South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-03-05

him We are. Come on TO the club;
ioull have TO go with old widower
/ Sparks or little Johnny Harris.
/ They're the best / can offer YOU.
got up the dance. so 1 copied the
hero. That's fair. isn't it," Lorena
/ put her foot on the throttle and the
roar of the engine drowned out
Mary's emphatic decree not 70 go.
I The surgical dressings department.
/ seemed insufferably hot as Mary
went from worker to worker. put
\ ting the congresses into shape,
smiling at some tired business girl
whose fingers were a bit clumsy just
because she was utterly worn out
| from days hard task, and touching
a girl on the shoulder comfortingly
when she timidly showed a card an
nouncing the safe arrival overseas
OF some loved one. Once in a while,
like keen, stabbing pain, came the
thought of the gaily decorated bali
room at the club. the pretty girls
and the one figure brave in khaki.
with two shining silver bars on the
shoulders of his coat Instructors
were very few that night and Mary
found that she had charge of three
tables instead of one. so that most
of the time she was too busy to be
very sad. But she was quite human
and at times the thought obtruded
and a sense of duty. of fine, high
ideals seemed a stern master.
At 10 o'clock the work closed and
she bade cheerful goodnight TO the
line of weary girls filing out; she
wished that she could jump into her
little runabout and go to the dance.
even if she was wearing a white
gaberdine skirt and a plain little
wolfe blouse. But OF course il was
too late and she had nobody to go
with her. She was the very last
to leave and as she turned the key
in the lock, she realized with a start
that she was still wearing her
snowy head dress. She put up hel
hands to unpin it before going back
to get her sailor hat when a voice,
never-to- be-forgotten voice, said,
Don't take it off, please! You've
never worn anything half as becom-
ing. How are you, Mary?"
One of her hands crept up over
ing. Under the bright light that
every night illumined the red cross
over the door, Mary saw George
Crowell drawn up stiffly at attention
as if he saw the flag of mis- country
that he had gone out to die for,
there before his shining eyes. There
was a look on his handsome face
that she had only dreamed of see
ing. He took her hands and held
them on his own breast. Mother of
all the world he said softly, u feel
as if / had never seen the real you
until tonight"
To all girls every soldier is hero,
but 10 Mary, this young captain had
been her hero long before he donned
the khaki. She felt that she could
not speak 10 him without betraying
| herself and ii was only when he had
taken the wheel Of her smart run
about and was guiding the car in a
direction opposite to the road lead
ing 10 the club house that she found
her voice. Did Lorena send you
for me?" she stammered.
He slowed down the car at that
and put his hand down hard on her
cold. trembling little hands that
were clutched together as if for sup
port Il came because / could not
stay away" he said briefly. when
| asked about you and the girls
laughinsly said that you preferred
Red Cross work to dancing with me
and / heard the story of how you
lived up To, your high ideals. 1 SEEM
ed TO remember suddenly every
word you had ever said to me, every
gesture Of yours, every glance Of,
YOUR blue eyes. / knew then in a
flash why it was that after 1 met
you 1 didn't make love TO girls any
more. Always it has been you and
l didn't knOw-until tonight" He
stopped the car on a high hill and
bent over Mary. Even though you
are sheltered and shielded from the
mad Huns, yet you, too, have caught
the far vision OF service, of brother
hood, of love that is God" He put
his arm around her and almost rev.
erently Graded her head in the lit
tie hollow of his shoulder. Little
mother of all the world" he whis-
pered, Il want you for my very
own, my sweetheart, my wife" and
then as he read his fate in her an
swering lips, ne questioned in
amazed fashion, "You-yOu love
me, Mary?"
Always think"
viii you marry me and go to
camp with me-tCmOrrow?
She did not answer that, only
grasped his arm with her little hand
\ and pressed il gently
The war is teaching US to find
each other" he said. kissing her,
and TO learn to understand our own
| hnar-fc