“Yes, he can, but there are people whom he loves whom he hates to leave—more than that whom he wants to stay and protect. It is as if his whole future were at stake—not only his but theirs, and he can’t seem to see his way clear.”
“Are they old and dependent on him for support, these people?”
“No, but he wants them to become dependent on him and how can that be if he goes away?”
“If they love him,” the girl said emphatically, “they will not stand in his way.”
“But he does not know that they love him or that they will ever love him. He only knows that he loves them and—oh! Miss Dale,” sweeping aside this strangely complicated case, “if you had a brother in times like these, what would you do?”
“Do?” she cried; “why, I’d help him off to the front without a moment’s hesitation! Julie and I would be the proudest girls in the world if we had a brother to go to the war! If Daddy were well he would go—there never was a finer officer than Daddy. Oh! Mr. Landor, you know us so little that you’ve no idea how strongly we feel about these things. We’ve tried in our own small way, Julie and I, to be soldiers ourselves and we think no sacrifice too great to make for one another and for our country.” In her earnestness she had forgotten the man beside her, the friend and everything save the inspiration of those principles which were as the very air she breathed.
He made no reply, fearing to break the spell and startle her back into her old elusiveness. This revelation of her inner self was very precious to him.
Presently she said: “Perhaps I know a little how your friend feels, because I have always thought if ever I lived in war times I should go as a nurse, but now I could not consider such a thing.”
“You? You are too young,” he gasped, never dreaming of this possibility.
“No, I am not too young, but Julie could not carry on our business and take care of Daddy, too, all alone, and my duty is here.”