other one?”
“Tlyt question,** salll Aten Dale s little
grimly, e’would have been easier an
swered when I first came. Your aloof
ness tonight makes It pretty difficult.
But I'll put It this way What Lea
guessed about my secret feelings made It
possible for me to come to Norwood to tell
you what has been In my heart for many
months.
“In Lee’s last letter he gave me his
blessing along with the suggestion or per
mission, whichever way one cares to put
It, to state my case to you. I know, and
Lee knew, that I fell in love with your
picture; with the things Lee told me
about you. You became my dream, my
ideal, my hope. The thought and the
image of you crept into my heart and
remained there, night and day.
“When I saw you today," Alan went
on in a voice rising now with obvious
passion, "it took all my self-control to
keep from telling you then. You were
more wonderful even than the dream I
would be the happiest man in the world
If I could think I had a chance to win
your love. But I guess it would have
been better for me if I had been among
those over there —who won’t come back.
"Before I go—very shortly now, would
you tell me one thing; Just what changed
you from the girl I met this afternoon?’ ,
TTF GOT up abruptly and looked down
upon her bowed head, and Louis*
thought the bumping of her heart would
choke her. She felt delirious with a new
born Joy. She jumped to her feet and
flung herself into Alan's arms, buried
her dark head on his broad shoulder.
"It's all right now,” she said in a muf
fled voice. “I had to know how you
really felt. I couldn't carry out Lee's re
quest without knowing where I stood—
with you I mean.’’ She looked up and
met his happy, adoring eyes. "1 wanted
no lukewarm liking, for you see I have
felt about you the way you say you feel
about me. Almost since your first letter,
I think.”
Alan’s eagar, warm lips found hers.
Then presently he said: "But didn’t Lee
tell you that I loved you?"
"Only that he thought you did.”
Alan's arms tightened about Louise’*
soft, yielding waist as they walked slowly
back to the house. "About the parade
tomorrow —shall I march or not? I'll do
whatever you say?”
"Please do! And I’ll go down and be
proudly watching you go by. It will be a
fitting memorial to Lee.”
"Just the way Lee would have wanted
it.” Alan said, Then he kissed her fra
grant, shining hair before they stepped
into the litte pool of shadowed light
under the open lighted windows.
"After the parade we’ll bo married and
go home to a new life in the West. Some
day we may come back here. Shall you
mind very much, leaving— all this?"
“Where you are, Alan. I shall love it.”
Louise said.
coulrl she ever be sure, now that he had
seen her. that Alan would want to carry
out his fend of ?he —the performance.
Already she knew enough of hla char
acter to know that he would do Lee’a
bidding, regardless of his own personal
reaction. Alan would not let Lee down.
The small French clock on the
gleaming white mantel above the fire
place struck half-past 6. She must
get dressed. Throughout dinner she
would play the role of the gracious
hostess, of course.
Afterward she would let Alan under
stand in no uncertain manner that girls
born and brought up In the South could
not be bartered like a— a piece of prop
erty. Southern women were proud and
high-spirited. How could Lee have
dared to think she would be a party to
such a—such an alliance?
Her eyes narrowed with increasing
resentment as she turned on her bath,
then selected a blue-anu-white-flowered
chiffon dress. The blue was the exact
color of her eyes. A violet-colored velvet
sash gave the simple gown a touch of
sophistication and a good deal of allure
' Alan's obvious admiration when he
faced Louise across the lace-covered,
candle-lit table, was a boon to her self
esteem. It restored the poise she felt
she needed to carry her through the
ordeal of this dinner hour.
Determinedly she kept the table talk
on a purely impersonal basis. She per
ceived that Alan sensed her altered
mood. But that was quite all right. It
would simplify her plan for sending him
away.
With the liquor which Louise poured
into small thin blue glasses, and the
coffee that Aunt Carrie served in ex
quisite Haviland cups, Lee's brother ar
rived.
After lighting a cigarette he looked
pointedly at Louise. "You’ll come to
the parade In the morning, Louise,” he
said firmly. "Alan has consented to
march in the place that would have been
Lee’s with the small contingent that
is home again. Lee would like that."
Involuntarily Louise and Alan's eyes
met. Louise bit her red lips and looked
quickly away. She said coolly: "That
is most generous of— of Alan, consider
ing everything. But you know. Philip,
how I feel about these Memorial pa
rades with soldiers marching, guns salut
ing. and all that. Still I recognize my
social obligation.” she looked defiantly
at her Aunt Carrie. “Out of courtesy
to our g’:est I’ll make an effort to be
there, but I won’t promise.”
,QHE heard her Aunt Came gasp. She
felt, rather than saw Alan's look of
surprised dismay. But she didn’t care If
she had hurt him, or what he thought
of her. She didn’t care what any of
them thought, for that matter
She had feelings of her own. She
hoped Alan would go away; leave Nor
wood this very night. She never wanted
to see him again or think of him. either
She simply couldn’t bear it for him to
think she would consider, even for a
to deliver In person in case I survived
and he did not." He fumbled In an In
side coat pocket and extracted a sealed
envelope addressed simply —“To Louise.”
