efore he sailed. Shipping quarantine
was put on his company the very next week, the camp was closed to
visitors, and all passes annulled. The word came that they would be going
over in a few days, but still they lingered, till the days grew into
three weeks, and the Spring was fully upon them in all its beauty,
touching even the bare camp with a fringe of greenness and a sprinkle of
wild bloom in the corners where the clearing had not been complete.

Added to his other disappointments, a direful change had taken place at
camp. The "peach of a captain" had been raised to the rank of major and
Captain Wurtz had been put in his place. It seemed as if nothing worse
could be.

The letters had been going back and forth rather often of late, and
Cameron had walked to the loneliest spot in the camp in the starlight and
had it out with himself. He knew now that Ruth Macdonald was the only
girl in all the world to him. He also knew that there was not a chance in
a thousand that he could ever be more to her than he now was. He knew
that the coming months held pain for him, and yet, he would not go back
and undo this beautiful friendship, no, not for all the pain that might
come. It was worth it, every bit.

He had hoped to get one more trip home, and she had wanted to see the
camp, had said that perhaps when the weather got warmer she might run
down some day with his mother, but now the quarantine was on and that was
out of the question. He walked alone to the places he would have liked to
show her, and then with a sigh went to the telephone office and waited
two hours till he got a connection through to her house, just to tell her
how sorry he was that he could not come up as he had expected and take
that ride with her that she had promised in her last letter. Somehow it
comforted him to hear her voice. She had asked if there would be no
lifting of the quarantine before they left, no opportunity to meet him
somewhere and say good-bye, and he promised that he would let her know if
any such chance came; but he had little hope, for company after company
were being sent away in the troop trains now, hour after hour, and he
might be taken any minute.

Then one day he called her up and told her that the next Saturday and
Sunday the camp was to be thrown open to visitors, and if she could come
down with his mother he would meet them at the Hostess' House and they
could spend the day together. Ruth promptly accepted the invitation and