"That would be a nice mess, wouldn't it?" Gertrude suggested. "Remember how frank we were with her about his probable lack of judgment, Margaret? I don't covet the sweet job of breaking it to either one of them." Nevertheless she assisted Margaret to break it to them both late that same afternoon at Beulah's apartment. "I'll find her," Peter said briefly. And in response to the halting explanation of her disappearance that Margaret and Gertrude had done their best to try to make plausible, despite its elliptical nature, he only said, "I don't see that it makes any difference why she's gone. She's gone, that's the thing that's important. No matter how hard we try we can't really figure out her reason till we find her." "Are you sure it's going to be so easy?" Gertrude asked. "I mean--finding her. She's a pretty determined little person when she makes up her mind. Eleanor's threats are to be taken seriously. She always makes good on them." "I'll find her if she's anywhere in the world," Peter said. "I'll find her and bring her back." Margaret put out her hand to him. "I believe that you will," she said. "Find out the reason that she went away, too, Peter." Beulah pulled Gertrude aside. "It wasn't Peter, was it?" she asked piteously. "She had some one else on her mind, hadn't she?" "She had something else on her mind," Gertrude answered gravely, "but she had Peter on her mind, too." "She didn't--she couldn't have known about us--Peter and me. We--we haven't told any one." "She guessed it, Beulah. She couldn't bear it. Nobody's to blame. It's just one of God's most satirical mix-ups." "I was to blame," Beulah said slowly. "I don't believe in shifting responsibility. I got her here in the first place and I've been instrumental in guiding her life ever since. Now, I've sacrificed her to my own happiness." "It isn't so simple as that," Gertrude said; "the things we start going soon pass out of our hands. Somebody a good deal higher up has been directing Eleanor's affairs for a long time,--and ours too, for that matter." "Don't worry, Beulah," Peter said, making his way to her side from the other corner of the room where he had been talking to Margaret. "You mustn't let this worry you. We've all got to be--soldiers now,--but we'll soon have her back again, I promise you." "And I promise you," Beulah said chokingly, "that if you'll get her back again, I--I will be a soldier." * * * * *