She was sobbing now, in his arms. For a long moment he held her very close and in utter silence. Like Bangs, but in a different way, he was feeling the effects of a tremendous reaction.
"You"ll make a man of me, Doris," he said brokenly, when he could speak.
"I"m not afraid to let you risk the effort. And when I come back from France--"
"When you come back from France you"ll come back to your wife," she told him steadily. "If you"re going, I"ll marry you before you go. Then I"ll wait and pray, and pray and wait, till you come again. And you will come back to me," she whispered. "Something makes me sure of it."
"I"ll come back," he promised. "Now, for the first time, I am sure of that, too."
Four hours later Mr. Laurence Devon, lingeringly bidding good night to the lady of his heart, was surprised by a final confidence.
"Laurie," said Doris, holding him fast by, one b.u.t.ton as they stood together on the threshold of the little studio, "do you know my real reason for giving up my ambition to go on the stage?"
"Yes. Me," said young Mr. Devon promptly and brilliantly. "But you needn"t do it. I"m not going to be the ball-and-chain type of husband."
"I know. But there are reasons within the reason." She twisted the b.u.t.ton thoughtfully. "It"s because you"re the real actor in the family.
When I remember what you did to the three of us in that murder scene, and so quietly and naturally, without any heroics--"
She broke off. "There are seven million things about you that I love,"
she ended, "but the one I think I love the best of all is this: even in your biggest moments, Laurie darling, you never, never "emote"!"
CHAPTER XIX
"WHAT ABOUT LAURIE?"
From the _New York Sun_, January 7, 1919:--
"Among the patients on the hospital ship _Comfort_, which arrived yesterday with nine hundred wounded soldiers on board, was Captain Laurence Devon, of the American Flying Forces in France.
"Captain Devon was seriously injured in a combat with two German planes, which occurred only forty-eight hours before the signing of the armistice. He brought down both machines and though his own plane was on fire and he was badly wounded, he succeeded in reaching the American lines. He has since been in the base hospital at C----, but is now convalescent.
"Captain Devon is an American "ace," with eleven air victories officially to his credit. He was awarded the French _Croix de Guerre_ and the American Distinguished Service Medal for extraordinary heroism on August 9, 1918, when he went to the a.s.sistance of a French aviator who was fighting four Fokker planes. In the combat the four German machines were downed and their pilots killed. The Frenchman was badly hurt but eventually recovered.
"Captain Devon is well known in American social and professional life.
He is the only son of the late Horace Devon, of Devondale, Ohio, and the brother-in-law of Robert J. Warren, of New York. Before the war he was a successful playwright. Just before sailing for France last year, he married Miss Doris Mayo, daughter of the late General Frederick Mayo, of Richmond, Virginia. On reaching his New York home to-day he will see for the first time his infant son, Rodney Jacob Devon."