elieve it, nor did her husband.

"You'll be in it, George, before the war's over. Do you know, you're
nearer paying me back than you've ever been."

George was uncomfortable before such adulation.

"Please don't think," he protested, "that I'm going over for any tricky
ideals or to save a lot of advanced thinkers from their utter folly."

"Then what are you going for?" Bailly asked.

George was surprised that he lacked an answer.

"Oh, because one has to go," he evaded.

Bailly's smile was contented.

"What better reason could any man want?"

They had an air of showing him about Princeton as if he must absorb its
beauties for the last time. Their visit to the Alstons was shrouded with
all the sullen accompaniments of a permanent farewell. George was
inclined to smile. He hadn't got as far as weighing his chances of being
hit; the present was too crowded, stretched too far; included Betty, for
instance, and Lambert whom he was surprised to find in the Tudor house,
prepared to remain evidently until he should leave for Plattsburgh. The
Alstons misgivings centred rather obviously on Lambert. George, when he
took Betty's hand to say good-bye that evening, felt with a desolate
regret that for the first time in all their acquaintance her fingers
failed to reach his mind.

PART IV

THE FOREST

I

"Profession?"

"Member of the firm of Morton, Planter, and Goodhue."

Slightly startled, a fairly youthful product of West Point twisted on
the uncomfortable orderly room chair, and glanced from the name on
George's card to the tall, well-built figure in a private's uniform
facing him. George knew he looked like a soldier, because some confiding
idiot had blankly told him so coming up on the train; but he hadn't the
first knowledge to support appearances, didn't even know how to stand at
attention, was making an effort at it now since it was clearly expected
of him, because he had sense enough to guess that the pompous, slightly
ungrammatical young man would insist during the next three months on
many such tributes.

"I see. You're _the_ Morton."

George was pleased the young man was impressed. He experienced again the
feelings with which he had gone to Princeton. He was being weighed, not
as skilfully as Bailly had done it, but in much the same fashion. He had
a quick thought that it was going to be nice to be at school again.

"Any special qualifications of leadership?"

The question took George by s