She held me at arm’s-length, studying my face.
“Soul alive!” she said. “You’ve been through it all right! Hell’s branding-irons have been busy with a fair-faced man.”
“As bad as that?” I asked, and she answered very gravely, “As bad as that.”
She had hardly changed, except for a few streaks of grey in her brown hair. Her low, broad forehead was as smooth as before, her brown eyes shown with their old steady light. She had not lost her sense of humour, though she had seen a good deal of blood and agony and death.
“How’s humanity?” I asked, and she laughed and shrugged her shoulders.
“What can one do with it? I thought we were going to catch the old devil by the tail and hold him fast, but he’s broken loose again. This Peace! Dear God!... And all the cruelty and hatred that have survived the massacre! But I don’t despair, even now. In this room there is enough good-will and human kindness to create a new world. We’re going to have a good try to make things better by-and-by.”
“Who’s your star to-night?” I asked. “Who is the particular Hot-Gospeller with a mission to convert mankind?”
“I’ve several,” said Susy.
She glanced round the room, and her eyes rested on a little man with goggles and a goatee beard—none other than my good friend Dr. Small, with whom I had travelled down many roads. I had no notion that he knew Susy or was to be here to-night.
“There’s one great soul—a little American doctor whose heart is as big as humanity itself, and whose head is filled with the wisdom of the wise.”