capable of grappling with the intricacies of ballistics, trajectories and the rest of the problems of modern ordnance, after the other work was done.
It was something like being at school again; and to Alice he seemed to be at school; and though she could not come to class with him, yet she could visit the camp at prescribed hours of certain days; and even this prelude to war had its intermissions which permitted David to go to Chicago.
He telephoned to her, and she met him at the train and in the city they would have supper together before going to a theater or somewhere to dance. Then they went to the bungalow; for Alice was staying there while he was at the Fort.
They were under the constant excitement of war; and they were sure that he would be sent overseas, as soon as he was commissioned; but when he was made first lieutenant, he was moved, not to France, but to Camp Grant, near Rockford, in Illinois, where the drafted men were coming to be trained. So Alice sublet the bungalow and followed to Rockford where she took a furnished room in a boarding-house with other officers' wives.
She was happy and impatient for a child. Wives of her own age and with children lived in the house with her; other wives who arrived as brides had secrets to whisper as the summer wore on; they appeared with nainsooks and soft, fine flannels in work-baskets which had been filled with wool yarn for soldiers' socks; and they boasted, proudly, of morning indispositions. But Alice remained as usual.
It bewildered her because of her previous confidence
