They had a few minutes to wait, and Ted ran over to the postoffice to get her mail for her--she was expecting a paper she wanted to read on the train. She tucked what he handed her into her bag and then when she heard the train coming she held on to Ted's arm, held it as if she could not bear letting it go. "It's all right," were her last words to him, smiling through tears. * * * * * She had been trying all along to hold her mind from the thought that they would pass through Freeport. Late the next afternoon, when she knew they were nearing it, she grew restless. It was then she remembered the paper in her bag--she had been in no mood for reading, too charged with her own feeling. She got it out now and found that with the paper was a letter. It was a letter from Deane Franklin. She held it for a little while without opening it. It seemed so strange to have it just as she was nearing Freeport. The letter was dated the week before. It read: "_Dear Ruth:_ "I'm leaving Freeport tonight. I'm going to Europe--to volunteer my services as a doctor. Parker, whom I knew well at Hopkins, is right in the midst of it. He can work me in. And the need for doctors is going to go on for some time, I fancy; it won't end with the war. "I'm happy in this decision, Ruth, and I know you'll be glad for me. It was your letter that got me--made me see myself and hate myself, made me know that I had to 'come out of it.' And then this idea came to me, and I wish I could tell you how different everything seemed as soon as I saw some reason for my existence. I'm ashamed of myself for not having seen it this way before. As if this were any time for a man who's had my training to sit around moping! "Life is bigger than just ourselves. And isn't it curious how seeing that brings us back to ourselves? "I'll enclose Parker's address. You can reach me in care of him. I want to hear from you. "I can hardly wait to get there! "DEANE." * * * * * She managed to read the letter through with eyes only a little dimmed. But by the time she got to Parker's address she could not make it out. "I knew it!" she kept saying to herself triumphantly. Deane had been too big not to save himself. Absorbed in thoughts of him she did not notice the country through which they were passing. She was startled by a jolt of the train, by the conductor saying, "Freeport!"