"I'm off to the war--to the war I must go, To fight for my country and you, dear; But if I should fall, in vain I would call The blessing of my country and you, dear--" All their eyes were wet then, even Wally's--moved by the sadness of his own song. Aunt Patty, Aunt Cordelia and Helen wiped their tears away unashamed, but Mary tried to hide hers. And when the time came for his departure, Aunt Cordelia kissed him and breathed in his ear a prayer, and Aunt Patty kissed him and prayed for him, and Helen kissed him, too, her arms tight around his neck. But when it came to Mary's turn, she looked troubled and gazed down at her hand which he was holding in both of his. "Come on out for a minute," he whispered, gently leading her. They went out under the moon. "Aren't you going to kiss me, too?" he asked. Mary thought it over. "If I kissed you, I would love you," she said, and tried to hide her tears no more. He soothed her then in the immemorial manner, and soon she was tranquil again. "Good-bye, Wally," she said. "Good-bye, dear. You'll promise to be here when I come back?" "I shall be here." "And you won't let anybody run away with you until I've had another chance?" "Don't worry." She watched the light of his car diminish until it vanished over the crest of the hill. A gathering sense of loneliness began to assail her, but with it was a feeling of freedom and purpose--the feeling that she was being left alone, clear of distraction, to fight her own fight and achieve her own destiny. Archey Forbes was the next to go. His going marked a curious incident. He had applied for a commission in the engineers, and his record and training being good, it wasn't long before he received the beckoning summons of Mars. Upon the morning of the day when he was to leave New Bethel, he went to the factory to say good-bye. The one he wished to see the most, however, was the first one he missed. "Miss Mary's around the factory somewhere," said a stenographer. Another spoke up, a dark girl with a touch of passion in her smile. "I think Mr. Burdon is looking for her, too." Archey missed neither the smile nor the tone--and liked neither of them. "He'll get in trouble yet," he thought, "going out with those girls," and his frown grew as he thought of Burdon's daily contact with Mary. "I'll see if I can find her," he told himself after he had waited a few minutes; and stepping out into the full beauty of the June morning, he crossed the lawn toward the factory buildings. On one of the trees a robin sang and watched him with its head atilt. A bee hummed past him and settled on a trellis of roses. In the distance murmured the falls, with their soothing, drowsy note.