h an awful thing to say, but if this
hadn't happened I should never have been sure that for me there could
never be any one else but Justin."

Tactfully, the older woman led her on to talk of her doubts and fears,
and of her terror lest she might deal with love lightly, as her father
had done. And then Sophie spoke reverently of her own perfect marriage.

"It was during his illness," she said, "that I learned to know my
husband. I think I had always been a bit selfish. He had seemed so
strong that I had heaped my burdens upon him. He wanted me to be happy,
so he withheld all cares from me. But the time came when he knew it was
not right to withhold such cares. He knew that I was to face separation
and loneliness, and so he helped me to get ready. Oh, Betty, dear, I
can't tell you how wonderful he was. He knew that death must come to
him, and yet he never whimpered. He was a brave soldier going down to
battle, and not once did he flinch. But gradually he came to lean on me;
once he cried in my arms--not from fear, but because he must leave me.
These things are not easy to speak of--but where at first I had merely
loved, I came to worship. I saw how he had shielded me, and when he left
me I had the precious memory not only of his care for me--but of my care
for him--and his appreciation of it."

There was a silence in which not only the "white prayers" of Bettina
ascended, but the fervent ones of the woman who had suffered and lost.

Then came a nurse with the message, "Dr. Blake wishes me to say that all
conditions are favorable," and they permitted themselves to hope.

Other people were coming now to Harbor Light--great men from the yachts,
people from the big hotels, fellow-aviators of Justin's--the townsfolk
and sailors--children who had worshiped the flying man of the smiling
countenance.

But no one was shown into the inner office except Bobbie and Doris and
Sara.

It was in that first moment of her meeting with Bettina that Sara
blotted out the last vestige of smallness and of jealousy.

She went straight up to the girl whom Justin loved, and put her arms
about her. "Oh, you poor dear thing," and they wept together.

Then Bettina asked, "How did you know?"

"Everybody knows," Sara said, hysterically. "Did you think you could
hide it?"

Doris was weeping, too, in Bobbie's arms, and Bobbie's white, set face
showed what he was feeling for his friend. "Oh, what made him go out on
such a day--of all the cra