the presence of a hard-bitten
corporal and his little army of four men; nor so much more by the
advent of Annie Squires; neither was it proved by the new buildings
that had risen so quickly; nor by the appearance of new equipment. It
was not so much in the material as in the intangible things of life
that greatest change had come.

Karen Jensen smiled now as she talked with her new friend, Annie
Squires. Even Mary Gage, for some reason, had ceased to weep. But the
main miracle was in the instance of Sim Gage himself.

Perhaps it was the hat which did it, with its brave cord of green,
humblest of all the insignia of those who stand at the threshold of the
Army. To Sim's vague soul it carried a purpose in life, knowledge that
there was such a thing as service in the world. Daily his face now was
new-reaped, his hands made clean. He imitated the erectness and
alertness of these young soldiers whom he saw, learned the jerk of the
elbow in their smart salute. Enriched by a pair of cast-off breeches,
and the worn leggins thereto, he rode now with both feet in the
stirrups and looked square between his horse's ears. Strong as are
many lazy men, not cowardly, and therefore like many timid men, he rode
straight, with his campaign hat a trifle at one side, like to the
fashion of these others.

And he wished that She might see him now, in his new uniform. He
wondered if she knew how much larger and more important a man he was
now. Into the pleached garden of his life came a new vision of the
procession of the days; and he was no longer content. He saw the
vision of a world holding the cares and duties of a man.

That this revolution had come to pass was by reason of the presence of
this blind woman who walked tap-tapping, led by a little dog; a blind
woman who for some reason had begun to smile again.

As for Doctor Barnes, he had been the actual agent, to be sure. This
new order of things was the product of his affirmative and initiating
mind. Mary Gage, consciously or unconsciously, within a few weeks,
learned his step as surely as his voice, could have told you which was
his car had a dozen come into the yard at the same time. Therefore, on
this certain morning, she knew his voice, when, after stopping his car
in the dooryard, he called out to the men before he approached the door
of her own home. It was then that Mary Gage did something which she
never yet had done when she had heard the step and voice of h