--she makes other
women look cheap."

"Bud, some women are like that."

"I suppose so."

Both men shook the ashes from their pipes--there was a night's work
ahead.

Martin stared at the young face opposite. It was a strong, kind face--a
face waiting for the high waves to strike it. Martin seemed never to
have known the boy, really, before.

"Bud, suppose you never find your woman?" he asked, huskily.

"All right, then I'll peg along with that much lacking. Oh! I know what
you are thinking of, Uncle Dave. I've been through it--and turned it
down! Ever since I can remember I've kept a grip on myself by
remembering you!"

"Good God, boy!" Martin choked; "I'm a poor model. At the best I've
been--neutral."

"Like hell you have!" irreverently ejaculated Cameron, pleasantly. "Why,
Uncle Dave, you've got muscle all over you from fighting the demon in
you, but you have no ugly scars. We can look each other in the eyes as
we couldn't--if there were scars. It's all right, Uncle Dave. We'll get
Mother here before long and have a bully time."

Martin could not speak for a moment; he was looking ahead to the time
when he'd have only this boy and his mother!

"Well, what's up, Uncle Dave?"

"Bud, have you suspected anything about Miss Fletcher? Her health, I
mean?"

"Yes. I've studied about her, too."

"And kept quiet, eh?"

"Sure! But, Uncle Davie, if we--" Martin blessed him for that "we"--"if
we could get her outside of herself, it would do a lot for her. I've a
hunch that you have let her get on the shelf. I wouldn't if I were you!
I know it may be necessary to keep her to rules, but she thinks too much
about the rules; they cramp her. When Nancy marries--what then?"

"The Lord knows!"

"Where's that other girl--Joan?"

Martin's face hardened.

"Living her life. _Her_ life," he said.

"Anything--dirty about it?" Cameron asked.

"No. So far as I can find out, she's just taking what she calls _her
own_."

"Well, why shouldn't she, Uncle Dave? By all that's holy why shouldn't a
woman have her own as well as a fellow? Just because she was born to
petticoats doesn't mean that she's born to all the jobs men don't want."

"There are certain things the world exacts of a woman, Bud."

"What, for instance, Uncle Dave?"

Martin considered. He was a just man, but he was prejudiced.

"Self-sacrifice, for one thing!"

"Who says so? Who benefits most by her self-sacrifice?" Cameron flushed
as he rambled on. "