"Why--I--!" he began uncertainly.

"Oh, I thought you couldn't stand that test! That would be too much

bother--You would rather--!"

"No, Wait! I didn't say I wouldn't. Here! I'll go if you'll go with me

and show me what you mean and what you want done. Come. I'll take you

at your word. If you really want all those things come on and show me

just what to do. I'm game. I'll do it. I'll do it whether it needs

doing or not, just for you. Will you take me up?"

"Of course" said Lynn quickly, "I'll go with you and show you. I expect

to be in New York next month helping at the Salvation Home while one of

their workers is away on her vacation. I'll show you all over the

district as many times as you need to go, if it's not too hot for you

to come back to the city so early."

He looked at her sharply. There was a covert sneer in her last words

that angered him, and he was half inclined to refuse the whole thing,

but somehow there was something in this strange new type of girl that

fascinated him. Now that she had the university, and the war, and the

world, for a background she puzzled and fascinated him more than ever.

Half surprised at his own interest he bowed with a new kind of dignity

over his habitual light manner: "I shall be delighted, Miss Severn. It will not be too hot for me if it

is not too hot for you. I shall be at your service, and I hope you will

discover that there is one officer who knows how to obey."

She looked at him half surprised, half troubled and then answered

simply: "Thank you. I'm afraid I've done you an injustice. I'm afraid I didn't

think you would be game enough to do it. I hope I haven't been too

rude. But you see I feel deeply about it and sometimes I forget

myself?"

"I am sure I deserve all you have said," said Laurie as gravely as his

light nature could manage, "but there is one thing that puzzles me

deeply. I wish you would enlighten me. All this won't do you any

good. It isn't for you at all. Why do you care?"

Marilyn brought her lovely eyes to dwell on his face for a moment

thoughtfully, a shy beautiful tenderness softening every line of her

eager young face: "It's because--" she began diffidently, "It's because they all are

God's children--and I love Him better than anything else in

life!"




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