n imagine, now, when I see what you really _are_ doing, how
ashamed I feel! Will you forgive me?"

Peter's frank amusement made Nancy feel very uncomfortable and small.
But then she deserved it! He held out his hand as a sign of his
forgiveness. There was still laughter in his eyes as he regarded her.

"I suppose that was very natural! Most of the young fellows you know
must have gone over!" he said, seriously enough.

She wanted very much to tell him of her father--how he had followed the
men over the top; how he had worked day after day getting the stories
back to the people at home and spent night after night tracing the
"missing," or writing letters for the boys who never got further back
than the first dressing-stations and who wanted mothers and fathers and
sweethearts to know that they'd had their chance and had made the most
of it! But she couldn't, for she was supposed to be Anne and Anne's
father had died when she was a little girl.

She told him of a few of the college men she had known, who had gone,
eagerly, at the first call.

"They didn't even want to wait to get commissions! _They_ just wanted
to fight!"

The revelation of Peter Hyde made her think of Claire's brother. She
told him about Claire and Anne--she called Anne, vaguely, "another
girl." "Claire's a darling and we just love her, but we can't _abide_
her brother! Of course it's not reasonable, because we've never laid
eyes on him, but we've heard enough from Claire to know just what he's
like. I suppose the war made a few like him--he was brave enough over
there and lucky to have all his recommendations recognized, but it made
him _so_ conceited! He came back here and just strutted around,
everywhere. Claire says her mother's friends used to have _teas_ for
him--he'd go to them and speak and show his medals! Claire was mad
over him. She was so disappointed because I came here instead of going
to Merrycliffe. But I couldn't see myself spending my time petting her
beloved Lion! I knew I'd be rude and say just what I thought."

Nancy and Peter were sitting upon the stump of a tree near the cliff.
Peter suddenly rose and walked to the edge--his back square to Nancy.
After a moment he turned.

"Thought I heard something down there," he explained, at her
questioning glance. "Don't blame you for disliking that sort--like
Claire's brother! They're a rummy kind! I had a friend a lot like
him. But--maybe, it wasn't all his fault