Page:Ruth of the U.S.A. (IA ruthofusa00balm).pdf/369

 events; and the troops who were to go "over the top" at some near hour, and also the support divisions which were to follow, were being kept close to their commands. The canteen where Ruth was working was deserted long before the usual time, and Ruth was busy putting away dishes when someone entered and coughed, apologetically, to attract her attention. She glanced up to see a spare young man in the uniform of an ambulance driver and wearing thick spectacles. His face was in the shadow, with only his glasses glinting light until he took off his cap and said:

"Hello, Miss Alden."

Ruth dropped the dish she was holding. "Hubert! I didn't know how much I've needed to see you!" And she thrust both her hands across the counter and seized his hand and squeezed it.

He flushed ruddy under his brown weather-beatenness, and she held tighter to the hand he was timidly attempting to draw away—still her shy, self-effacing Hubert. By hailing her by her own name, he had informed her at once that he knew all about her; and he had not assumed to replace his former familiar "Cynthia" with "Ruth."

"You—no one's needed me," he denied, more abashed by the warmness of his welcome.

"You frightened me about you at first, Hubert," she scolded him, "when you went away and—except for a couple of postcards—you never sent me a word. Then I heard of you through other people"

"Gerry?"

"Yes; Gerry or Mrs. Mayhew; and I found you were always all right."

He winced, and she reproached herself for not remem-