current of his desire. The older man was sitting
in his library when Travers entered, and Helen Travers was in the deep
window opening to the little garden space behind the house.

Time had dealt so gently with Helen that now, in her thin white gown, she
looked even younger than in the Kenmore days, when her dress had been
more severe.

"You're late," said Ledyard, looking keenly at him.

"Very late," echoed Helen, smiling. "I had dinner here and am waiting to
be escorted home."

"She's refused my company. Where have you been, Dick?"

"I had to give out the diplomas, you know, at St. Albans."

"It's after eleven now, Dickie." Helen's gaze was full of gentle pride.

"I stopped for an hour to see those little girls play."

"The nurses?" Ledyard frowned. "Girls and nurses are not one and the same
thing, to a doctor."

"Oh, come, come, dear friend!" Helen Travers went close to the two who
were dearest to her in the world. "Do not be unmerciful. Being a woman,
I must stand up for my sex. Did they play prettily, Dick? I'm sure they
did not look as dear as they do in their uniforms."

"One did. She was--well, to put it concisely, she was a--dance!"

"Umph! That ruddy-headed one, I bet!" Ledyard turned on another electric
light. "See here, Dick, do you think that girl could go abroad with
Gordon Moffatt's daughter? Moffatt spoke about her. She rather impressed
him while he was in St. Albans. She stood up against him. He never
forgets that sort; he swears at it, but he trusts it. The old housekeeper
is going along to keep the party in order, but a trained hand ought to
go, too. The Moffatt girl has the new microbe--Unrest. It's playing the
devil with her nerves. She's got to be jogged into shape."

"I think we could prevail upon Miss Glynn to go. She has her way to make.
She's been rather----" Travers stopped short; he was quoting Mrs. Thomas
too minutely.

"Rather what, Dick?" Helen had her head against her boy's shoulder.

"Hunting a job," he lied manfully. "Most of those girls are up against it
once the training is over."

"And Dick," Helen raised her eyes, "Doctor Ledyard and I were talking
of a trip abroad this summer for--ourselves. Will you come? We want the
off-the-track places. Little by-products, you know. I'm hungry for--well,
for detachment; but with those I love."

"Just the thing, little mother, just the thing!" The In-Place faded from
sight. In its stead rose a lonely mountain peak that caught th