"Well!" he exclaimed, entering the other room, and seizing her hands as she stood with her back to the fire. "Pretty good, isn't it?"
"I should say it was!" she cried delightedly. "Why, Dick, it's the chance of your life. If you make good only a little bit you may get anywhere. It's perfectly splendid! I'm so glad!"
Genuine pleasure shone in her eyes. Ralston's heart beat faster. Of course she cared for him. She must care for him. There was a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood-- He stepped closer and bent his head toward hers.
But she apparently was not listening, and the glad look had quickly given place to another. He paused, wondering at the change. Her dark eyes, with their Oriental, upturned corners, were half veiled and her high-arched brows were contracted in a frown. He drew back and pulled out his cigarette case.
"Dick," she cried suddenly, "I want to tell you something! I'm sorry to bother you when you're so happy, and I'm so proud of you, but I'm terribly worried about something."
"Dear! Dear!" laughed Ralston, striking a match and seeing that his opportunity had somehow vanished. "What's up? Been losing at bridge?"
"Don't make fun of me," she replied. "No, I'm really bothered." She put her hand to her forehead and pushed back her hair. "I'm afraid one of my friends isn't-- Oh, I don't know how to explain it!"
A momentary suspicion flashed across his mind.
"Do you think I ought to go to the front?" he asked, relieved.
Ralston experienced a shock of disappointment.
"Dick," said she in quick, subdued tones, "I can't help speaking about it, and you're the best friend I've got. It's about John."
"Not since I came back. Before that, often."
Ellen again passed her hand wearily across her forehead and turned abruptly away from the fire. The action was unconscious, involuntary. He had never associated Ellen with Steadman.
"Oh, nothing definite. Only he's been a little irregular of late. I haven't seen him for over a week. I don't think anybody has."
"He's a captain in the Twelfth, isn't he?"
"Yes. O Dick! You heard what that spiteful Warren girl said about tin soldiers?"
"I can't help it. It's _Honor_, you know!"
"But he hasn't?--and they're beginning to talk?"