“Well, good-night, I’ll leave you to your final talk, not because I desire it, but because I seem to be under orders,” Mrs. Burton protested, rising from her usual position in the center of the circle. A few feet away Mrs. Graham stood waiting for her, and a moment later they had disappeared arm in arm. Afterwards there was a short silence broken at last by Sally Ashton. “I wonder why our own Camp Fire club has never produced so devoted a friendship as Tante and Aunt Betty have enjoyed so many years.” “Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, And in their death they were not divided; They were swifter than eagles, They were stronger than lions.” “Forgive my quoting,” Bettina Graham murmured, “but as we were to talk of friendship to-night after our regular meeting, those lines have been in my mind all day. I like Vera’s idea that we choose a subject of conversation at our Camp Fire meetings, once the actual business is over.” At this instant Vera Lageroff was glancing out the window; purposely the blinds had been left up so as not to shut out the beauty of the night. She turned now and looked from one girl to the other. “Is it true what Sally has just said?” she inquired. “Have we no friendships in our own Camp Fire circle as deep and ardent and with the promise of continuing as Mrs. Burton’s and Mrs. Graham’s has for so many years?” “Oh, Sally is always making amazing speeches! I thought we were all extremely fond of one another. In fact, Vera, perhaps you and I have more things in common because of our work together in France. I don’t believe I shall ever be so content anywhere else,” Alice Ashton remonstrated. At one of the outermost ends of the semicircle, close up to the fire, Sally was seated. At this moment she wore a frown between her level brows, but not because she objected to her sister’s statement, which she scarcely had heard, but because she was pursuing her own idea and her mind did not work swiftly. “Oh, of course I know we are friends after a fashion,” Sally returned, “but I suppose I was thinking of the David and Jonathan kind of friendship, something big and wonderful and everlasting. I know I have never had anything approaching a great intimacy with any one of you girls in the years we have been together in our Camp Fire club. Gerry and I were extremely friendly, nothing more. After she married Felix we soon ceased even writing to each other.” A moment Sally leaned her chin in her hand. “In spite of our Sunrise Camp Fire, I believe I have been more intimate with Dan Webster, and he has been a closer, warmer friend to me than any one of you girls. Yet I have not seen much of him since I was a small girl, save the summer in California and for a little while in Paris after the close of the war.”