so--so frail, Daren."

There was something simple and motherly about her, that became her,
and warmed Lane's cold heart. He remembered that she had always
preferred boys to girls, and regretted she had not been the mother of
boys. So Lane talked to her, glad to find that the most ordinary news
of the service and his comrades interested her very much. The instant
she espied his _Croix de Guerre_ he seemed lifted higher in her
estimation. Yet she had the delicacy not to question him about that.
In fact, after ten minutes with her, Lane had to reproach himself for
the hostility with which he had come. At length she rose with evident
reluctance.

"You want to see Helen. Shall I send her down here or will you go up
to her studio?"

"I think I'd like to go up," replied Lane.

"If I were you, I would," advised Mrs. Wrapp. "I'd like your
opinion--of, well, what you'll see. Since you left home, Daren, we've
been turned topsy-turvy. I'm old-fashioned. I can't get used to these
goings-on. These young people 'get my goat,' as Helen expresses it."

"I'm hopelessly behind the times, I've seen that already," rejoined
Lane.

"Daren, I respect you for it. There was a time when I objected to your
courting Helen. But I couldn't see into the future. I'm sorry now she
broke her engagement to you."