elieve in the Law of
Love and Service shall have our say every evening that the club is
open----"

"The Reds may come and take a crack at you."

"The Reds are welcome. We wish to face them across the rostrum, not
across a barricade!"

"Well, you dear girl, I can't see how any Red is going to resist you.
And if any does, I'll knock his bally block off----"

"Oh, Jim, you're so vernacularly inclined! And you're very flippant,
too----"

"I'm not really," he said in a lower voice. "Whatever you care about
could not fail to appeal to me."

She gave him a quick, sweet glance, then searched the tea-tray to
reward him.

As she gave him another triangle of cinnamon toast, she remembered
something else. It was on the tip of her tongue, now; and she checked
herself.

_He_ had not spoken of it. Had his mother mentioned meeting her at the
Red Cross? If not--was it merely a natural forgetfulness on his
mother's part? Was her silence significant?

Nibbling pensively at her cinnamon toast, Palla pondered this. But the
girl's mind worked too directly for concealment to come easy.

"I'm wondering," she said, "whether your mother mentioned our meeting
at the Red Cross." And she knew immediately by his expression that he
heard it for the first time.

"I was introduced at our headquarters by Leila Vance," said Palla, in
her even voice; "and your mother and she are acquaintances. That is
how it happened, Jim."

He was still somewhat flushed but he forced a smile: "Did you find my
mother agreeable, Palla?"

"Yes. And she is so beautiful with her young face and pretty white
hair. She always sits between Leila and me while we sew."

"Did you say you knew me?"

"Yes, of course."

"Of course," he repeated, reddening again.

No man ever has successfully divined any motive which any woman
desires to conceal.

Why his mother had not spoken of Palla to him he did not know. He was
aware, of course, that nobody within the circle into which he had been
born would tolerate Palla's social convictions. Had she casually and
candidly revealed a few of them to his mother in the course of the
morning's conversation over their sewing?

He gave Palla a quick look, encountered her slightly amused eyes, and
turned redder than ever.

"You dear boy," she said, smiling, "I don't think your very charming
mother would be interested in knowing me. The informality of
ultra-modern people could not appeal to her generation."

"Did you--talk t