d beg!

As she sat up in bed and looked wildly about her, it seemed as if all
the corners of the little room were haunted by specters. A long time
ago she had seen Maude Adams in "L'Aiglon." She remembered now those
wailing voices of the dead at Wagram. And in this war millions of men
had died. It seemed to her that their souls must be pressing against
the wall which divided them from the living--that their voices must
penetrate the stillness which had always shut them out. "How dare you
go on with it? Are men made only for this?"

She remembered now the thing that her father had said on the night
after "Cinderella."

"If I had my way, it should be an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
For every man that they have tortured, we must torture one of theirs.
For every child mutilated, we must mutilate a child--for every woman--"

Her Daddy had said that. Her kind and tender Daddy. Was that what the
war made of men? Would Daddy and Derry, when they went over, do that?
Torture and mutilate? Would they, would they? And would they come
back after that and expect her to love them and live with them?

Well, she wouldn't. She would _not_. She would be afraid of them--of
both of them.

If they loved her, they would stay with her. They wouldn't go away and
leave her to be afraid--alone and crying in the dark, with all of those
dead voices.

* * * * * *

Emily tapped at the door. Came in. "My dear, my dear--. Oh, my poor
little Jean."

* * * * * *

After a long time her father was there, and he was giving her a white
tablet and a drink of water.

"It will quiet her nerves, Emily. I didn't dream that she would take
it like this."

CHAPTER XIV

SHINING SOULS

The next morning Jean was ill. Derry, having the news conveyed to him
over the telephone, rushed in to demand tragically of Dr. McKenzie,
"Was it my fault?"

"It was the fault of too much excitement. Seventh heaven with you for
hours, and then my news on top of it."

"What news?"

The Doctor explained. "It is going to tear me to pieces if she takes
it like this. She was half-delirious all night, and begged and
begged--"

"She doesn't want you to go?"

The Doctor ran his fingers through his hair. "Well, we've been a lot
to each other. But she's such a little sport--and patriotic--nobody
more so. She won't feel this way when she's herself again."

Derry stood d