rden party."

I reprimanded him for this, as I had found no evidence of any jealousy
between the two great welfare organizations. But when I persisted in
advancing he said: "Well, you might as well know it. She's there. I saw
her through a window."

"What has that got to do with my getting a bottle of vanilla extract
there if they have one?"

"Oh, she'll have one probably; she uses it for fudge! I'm not going
there, and that's flat."

"I thought you had forgotten her."

"I have!" he said savagely. "The way you forget the toothache. But I
don't go round boring a hole in a tooth to get it again. Look here, Miss
Lizzie, do you know what she was doing when I saw her? She was dropping
six lumps of sugar into a cup of something for that--that parent she's
gone bugs about."

"That's what she's here for."

"Oh, it is, is it?" he snarled. "Well, she wasn't doing it for the
fellow with a cauliflower ear who was standing beside him. There was a
line of about twenty fellows there putting in their own sugar, all
right."

"I'll tell you this, Mr. Burton," I said in a serious tone, "sometimes I
think things are just as well as they are. You haven't a disposition for
marriage. I don't believe you'll make her happy, even if you do get
her."

"Oh, I'll not get her," he retorted roughly. "As a matter of fact, I
don't want her. I'm cured. I'm as cured as a ham. She can feed sugar to
the whole blamed Army, as far as I'm concerned. And after that she can
go home and feed sugar to his five kids, and give 'em colic and sit up
at night and----"

I left him still muttering and went into the Y hut. Hilda gave a little
scream of joy when she saw me and ran round the counter, which was a
plank on two barrels, and kissed me. I must say she was a nice little
thing.

"Isn't France small after all?" she demanded. "And do you know I've seen
your nephew--or is it Miss Tish's? He's just too dear! We had a long
talk here only a day or two ago, and I was telling about you three, and
suddenly he said: 'Wait a minute. You've mentioned no names, but I'll
bet my tin hat my Aunt Tish was one of them!' Isn't that amazing?"

Well, I thought it was, and I took a cup of her coffee. But it was poor
stuff, and right then and there I made a kettleful and showed her how.
But I noticed she grew rather quiet after a while.

At last she said: "You--I don't suppose you've seen that Mr. Burton
anywhere, have you?"

"We saw something of him in Paris," I re