“Yes,” Nona returned, “but whom do you mean? I know only a few men in camp at all intimately.”
“The man who is suspected is Lieutenant Kelley, Martin’s companion and intimate friend,” Philip Dawson answered dryly, “and the particularly ugly part of it is that there is a girl in the case, or perhaps I should say a woman, since she is married. I mean your friend Mrs. Richard Thornton.”
“That is the most ridiculous statement I ever heard in my life and one of the wickedest,” Nona responded instantly, wondering how she could ever have thought she had any faith in the man beside her and seeing another house of cards come tumbling down.
“As a matter of fact, I agree with you in part,” Philip Dawson answered, perfectly understanding Nona’s attitude, but showing no resentment. “I know nothing of your friend. I think if she is married she has been seeing Lieutenant Kelley too often for his good or hers. Oh, I don’t mean anything, except that they have taken walks together and gone in for this business of arranging entertainment for the soldiers and——. But I really don’t know anything of this at first hand, only what I have heard whispered recently. Nothing has yet been said openly, that is why I am telling you now, Nona. Perhaps you can help your friend, if she deserves your help. My own view is that Lieutenant Hugh Kelley is about as innocent of mischief as I am. He is only a kind of kid, if he is a West Point graduate, and even if he has been neglecting his work a little, he is utterly incapable of treachery. He has been homesick and I suppose he is a bit in love when he knows he has no right to be, which takes the edge off of things. But as for sending news to Germany about the American camp, it is the most preposterous idea I ever heard. No West Pointer was ever a traitor. But goodness, Nona, I did not mean to frighten you; please don’t look so wretched. The thing will have to be cleared up. Lieutenant Martin insists that Kelley had nothing on earth to do with the injury to him, nor to the fact that some American camp news has been getting to a source we would most of us give our lives to keep it away from. He wants Kelley told what the suspicion is against him. The mere fact that they happened to be together at the time of the injury and that Lieutenant Kelley had dropped behind and, oh, well, there are a few other peculiar circumstances which have been discovered since, but to my mind no circumstantial evidence is proof against a man’s clean record.”
“But it is not Lieutenant Kelley I am thinking of; it is Barbara,” Nona interrupted. “Of course Lieutenant Kelley is innocent; no one could look at him or talk to him five minutes and have any other conviction. The men in camp who are saying things against him are merely trying to shield themselves.”
Nona was unashamedly crying.
“But the dreadful thing to me is that you, or that anyone has dared to talk in an unkind way about Barbara Thornton, to feel that her name has even been discussed. Why she is younger than any one of us and Eugenia and Mildred and I should have taken better care of her. Oh, I do not know what to do or say, Barbara will be so heartbroken.”
“Nevertheless please do not talk of this with me, Nona,” Philip Dawson responded gently. “It has been difficult enough for me to tell you. Madame Castaigne and Mrs. Thornton are the persons with whom you must discuss it. I believe in any case Lieutenant Kelley will be entirely cleared. But it will be wiser for her sake and his if Mrs. Thornton gives up their friendship in the future.”
Philip Dawson had never spoken to her, calling her by her first name before this afternoon. But Nona was too engrossed to give the fact any particular attention.