool David so easily. I
must wait till he goes, then I'll write to Dr. Munster and start things
going!"

CHAPTER XXXII

OFF TO THE NAVY

PHOEBE was glad when David came to her with the news that he had been
accepted for the navy and was going to Norfolk.

"That's so far away he won't come home soon," she thought. "It'll give
me a chance to arrange for the operation. I hope he goes soon. That's a
dreadful thing to say! The days are all too short for Mother Bab, I
know."

If the days seemed Mercury-shod to the blind mother she did not
complain.

"It's hard to let you go," she said to her boy, "but it would be harder
to see you a slacker. Phoebe is going to read to me now when you go.
She'll be up here often."

"Yes, that makes it easier for me to go, mommie."

"Don't you worry about me. Phoebe will be good company for me and she'll
write my letters for me. We'll send you so many you'll be busy reading
them."

"I'm going to make her promise that," he declared with a laugh.

He exacted the promise as Mother Bab and Phoebe stood with him and
waited for the train to carry him away. "Mother, you and Phoebe must
take me to the train," he had said. "I want you to be the last picture
I see as the train pulls out." Phoebe had assented, though she thought
ruefully of the deficiency of the English language, which has but one
form for singular _you_ and plural _you_. She wondered whether he
included her in the picture he wanted to cherish in his memory. Now,
when he was going away from her she knew that she loved her old
playmate, that he was the one man in the world for her. She loved David,
she would always love him! She wanted to run to him and tell him so, but
centuries of restriction had bequeathed to her the universal fear of
womanhood to reveal a love that has not been sought. She felt that in
all her life she had never wanted anything so keenly as she wanted to
hear David Eby tell her that he loved her, that her face would be with
him in whatever circumstances the future should place him. But David
could not read the heart of his old playmate, and while his own heart
cried out for its mate his words were commonplace.

"Mother has promised that I'm to have so many letters that I can't read
them all. As you're to be private