raking grass or repairing roads. It seemed far removed from the stress
and the struggle, place where the sense of protection but contributed to
the sense of freedom. There would come occasional glimpses of the river,
the beautiful homes and great factories of the busy, prosperous,
middle-western city opposite. To the other side was a town, too, a little
city of large enterprises; to either side seethed the questions of steel,
and all those attendant questions of mind and heart whose pressure grew
ever bigger and whose safety valves seemed tested to their uttermost. To
either side the savage battles of peace, and there in between--an
island--the peaceful preparations for war.

And in such places, sheltered, detached, yet offered all she would have
from without, had always lived Katie Jones, a favorite child of the
favored men whom precautions against war offered so serene a life;
surrounded by friends who were likewise removed from the battles of peace
to the peace of possible war, knowing the social struggle only as it
touched their own detached questions of pay and rank, pleasant and stupid
posts, hospitable and inhospitable commandants.

And into this had rushed a victim of the battles of peace! From the stony
paths of peace there to the well-kept roads of war!

The irony of it struck Katie anew: the incongruity of choosing so
well-regulated a place for the performance of so disorderly an act as the
taking of one's life. Choosing army headquarters as the place in which to
desert from the army of life! Such an infringement of discipline as
seeking self-destruction in that well-ordered spot where the machinery
of destruction was so peacefully accumulated!

She looked covertly at Ann; she could do it, for the girl seemed for the