he was wondering who had given this
stranger a right to pry into his inner shrine. Perhaps he was wondering
if Rose-Marie would like an outsider to know just what she had told him.
When he answered, his answer was evasive.

"A lady told me," he said. "A lady."

The Young Doctor was laughing again.

"And I suppose," he remarked, with an effort at solemnity, "that
gentlemen don't pass ladies' names about between 'em--I suppose that you
wouldn't tell me who this lady of yours may be, even though I'd like to
meet her?"

Bennie's lips closed in a hard little line that quirked up at one end. He
shook his head.

"I'd ruther not," he said very slowly. "Say--Where's th' Scout Club?"

The Young Doctor shook his head.

"It's such a strange, old-fashioned, young person!" he informed the empty
hallway. And then--"Come with me, youngster," he said kindly, "and we'll
find this very wonderful club where small boys learn about doing things
for people--and, incidentally, wear soldier clothes!"

Bennie, following stealthily behind him, felt that he had found another
friend--something like his lady, only different!

XII

AN ISLAND

Rose-Marie was exceptionally weary that night. It had been a hard day.
All three of her classes had met, and--late in the afternoon--she had
made good her promise to wash Mrs. Volsky's hair. The task had not been a
joyous one--she felt that she could never wash hair again--not even her
own soft curls or the fine, snowy locks that crowned her aunts' stately
heads. Mrs. Volsky had once more relapsed into her shell of silence--she
had seemed more apathetic, more dull than ever. But Rose-Marie had
noticed that there were no unwashed dishes lying in the tub--that the
corners of the room had had some of the grime of months swept out of
them. When Ella Volsky came suddenly into the flat, with lips compressed,
and a high colour, Rose-Marie had been glowingly conscious of her start
of surprise. And when she had said, haltingly, in reference to the
hair--"I'll dry it for you, Miss Rose-Marie!" Rose-Marie could have wept
with happiness. It was the first time that she had ever heard Ella offer
to do anything for her mother.

Jim--coming in as she was about to leave--had added to Rose-Marie's
weariness. He had been more insistent than usual--he had commented upon
her rosy cheeks and he had made a laughing reference to her wide eyes.
And he had asked her, gruffly, why she didn't take up with some felle