"Oh, to his mother--to his family. To have him go off that way, without
a word--"

"Oh, no' he'd been home," Fred corrected her. "He went home the Saturday
before he enlisted, and settled it with them. They're all broken up, of
course; but when the saw he'd made up his mind, they quit opposing him,
and I think they're proud of him about it, maybe, in spite of feeling
anxious. You see, his father was an artilleryman in the war with
Spain, and his grandfather was a Colonel at the end of the War of the
Rebellion, though he went into it as a private, like Ramsey. He died
when Ramsey was about twelve; but Ramsey remembers him; he was talking
of him a little the night before he enlisted."

Dora made a gesture of despairing protest. "You don't understand!"

"What is it I don't understand?"

"Ramsey! _I_ know why he went--and it's just killing me!"

Fred looked at her gravely. "I don't think you need worry about it," he
said. "There's nothing about his going that you are responsible for."

She repeated her despairing gesture. "You don't understand. But it's no
use. It doesn't help any to try to talk of it, though I thought maybe
it would, somehow." She went a little nearer the dormitory entrance,
leaving him where he was, then turned. "I suppose you won't see him?"

"I don't know. Most probably not till we meet-if we should--in France.
I don't know where he's stationed; and I'm going with the aviation--if
it's ever ready! And he's with the regulars; he'll probably be among the
first to go over."

"I see." She turned sharply away, calling back over her shoulder in a
choked voice. "Thank you. Good-bye!"

But Fred's heart had melted; gazing after her, he saw that her
proud young head had lowered now, and that her shoulders were moving
convulsively; he ran after her and caught her as she began slowly to
ascend the dormitory steps.

"See here," he cried. "Don't--"

She lifted a wet face. "No, no! He went in bitterness because I told him
to, in my own bitterness! I've killed him! Long ago, when he wasn't much
more than a child, I heard he'd said that some day he'd 'show' me, and
now he's done it!"

Fred whistled low and long when she had disappeared. "Girls!" he
murmured to himself. "Some girls, anyhow--they will be girls! You can't
tell 'em what's what, and you can't change 'em, either!"

Then, as more urgent matters again occupied his attention, he went on at
an ardent and lively gait to attend his class in map-m