Louise’s trembling cold hands closed
around the wrinkled missive.
“He also left a letter for me,” Alan
went on hurriedly, "which I was to open
only If he met death. He wrote both
letters that last night. He had the feel
ing that he would ‘go down.’ ”
“This is all very strange and unlike
Lee," Louise said. “But the war has done
unbelievable things to people every
where, I reckon. Will you excuse me
now, please? Besides, I am sure you want
to see Lee’s brother Philip, and Lee’a
folks will be wanting you to stay the
night with them, I’m sure. Otherwise I
would Insist that you accept Aunt Carrie’s
and my hospitality. We shall have din
ner at 7.”
A LAN’S face was very grave when he
thanked Louise. But he achieved a
smile that was somehow more upset
ting to Louise than any previous ex
pression. His fine eyes were frightened,
sort of, she reflected, after he h ad
turned away and started across the grass
toward the green-shuttered house where
Lee had been bom.
Then, swiftly, Louise ran up the wind
ing stairs to her room, closed and locked
the door and flung herself down upon
the bed. She tore open the seal and,
with breathless haste and suddenly af
fronted eyes, read Lee's amazing letter:
"Something tells me, my darling,
that when I go out from this hole at
dawn I shan’t return. But your lovely
face will shine before me and I shall
not be afraid. I stave loved you every
waking hour and I’ve dreamed of you at
night. Memories of you have made this
hell endurable.
“I am going to make a last request
that may seem a strange ofie for a man
to make of his sweetheart, but I am
thinking now of your future. I want
you to be happy. I do not want you to
let any false feeling of loyalty to a
memory of me stand in your way. Please
do not go on grieving for me or be over
sad or lonely. And If you will carry out
my last wish, I shall feel that in addi
tion to having performed my patriotic
duty to my country. I shall not have
gone In vain
"Louise, my dearest. I want you to
marry Alan Dale. Soon! It Is my secret
belief that he cares for you and I am
sure you understand that if I did not
think he would make you happy. I would
not make such a proposal. And now
good-by, my dear.
"Yours always, In life or in death.
LEE.”
For a long while Louise did not move.
Blinding tears raced down her
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were scarcely more than a whisper, as
if, Indeed, he were questioning himself.
“I still miss him, of course. I fret over
the pity of It all. He was so fine and
young; so full of the Joy of living and
so full of energy and ambition. It doesn’t
seem fair.”
“It isn’t fair!” Alan agreed with sud
den passion. “That thought will crop up
every time I hear bands playing martial
music, or see flags waving and men in
uniform marching. I hated that parade
In New York after we came ashore. I’D
always hate to see parades going by, or
to take part in one.”
“That’s exactly the way I feel," Louise
said. “The day the Armistice was cele
brated I got on my horse and rode, off
to the woods along the river w r here I
would not hear and see aU Norwood re
joicing. Lee's younger brother, who was
stlU in a training camp when the war
ended, doesn’t see it that way, however
Ho is awfully sore at me this minute
because I told him this morning that I
will not go to see the memorial parade
tomorrow. He's general chairman of
airangements. But It would bring it aU
back, and what good can It possibly do?”
Alan suddenly covered Louise’s hand,
which rested on the settee between them
“I understand— Louise," he said gently.
Suddenly, unexpectedly, Louise cried
out. “There’s something I’ve never told
anybody. But you —well you were with
Lee that last night. Maybe you can ex
plain It; maybe you know. Do you care
to hear about a very extraordinary ex
perience I had?”
“Please tell me,” Alan murmured
gently. “Perhaps I can help.” Invol
untarily he moved closer to the slender,
lovely and pensive-eyed girl.
"I was sitting in front of my dressing
table one night last August,” she began.
“I was looking at Lee’s photograph and
suddenly the lips in the picture seemed
to move. I stared hard, and they moved
again and again as if Lee were trying to
tell me something. His eyes, while smil
ing sadly, held a strange pleading look
as If they, too, were trying to convey
some special message.
"It unnerved me terribly and that
same night I had a dreadful dream I
awoke trembling and frightened. In
the dream I heard a terrific roar of guns,
then a red flash of Are or light and in
that light I saw Lee fall—race down.
Then all was darkness. Soon afterward
the message came that Lee had been
killed in action. The date was the day I
had the dream.”
An odd look passed over Alan’s sober
face. Louise, seeing it, felt suddenly very
perturbed. What did it mean, why did
his eyes probe hers in that way, and why
was he so slow to answer?
At last Alan said: “Lee did leave a
message for you. A letter for me
not unwelcome. So do your best tonight,
BaUy."
“I sho* will, honey. An’ Mlstah Dale,
you-all Is mighty welcome to old North
Carollny."
