Page:Ruth of the U.S.A. (IA ruthofusa00balm).pdf/78

 even better than those who had decided earlier what it was going to mean. For the war was different then from what it was at first; the Russia of the Czar and of the empire was gone; and in France and in England there was a difference, too. Oh, I don't know how to say it; just France, at first, was fighting as France and for France against Germany; and England, for England, was doing the same. And America couldn't do that—I mean fight for America; she couldn't join with allies who were fighting for themselves or even for one another. The side of the allies had to become more than that before we could go in; and it is and we're in! Oh, I don't know how or when it will appear; but I know—know that before long you will be prouder to be an American than you ever dreamed you could be if we had gone in like the others when you thought we should."

She had been gazing at him and, for a few moments, he had been staring in bewilderment at her; but now he was turned away and she could see from the set of his lips, from the pulse throbbing below his temple as the muscles of his face pulled taut, how she had offended him.

"Thank you," he said to her shortly.

"I've hurt you!"

"Didn't you mean to?"

"Not this way."

"You told what you thought; I asked to know it. How do you happen to be here, Miss Gail?" he asked with sudden directness after a pause.

Ruth recollected swiftly Cynthia Gail's connections through Hubert Lennon's aunt with Mrs. Corliss and she related them to Gerry Hull, perforce; and this unavoidable