There were lights in the long pleasant room, and people. Two soldiers with their girls were eating ice cream at the little tables, and around the piano a group of officers and their wives was gathered singing ragtime. Ruth's quick glance told her they were not the kind she cared for, and--how could people who were about to part, perhaps forever, stand there and sing such abominable nonsense! Yet--perhaps it was their way of being brave to the last. But she wished they would go. The sweet-faced woman of the morning was busy behind the counter and presently she saw them and came forward: "I'm sorry! I hoped there would be a room, but that woman from Boston came. I can only give you cots out here, if you don't mind." Mrs. Cameron looked around in a half-frightened manner, but Ruth smiled airily and said that would be all right. They settled down in the corner between the writing table and book case and began to read, for it was obvious that they could not retire at present. The little boys came running through and the officers corralled them and clamored for them to sing. Without any coaxing they stood up together and sang, and their voices were sweet as birds as they piped out the words of a popular song, one singing alto, the little one taking the high soprano. Ruth put down her book and listened, wondering at the lovely expressions on the two small faces. They made her think of the baby-seraphs in Michael Angelo's pictures. Presently they burst into a religious song with as much gusto as they had sung the ragtime. They were utterly without self-consciousness, and sang with the fervor of a preacher. Yet they were regular boys, for presently when they were released they went to turning hand springs and had a rough and tumble scuffle in the corner till their mother called them to order. In a few minutes more the noisy officers and their wives parted, the men striding off into the night with a last word about the possibility of unexpected orders coming, and a promise to wink a flash light out of the car window as the troop train went by in case they went out that night. The wives went into one of the little stall-rooms and compared notes about their own feelings and the probability of the ----Nth Division leaving before Monday. Then the head of the house appeared with a Bible under his arm humming a hymn. He cast a keen pleasant glance at the two strangers in the corner, and gave a cheery word to his wife in answer to her question: "Yes, we had a great meeting to-night. A hundred and twenty men raised their hands as wanting to decide for Christ, and two came forward to be prayed for. It was a blessed time. I wish the boys had been over there to sing. The meeting was in the big Y.M.C.A. auditorium. Has Captain Hawley gone yet?" "Not yet." His wife's voice was lowered. She motioned toward one of the eight gray doors, and her husband nodded sadly. "He goes at midnight, you know. Poor little woman!"