tart something general,
efficient, fundamental? I've never heard of a President who wasn't
sensitive to the pressure of the country."

There was no use talking that way. These people were satisfied with the
noise at Plattsburgh. He was glad when the meal ended, when he could get
away.

At the automobile he managed to help Sylvia into her cloak, and he took
the opportunity to whisper:

"When is the great event coming off?"

She turned, looked at him, and didn't answer. She mounted to the back
seat beside Dalrymple.

XX

George didn't see her again until winter. He heard through the desolate
Blodgett that she had gone with her parents to the Canadian Rockies.

Nearly everyone seemed to flee north that summer as if in a final effort
to cajole play. The Alstons moved to Maine unusually early, and didn't
return until late fall. Betty put it plainly enough to him then.

"I'm sorry to be back. Don't you feel the desire to get as far away as
possible from things, to escape?"

"To escape what, Betty?"

"That's just it. One doesn't know. Something one doesn't want to know."

It was queer that Betty never asked why he hadn't been to Plattsburgh,
never urged a definite decision as to what he would do if----

The "if" lost a little of its power with him. At times he was even
inclined to share Mrs. Alston's optimism. It was easy to drift with
Washington. Besides, he was too busy to worry about much except his
growing accumulation of profits from bloodshed. He was brought back
momentarily when Lambert and Goodhue received commissions as captains in
the reserve corps. The Plattsburgh noise still echoed. He couldn't help
a feeling of relief when people flocked back and the town became normal
again, encouraging him to believe that nothing could happen to tear him
away from this fascinating pursuit of getting rich for Sylvia while he
waited for her next move.

That came with a stark brutality a few weeks after the holidays. He had
seen her only the evening before, sitting next to Blodgett at dinner
with a remote expression in her eyes that had made him hopeful. The
article in the morning newspaper, consequently, took him more by
surprise than the original announcement of the engagement had done.
Sylvia and Blodgett would be married on the fifteenth of the following
August.

On top of that shock events combined to rebuke his recent confidence.
His desires had taken too much for granted. The folly of the Mrs.
Alstons an