Page:The Star in the Window.pdf/308

298 couldn't tell Rebecca that he had made himself more fit for her, without seeming to suggest his return, and she must be the one to suggest that.

"It doesn't seem a bit fair to her, to let her go on thinking of you as so different, Nathan dear, from what you really are."

Nathan smiled.

"Was I pretty awful?"

"Not really—just the outside. You were just the same pure gold underneath, only—oh, Nathan, do let her know about you. Please write and tell her, and then let me ask her to come out here for a little visit, as I've wanted to so long."

Nathan shook his head.

"You're good to me, Mrs. Barton, but no," he said. "You see, my four years aren't up till June. Besides, I'm planning to take those college examinations first. No, I'd rather wait until next summer, if you please, Mrs. Barton."

Mrs. Barton shrugged. "Do as you please. Do as you please. But if I were in your place, Nathan, I wouldn't put a thing off until next summer that I could do now. No, sir, I wouldn't—with all this talk about the United States going into the war."

Nathan was glad of any excuse to change the subject. He laughed with relief.

"And I, just the proper fighting age, too!" he said lightly.

"Oh, don't laugh, Nathan," the little white lady shuddered. "It's too real, and too near to laugh about. It may enter our lives before we know it, and muddle things all up for us, the way it has for the people on the other side—for me, and for Robert, and for you,