and it. You have a
good reputation for physical pluck, though, and nobody will say
anything very nasty. And as for us," his voice rang a little, "who are
on the inside, we know that it is braver of you to stay than to go."

"Anyway," I said, "if she--if Lucy--doesn't care any more--why I can go
then."

"You can go _then_. But it seems to me that a man of education is
wasted in a trench. That, however, is a matter of taste."

XXXIII

It was not until the early winter that I saw Lucy. It was by accident.
I sat just behind her at a musical comedy. She was with her husband.
They looked very prosperous. They seemed to be comradely enough.
Mostly I saw only the back of her head; once, her full profile; and
then at last she turned half around in her seat, and saw me. I don't
know what I did. I think I smiled, half rose to my feet, and lifted my
hand as if to take off a hat--which of course I didn't have on. She
nodded, and smiled brightly; but her eyes had that expression of
praying that I have so often mentioned.

It was long since I had thought of her for more than a few minutes at a
time. But now my heart began to beat furiously and all my sleeping
love for her waked in my heart.

And now she was telling her husband _who_ was sitting just behind them.

I went out after the act, intending to stay out. But Fulton followed
so quickly that he caught me just as I was leaving the theater.
"Hello, Archie," he said.

"Hello, John. How are you all?"

"Pretty well," he said; "and you?"

"Pretty well. Cartridges still looking up?"

"Yes. We're doubling the capacity of the plant for the second time
since the war started. Have a drink?"

We walked to the nearest saloon. "We heard that you were going to
enlist."

"I did think of it, and then I got cold feet."

"Like hell you did!"

"Well, reasons against it were found for me. Reasons which I ought to
have thought of for myself. Here's how."

"Sante!" said John. A moment later, "Going to Aiken?" he asked.

"Why, it depends."

There was an awkward silence.

"Lucy is very anxious," he then said, "to open our house again this
winter."

"As a matter of fact," said I glibly, "I've more than half decided on
Palm Beach."

A bell rang shrilly.

"Time to go back," he said.

"One moment, John. I'm not going back--of course. How is Lucy?"

"Oh, pretty well," he said stiffly; "I think she'll come through all
right. Had a tough time for a