Dick was good looking and agreeable, these were obvious facts. Moreover, he had shown splendid grit and courage in his work for the poor and wounded in the present war. However, it was not until after their holiday visit together in Paris that Nona had reason to believe Dick desired her intimate friendship.
She had already left Paris and was living at the little farmhouse in southern France when he wrote begging her to tell him the details of their life together which his sister, Mildred, might forget.
The request had struck Nona as surprising. Why had he not made the suggestion to Barbara Meade rather than to her? He and Barbara had quarreled now and then before the trip to Paris and while there, but in spite of this seemed to find each other's society more than ordinarily agreeable.
Moreover, Dick probably owed his life to Barbara. Had she not rescued him from the bursting shell near their base hospital, or Dick must have carried more than a useless arm as a record of his adventure.
Nevertheless, if Dick and Barbara had chosen for reasons of their own to be less intimate, Nona could scarcely ask questions. Neither did she see how she could refuse to write to Dick Thornton if he really wished it, since her letters were merely to keep him in closer touch with the four American Red Cross girls.
Dick wrote delightful letters and so did Nona. Besides, these were days when, in spite of its tragedies, life was brimming over with interests. The letters grew more frequent, more intimate, and finally Dick spoke of his coming to Belgium. But he proposed that his coming be kept a secret until the last moment, for there might be circumstances that would interfere.
Since his arrival Nona had been frequently in his society. The fact that Mildred was partly responsible for this, she did not realize. She only knew that Barbara had persistently refused to join them in leisure hours. Therefore she and Dick and Mildred were of necessity more often together; Eugenia was entirely out of the situation. The fact that Mildred purposely left her alone in her brother's society, Nona never considered. Whenever this had occurred, she simply regarded the circumstance as an accident.
But Nona naturally felt a closer bond between herself and Dick since her confession of her own problem. Moreover, she had taken his advice and sent a letter to her family lawyer in Charleston. In this letter she demanded to be told everything that was known or could be found out in connection with her mother's history. But although a number of weeks had passed her letter had remained unanswered.