just dropped over because Jake's went
out to some kind of meetin'."

"With whom? Where?"

"Oh, some of the workmen--a lot of soreheads lookin' for more wages."

Mamise was indignant: "The soldiers get thirty dollars a month on a
twenty-four-hour, seven-day shift. Jake gets more than that a week for
loafing round the shop about seven hours a day. How on earth did you
ever tie yourself up to such a rotten bounder?"

Abbie longed for a hot retort, but was merely peevish:

"Well, I ain't seen you marryin' anything better. I guess I'll go
home. I don't seem to be wanted here."

This was one of those exact truths that decent people must immediately
deny. Mamise put her arms about Abbie and said:

"Forgive me, dear--I'm a beast. But Jake is such a--" She felt Abbie
wriggling ominously and changed to: "He's so unworthy of you. These
are such terrible times, and the world is in such horrible need of
everybody's help and especially of ships. It breaks my heart to see
anybody wasting his time and strength interfering with the builders
instead of joining them. It's like interfering with the soldiers.
It's a kind of treason. And besides, he does so little for you and the
children."

This last Abbie was willing to admit. She shed a few tears of
self-esteem, but she simply could not rise to the heights of suffering
for anything as abstract as a cause or a nation or a world. She was
like so many of the air-ships the United States was building then: she
could not be induced to leave the ground or, if she got up, to glide
back safely.

She tried now to love her country, but she hardly rose before she
fell.

"Oh, I know it's tur'ble what folks are sufferin', but--well, the
Lord's will be done, I say."

"And I say it's mainly the devil's will that's being done!" said
Mamise.

This terrified Abbie. "I wisht you'd be a little careful of your
language, Mamise. Swearin' and cigarettes both is pretty much of a
load for a lady to git by with."

"O Lord!" sighed Mamise, in despair. She was capable of long, high
flights, but she could not carry such a passenger.

Abbie continued: "And do you think it's right, seein' men here all by
yourself?"

"I'm not seeing men--but a man."

"But all by yourself."

"I'm not all by myself when he's here."

"You'll get the neighbors talkin'--you'll see!"

"A lot I care for their talk!"

"Why don't you marry him and settle down respectable and have childern
and--"

"Why don't you go