Other people paused and passed in or were rejected. Kedzie watched Mr. Cheever with new interest, but not much understanding. He had next to nothing to say. After a time she overheard Zada say to him, raising her voice to top the noise of the band: “Say, Peterkin, see that great big lad over there, the human lighthouse by the sea? Peterkin, you can't miss him--he's just standing up--yes--isn't that Jim Dyckman? Is he really so rich as they say?” “He's rotten rich!” said Peterkin. Then Zada said something and pointed. She seemed to be excited, but not half so excited as Peter was. His face was all shot up with red, and he looked as if he had eaten something that didn't sit easy. Then he looked as if he wanted to fight somebody. He began to chew on his words. Kedzie caught only a few phrases in the holes in the noisy music. “When did she get back? And she's here with him? I'll kill him--” Kedzie stood on tiptoe, primevally trying to lift her ears higher still to hear what followed. She saw Zada putting her hand on Peter's sleeve, and she heard Zada say: “Don't start anything here. Remember I got a reputation to lose, if you haven't.” This had the oddest effect on Peter. He stared at Zada, and his anger ran out of his face just as the water ran out of the silver washbowl in the sleeping-car. Then he began to laugh softly, but as if he wanted to laugh right out loud. He put his napkin up and laughed into that. And then the anger he had lost ran up into Zada's face, and she looked at Peter as if she wanted to kill him. Now it was Peter who put his hand on her arm and patted it and said, “I didn't mean anything.” Mean what? Kedzie wondered. But she had no chance to find out, for Peter rose from the table and, dodging around the dancing couples, made his escape. He reappeared in the very nook where Kedzie watched, and called up to Zada: “Did they see me?” Zada shook her head. Peter threw her a kiss. She threw him a shrug of contempt. Peter went away laughing. Kedzie waited a few minutes and saw that Mr. Devoe had come to sit with Zada. After a moment the music was resumed, and Zada rose to dance again with Mr. Devoe--a curious sort of dance, in which she lifted her feet high and placed them carefully, as if she were walking on a floor covered with eggs and didn't want to break any. But Kedzie's eyes were filling with sand. They had gazed too long at brilliance. She dashed back to the elevator and to her room. She was exhausted, and she pulled off her clothes and let them lie where they fell. She slid her weary frame between the sheets and instantly slept. * * * * * Charity Coe danced till all hours with Jim, with Tom Duane and other men, and no one could have fancied that she had ever known or cared what horrors filled the war hospitals across the sea.