to France
with me. Still you have been very successful and perhaps may wish to
keep on with nursing as a profession after we return home?"

A little sound that was neither assent nor refusal followed.

Then Thea Thompson shook her head. "Let's don't discuss either the past
or the future just now, Ruth. Thank heaven the present is sufficient!
I've an idea that once our soldiers reach the Rhine and settle down they
will be needing entertainment as much as they will need nursing.
Personally I intend to have a little relief from this long strain and
have as good a time as possible. Oh, don't look so shocked, Ruth. I
don't intend to do anything especially wicked, play a little perhaps and
be a little frivolous. You and I are certainly contrasts as Kentucky
girls! You know there may be a chance we may run across a little
princess somewhere in hiding and that she may fall in love with one of
our American soldiers. American soldiers are greater than kings these
days, and princesses are in need of protection. So perhaps I may be a
looker-on at some one else's romance and not have one of my own. I
have been a looker-on at many things I have wished for myself before
today, Ruth, as you know. But please let us hurry. I promised Mrs. Clark
we would not stay away from the hospital but a short time and I wish to
keep my word. She does not like me particularly, or at least I seem to
puzzle her."

Ruth Carroll shook her head. The girl beside her had not had a happy
childhood or young girlhood, so perhaps it was natural that she should
wish, as she expressed it, "just to have a good time."

"You puzzle a good many people, Thea, including me and sometimes you
even puzzle yourself. But you know I have always believed the good would
win in the end. Don't spoil your nursing record. We are very fortunate
to have been chosen to form a part of the Red Cross unit to follow the
army."

At this moment the grey November clouds parted and a pale rose appeared
in the sky.

The two girls were reaching the neighborhood of their Red Cross
hospital. Drawn up nearby were half a dozen Red Cross ambulances, an
equal number of closed cars and several large trucks for carrying
medical supplies.

Moving about and directing the hospital orderlies was Dr. David Clark,
the surgeon in command of the hospital. He had been ordered to take
charge of the Red Cross unit, who were to follow the division of
American troops from the neighborhood of Chateau-Thierr