“You know,” Alan said, after the beam
ing Negress had departed, “I feel at home
here, as If I really belonged. It all looks
so familiar, yet I was never east of
Omaha until the war.”
"Well, we are even then," Louise
laughed “I've never been west of Balti
more. My roots are very deep here."
’T think I grew up loving the South."
Alan said slowly, "My mother came
from Tennessee. She never got over
being a little homesick for . . all this.”
His eager eyes, his free hand swept the
boxwood along the brick walk, the tall
pine trees bordering the long driveway
which led up to the big house; the clear
turquoise sky, the May sunlight, mellow
and friendly on the west end of the wide
veranda, and the imposing white pillars.
H gazed almost pensively at the frosted,
mint-decorated glass In his other hand
t*T THINK I must know everything
-*■ about you, almost, from the time
you came out of rompers until you went
away to boarding school. Lee was happy
when he was talking about you and
about the Old North State, as he called
It. He forgot the muddy trenches and
dugouts, the cold, uncomfortable billets,
the bombs, even.”
“Yes,” Louise said slowly, and avoid
ing Alan's questioning eyes, “Lee and I
grew up together. He was three years
older than I, and he always looked after
me. When my parents were killed in an
automobile wreck — I was only 14 then—
Lee seemed to think he was responsible
so” my future welfare and happiness. He
was guardian, big brother, lover, every
thing. He was wonderful.”
“That’s the way he was," Alan broke
in, his brown eyes kindling. "You came
first. You were in his thoughts up to
the last moment. And you,” he added,
after a moment of apparent hesitation,
and in a strange muffled voice, “you must
have loved him deeply, too.”
Louise fixed her gaze on a lacy pat
tern of sunlight and shadow, drawn
as if by an artist's pencil, upon the flag
stones by the reflection of a pine tree
and the receding sun.
“He was the only sweetheart I ever
had.” she said at last. “It was natural
for me to be fond of Lee. He was always
here He applauded all my childhood
triumphs and fought all my little battles
for me. I was only 18 when I came home
from Junior college to stay. It broke me
all to pieces when the —when the tele
gram came from the War Department
My whole little world fell apart.”
"And now," Alan Dale said. The words
nsLuasomeat, uv«*t man you aver »aJd
your pretty «ye» 00. He’a waitin' In the
h*U. He done oome ail tjie way *rom
Oermany or Ftmnce. I don't know which.
Jest to aee you. He's that good friend of
Mars® Lee's what done saved his life
once, but couldn't frustrate de Lord or
the Germans the nex' time."
“Not Captain Dale?" Louise gasped,
almost dropping the flowers.
“That's It. That's his name. He sho’
la a great looker and the nicest deep
kind of voice . ."
“Western drawl, I suppose. His home
la in Montana," Louise mumbled some
what Incoherently as she shifted the
flowers to her left arm and began to
push and pull at her shining, wavy
black hair. “Oh, Sally, I look so awful!”
she walled, “I Just knew he would come
•ome day, and for him to see me In this
old knitted dress."
“Honey, you-all Is the prettiest girl in
North Caro liny. You knows It, no matter
what you got on. Honest child, with
that white dress, flttln' you so close, and
that blue scarf and with them flowers in
your arms, you look like a picture out
at a book."
Louise's heart was pounding as If she
had been running uphill when she passed
under the fanlight above the front door
and entered the wide, dim, cool hall.
A tall young man in an Immaculate
olive- drab uniform, more handsome,
Louise quickly noted, than In the pic
ture Lee had sent, came hurrying to
meet her with both hands outstretched.
His warm brown eves smiled Into her
wide, almost frightened ones. One big
brown hand closed over hers and held It
tight. He looked down at her full, allur
ing young lips.
“Perhaps I should have wired you," he
said. "My ship docked three days ago,
but I wanted to surprise you. You see,”
his voice fumbled a little, then gained
confidence, while his eyes held her own,
“I’ve pictured this meeting a dozen dif
ferent ways and I couldn’t resist the im
pulse to see how you would look If I
walked In on you like this."
“Let's go out on the porch." Louise
suggested a little uncertainly. “I'll have
Sally fix some limeade."
QJEATED on an old hickory settee,
Louise said: “So this is why I haven't
had a letter for so long. Your letters
have been such a delight. Life is very
humdrum, and sad. too, in Norwood
these days. Everything is changed. So
many have not come back yet and so
many never will. It’s good of you to stop
off to see me, when you must be so eageT
to get back to your home."
“I've had two reasons for coming here
right off," Captain Alan Dale said very
earnestly. “You see .
Sally appeared suddenly with tall
frosted glass tinkling with ice cubes
and topped with aromatic fresh mint
“Captain Dale will stay to dinner,
Sally," Louise said, “and I'm sure that
after months along the Rhine. Southern
fried chicken and beaten biscuits will be