ghts of these past months were finding an outlet at last. These
things which she had never been able to discuss with her mother she now
was laying bare to Angie Hatton and Old Man Hatton! They asked no
questions. They seemed to understand. Once Old Man Hatton interrupted
with: "So that's the kind of fellow they've got as escapement-room
foreman, eh?"

Tessie, whose mind was working very clearly now, put out a quick hand.
"Say, it wasn't his fault. He's a bum, all right, but I knew it, didn't
I? It was me. I didn't care. Seemed to me it didn't make no difference
who I went with, but it does." She looked down at her hands clasped so
tightly in her lap.

"Yes, it makes a whole lot of difference," Angie agreed, and looked up
at her father.

At that Tessie blurted her last desperate problem: "He's learnin' all
kind of new things. Me, I ain't learnin' anything. When Chuck comes home
he'll just think I'm dumb, that's all. He...."

"What kind of thing would you like to learn, Tessie, so that when Chuck
comes home...."

Tessie looked up then, her wide mouth quivering with eagerness. "I'd
like to learn to swim--and row a boat--and play ball--like the rich
girls--like the girls that's makin' such a fuss over the soldiers."

Angie Hatton was not laughing. So, after a moment's hesitation, Tessie
brought out the worst of it. "And French. I'd like to learn to talk
French."

Old Man Hatton had been surveying his shoes, his mouth grim. He looked
at Angie now and smiled a little. "Well, Angie, it looks as if you'd
found your job right here at home, doesn't it? This young lady's just
one of hundreds, I suppose. Hundreds. You can have the whole house for
them, if you want it, Angie, and the grounds, and all the money you
need. I guess we've kind of overlooked the girls. H'm, Angie. What d'you
say?"

But Tessie was not listening. She had scarcely heard. Her face was white
with earnestness.

"C'n you speak French?"

"Yes," Angie answered.

"Well," said Tessie, and gulped once, "well, how do you say in French:
'Give me a piece of bread'? That's what I want to learn first."

Angie Hatton said it correctly.

"That's it! Wait a minute! Say it again, will you?"

Angie said it again.

Tessie wet her lips. Her cheeks were smeared with tears and dirt. Her
hair was wild and her blouse awry. "Donnay-ma-un-morso-doo-pang," she
articulated, painfully. And in that moment, as she put her hand in that
of Chuck Mory, across the ocean, h