Page:Ruth of the U.S.A. (IA ruthofusa00balm).pdf/373

 to speak. "We'll not arrive anywhere except by sticking to facts; we're friends; may we ever be!"

"O, we will be, Hubert!"

"Then it is better that I've told you I love you."

"But you mustn't!"

"I can't control that, Miss Alden."

"Mayn't I be Ruth even now?"

"Ruth, then; yes, I like that. Good night, Ruth."

"You must go? But tomorrow you'll"

"Tomorrow no one knows where any one'll be. But it's been great to see you again."

"And you, Hubert! Good night; good luck, and—thank you again a thousand times."

He went; and on the morrow, as everyone knows, the American First Army went "over the top," and at night the St. Mihiel salient, which had stuck like a Titanic thorn in the flank of France for four years, was wiped out; the American guns in the next days engaged the guns of the outer fortresses of Metz.

In the stream of casualties, which was the American cost of the victory, Hubert was swept to the rear. Ruth read his name cited in the orders of a certain day for extraordinary coolness and devotion in caring for the wounded under fire. He himself was wounded again severely, and Ruth tried to visit him at the hospital to which he was sent; but she was able only to learn that he was convalescing and had been transferred to the south of France.

She read, a little later, another familiar name—Sam Hilton. There might be other Sam Hiltons in the army; on the other hand, she was familiar enough with the