“What was the fuss about?” asked Zaidos. He was intensely interested. He had never been so close to a real love affair before. Of course he had met a girl at one of the hops; the one he gave the collar emblem to. Zaidos couldn’t think of her name, but he remembered that he had been pretty hard hit. He knew she was a pretty girl; funny he couldn’t think of her name! It occurred to Zaidos that a fellow ought to know a girl’s name anyhow if he was crazy over her. And he had been quite crazy over her for a whole evening. Had it bad! Anyhow, he was sure she was a blonde. That was proof that he remembered and suffered! But Helen was speaking.
“I hate to tell you,” she said. “It seems so trivial now.”
“Well, let’s hear about it,” said Zaidos. “Perhaps we can get hold of the chap and fix things up.”
“Not now,” said Helen sadly. “It is too late. There always comes a time when it is too late, John. Don’t forget that. I have found it out.”
She paused again, and Zaidos was afraid she was never going on, but finally she took up her story.
“There is actually nothing to it. It commenced with the color of a dress I wore. Tony said it was the most unbecoming thing I had ever had on. I had just been visiting a friend in London, a very advanced girl, and she had been telling me what a mistake it was when one gave up to the prejudices of a man. She said do it once and you would do it always. So when Tony said quite calmly, ‘Do please throw the thing away, or burn it up,’ I thought I ought to take a firm stand. I said, ‘I shall do neither. This is a perfectly new dress, and I mean to wear it all summer.’ Tony laughed. He said, ‘Well, I’m blessed if I take any leave until winter then!’ Of course he was joking, and a girl with the least common sense would have known it; but I retorted, ‘That is an excellent plan!’ He said, ‘Why, Helen, you don’t mean that, do you?’ and I said I certainly did. We parted rather stiffly. It was his last evening at home, and I had put on the frock in honor of it. He wrote as soon as he reached London, and referred to the dress again. He said such trivial things should never be permitted to come between two people who loved each other. I returned that it was not trivial, but a matter of principle, which I should support. John, it actually parted us. Actually parted us! Just think of it!”
“Well, I never heard such bosh!” Zaidos said. “Why didn’t you write and tell him it was perfect nonsense, and that you were sorry?”
“That is the worst of it,” said Helen. “I did just that, and told him how I loved him, and that it didn’t matter what I wore, so long as he liked it. Oh, I said everything, John, that a silly and repentant and loving girl could say, and sent the letter to his quarters in London. I even put my return address on the envelope.”
“What did he say?” said Zaidos.
“Not a word!” said Helen sadly. “Not one word! I waited for two weeks, and then he was ordered to the front. Still he did not write. I sent him back his ring; it was all I could do, and left home for awhile. He came down for a day, but did not come to our house. Not a very exciting affair is it, John?”