who had gone over to France and those who had not. If
Peter Hyde _had_ gone there was nothing in any act or word that
signified it; if he had _not_ gone, why not? Was _that_ what he was
hiding?

She had resorted, feeling very contemptible as she did so, to little
traps to draw him out, but he had invariably escaped them--sometimes
changing the subject abruptly, other times openly laughing and saying
nothing. Very much against her will she felt growing within her a
contempt for him; almost a dislike of his personal appearance, so
obviously healthy and able to have fought for his country! And yet,
loyalty had kept her from confiding this to Claire.

A sense of fairness, too, urged her to give Peter the benefit of the
doubt until she knew. "I'll just ask him," she decided resolutely.
"I'll ask him right out--the very first chance I get!"

The opportunity to learn the truth had come on the very afternoon
following the night she had written to Claire. Nonie and Davy had not
appeared for a swim, so Peter had suggested a walk. He wanted Nancy to
go over, with him, the new work he had started on the Judson ten-acre
piece, the improvements in the barns, the rotary gardens.

It was the first time that Peter Hyde had talked much about his work.
Nancy, who would have said turnips grew on bushes, for all she knew,
found herself, under his instruction, suddenly absorbed in the
scientific growing of beans and corn and potatoes; in the making of one
strip of garden produce three different food products in rotation; in
irrigation and drainage; in sanitary stables and electrically lighted
chicken houses.

"You know there's poetry in these growing things," Peter cried, waving
his hand out over the tender stalks of corn. "You get all the Art you
want! Can you find anywhere a more wonderful picture than that waving
field of oats--pale green against that sky? And in a few weeks it'll
be yellow. See that lettuce green, too. And music--you can stand in a
field of corn when the wind is blowing a little and you will hear a
symphony!"

Nancy, surprised, watched his glowing face with interest Here was
indeed a new side of the Hired Man! He went on:

"And business, say, there's a practical side to this farming that ought
to satisfy any man. Wits, science, strategy, instinct, plain
common-sense--it's all as necessary right here as in the biggest
business concern in the world. And if a fellow wants a _fight_--well,
he has it