over. I like him but I'm afraid he's cynical, and it worries
me.

There are other things, too, to dim the blue these days. War clouds are
threatening. U-boats of Germany are sinking our vessels. Where will it
all end?

_April 7._

War has been declared. America is in it at last. I came home to-day
feeling disheartened and sad. War was the topic everywhere I went.
Papers, bulletin-boards flaunted the words, "The world must be made safe
for democracy." People on the streets and in cars spoke about it,
newsboys yelled till they were hoarse.

I stopped to see Virginia but she was out. Royal said he'd entertain me
till she returned. He laughed at my tragic weariness about the war.

"I'll tell you, Bluebird," he whispered as he sat beside me, "we'll talk
of something better. I love you."

The fire in his eyes frightened me. I couldn't look at him. "Why do you
say such things?" I asked, and I couldn't keep my voice from trembling.

That didn't hush him--he said some more. He told me how he loves me, how
he waited for me all his life and wants me with him. He quoted the verse
I like so much, "Thou beside me singing in the wilderness--O wilderness
were Paradise enow!" Then he asked me frankly if I loved him.

I couldn't answer right away. Now that the thing I had dreamed of was
actually happening I was dazed and stupid and sat like a bump-on-a-log.

He asked me again and before I knew what he was doing he had taken me
into his arms and kissed me. "Say you love me," he pleaded.

I said what he wanted to hear and he kissed me again. We were both very
happy. It is almost too wonderful to believe!

A few minutes later we heard Virginia enter the hall and we came back to
earth. I know my cheeks still burned but Royal's ready poise served him
well. He told his cousin he had been trying to make me forget about the
war.

Virginia probably thought my excitement was due to the war. She began at
once to speak about it. "America is in it and we can't forget it. Every
true American must help."

"Do your bit, knit," chanted the musician.

She asked him if he is going to do his bit. He flushed and looked vexed,
then explained that he can neither knit nor fight, that he is a
musician.

Virginia argued that if he could play a violin he could learn to play a
bugle, that many of the men who will fight for the flag are men who have
never been taught to fight. She spoke