, to hear a tap on his window pane, to see Dalrymple's face at the
window.

"Hesitate to disturb a major, and all that," Dalrymple said as he
entered. "Two rooms. You're lucky."

"Not luck; work," George said, shortly. "What is it? Didn't come here to
envy my rank, did you?"

Although he was in far better shape nervously and physically than he had
been that day in George's office, Dalrymple bore himself with much the
same confused and hesitant manner. It recalled to George the existence
of the note which the other had made no effort to redeem.

"You know," Dalrymple began, vaguely, "there's a lot of--what do you
call it--bunk--about this hurrah for the dear old soldier business. Fact
is, the more chance there is of a man's getting blown up the nastier
some people become."

George laughed shortly.

"You mean when you owe them money."

"As Driggs used to say," Dalrymple answered, "'you're a very penetrating
person.'"

He hesitated, then went on with an increasing difficulty:

"You're one of the people I owe money to."

Wandel had taken George's hint, evidently. George was sorry he had ever
let it drop. But was he? Mightn't it be as well in the end? In spite of
all this talk of people's leaving their bones in France, there was a
fair chance that both Dalrymple and he would bring theirs, unaltered,
back to America.

"Don't worry," George said. "I shan't press you."

"Handsome enough," Dalrymple thanked him in a voice scarcely above a
whisper. "But everybody isn't that decent. It's this talk of the
division sailing that's turned them nasty."

George fingered a pamphlet about poison gases. He didn't much blame
debtors for turning nasty.

"You want to borrow some more money from me," he said.

Dalrymple's face lightened.

"If you'd be that good; but it's a lot."

"Why," George asked, quietly, "don't you go to someone you're closer
to?"

Dalrymple flushed. He wouldn't meet George's eyes.

"Dicky would give it me," he said, "but I can't ask him; I've made him
too many promises. So would Lambert, but it would be absurd for me to go
to him."

"Why absurd?" George asked, quietly.

"Wholly impossible," was all Dalrymple would say. "Quite absurd."

There came back to George his ugly sensations at Blodgett's, and he knew
he would give Dalrymple a lot of money now, as he had given him a
little then, and for precisely the same reason.

"I'm afraid I've been a bit hard on my friends," Dalrymple admitted. "A