Nathan went on toward home at the end of another ten minutes. Grimly he considered two things to which his mother had given voice, her worst fears about the man who had come down from the upstairs of Nathan’s home in company with Milly and—his mother’s comment after she had forced him to tell her all about the “swell” dinner. “Oh, Natie,” she had cried anxiously, “I do hope you remembered your manners and said ‘please’ and folded your napkin afterwards, like I always tried to teach you at home!” V “Milly,” demanded the husband when he faced his wife in the kitchen half an hour later, “what was Si Plumb doing upstairs with you, when mother called the first of the afternoon?” The girl flashed him a look of defiance. “So! Your mother’s been carryin’ tales, has she? Well, it’s just like her! If you want to know, Mr. Smartie, I sent for Si to come and tighten the faucets in the upstairs bathroom.” Si had long since quit the tannery and become a steam-fitter in the village. But somehow Milly’s explanation sounded thin. “I could have done such a simple job as that,” Nathan observed. “You didn’t need to call Si and run up a plumber’s bill!” “You tighten bathroom faucets? You’re a high-brow, remember! You’re above tightening bathroom faucets these days, Nat Forge!” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER VIII DRIFTING I America was not going to preserve her neutrality and keep from the European shambles much longer. As the days passed and 1917 drew closer, there was less and less doubt about it. The _Lusitania_ tragedy had forecast what might possibly come; the President’s famous note of May 13 had met with general approval. Wilson had received a vote of confidence. He was free to deal with the situation created by the various peace proposals of the winter of 1916-1917. But the negotiations which followed in December and January were obscure at the time and the vital issue by no means clear. Then on the twenty-second of January came the announcement of unrestricted submarine warfare. Declaration of war on April 6 was only a matter of dénouement. When Madelaine came home for the spring vacation, she was hardly in a mood, with the swift and ominous trend of world events moving about her, to consider any advances of a marital tenor from Gordon or any other man. Then one night in late February it came to her how short the space can really be between a blind exasperation and intolerance of anything threatening a fierce desire for complete independence, and a frantic heart-cry after reliance on a man’s strength, the most tender and intimate dependence life had to offer her.