"Why--I--!" he began uncertainly.
"Oh, I thought you couldn't stand that test! That would be too much
bother--You would rather--!"
"No, Wait! I didn't say I wouldn't. Here! I'll go if you'll go with me
and show me what you mean and what you want done. Come. I'll take you
at your word. If you really want all those things come on and show me
just what to do. I'm game. I'll do it. I'll do it whether it needs
doing or not, just for you. Will you take me up?"
"Of course" said Lynn quickly, "I'll go with you and show you. I expect
to be in New York next month helping at the Salvation Home while one of
their workers is away on her vacation. I'll show you all over the
district as many times as you need to go, if it's not too hot for you
to come back to the city so early."
He looked at her sharply. There was a covert sneer in her last words
that angered him, and he was half inclined to refuse the whole thing,
but somehow there was something in this strange new type of girl that
fascinated him. Now that she had the university, and the war, and the
world, for a background she puzzled and fascinated him more than ever.
Half surprised at his own interest he bowed with a new kind of dignity
over his habitual light manner: "I shall be delighted, Miss Severn. It will not be too hot for me if it
is not too hot for you. I shall be at your service, and I hope you will
discover that there is one officer who knows how to obey."
She looked at him half surprised, half troubled and then answered
simply: "Thank you. I'm afraid I've done you an injustice. I'm afraid I didn't
think you would be game enough to do it. I hope I haven't been too
rude. But you see I feel deeply about it and sometimes I forget
myself?"
"I am sure I deserve all you have said," said Laurie as gravely as his
light nature could manage, "but there is one thing that puzzles me
deeply. I wish you would enlighten me. All this won't do you any
good. It isn't for you at all. Why do you care?"
Marilyn brought her lovely eyes to dwell on his face for a moment
thoughtfully, a shy beautiful tenderness softening every line of her
eager young face: "It's because--" she began diffidently, "It's because they all are
God's children--and I love Him better than anything else in
life!"