you want it. You have to take it as the good Lord sends it."

"Who told you that?"

"Emily--"

"What does Emily know of love?"

He had laughed and patted her hand. He was cynical generally about
romance. He felt that his own perfect love affair with his wife had
been the exception. He looked upon Emily as a sentimental spinster who
knew practically nothing of men and women.

He did not realize that Emily knew a great deal about dolls that
laughed and cried when you pulled a string. And that the world in
Emily's Toy Shop was not so very different from his own.

Alma, having turned a cold shoulder to Ralph, was still proclaiming her
opinion of Derry Drake to the rest of the table. "He is rich and young
and he doesn't want to die--"

"There are plenty of rich young men dying, Alma," said Mrs.
Witherspoon, "and it is probably as easy for them as for the poor
ones--"

"The poor ones won't mind being muddy and dirty in the trenches," said
Alma, "but I can't fancy Derry Drake without two baths a day--"

"I can't quite fancy him a slacker." There was a hint of satisfaction
in Mrs. Witherspoon's voice. Her son and Derry Drake had gone to
school together and to college. Derry had outdistanced Ralph in every
way; but now it was Ralph who was leaving Derry far behind.

Jean wished that they would stop talking. She felt as she might had
she seen a soldier stripped of sword and stripes and shamed in the eyes
of his fellows.

"Wasn't he in the draft?" she asked Ralph.

"Too old. He doesn't look it, does he? It's a bit hard for the rest
of us fellows to understand why he keeps out--"

"Doesn't he ever try to--explain?"

Ralph shook his head. "Not a word. And he's beginning to stay away
from things. You see, he knows that people are asking questions, and
you hear what they are calling him?"

"Yes," said Jean, "a coward."

"Well, not exactly that--"

"There isn't much difference, is there?"

And now Alma's cool voice summed up the situation. "A man with as much
money as that doesn't have to be brave. What does he care about public
opinion? After the war everybody will forgive and forget."

Coolly she challenged them to contradict her. "You all know it. How
many of you would dare cut the fellow who will inherit his father's
millions?"

Mrs. Witherspoon tried to laugh it off; but it was true, and Alma was
right. They might talk about Derry Drake behind his back, but they'd
never omit sending