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Show SOLDIER GIVES HIS EXPERIENCE This article Is taken from a story by Holworthy Hall In the December number of the American Magazine. He says: '"They had seats in one of the last rows or tho orchestra; and from the time that the young man gavo Frances Fran-ces her program, and the house lights subsided into dimness, she was sensitive to a sweeping alteration ot his mood. Tho sentimental play, which seomed banal to her, affected the young man powerfully. Ho had spoken th ebare truth when he had filed his brief for the trench fighters. fight-ers. Falling relatives and friends to insplro him, ho had labored through two arid years with none of the finer emotions to sttr him; and in hardening harden-ing himself to grim actualities he had left himself no defenses on the rsmanttc side; ho was hungry for the human elements which by definition defin-ition must bo excluded from the science sci-ence of war; he was exquisitely receptive re-ceptive to all soft Illusions. And as Frances, recognizing these facts, reminded re-minded herself that not once had ho taken advantage, ot this brief reln- i i ttonshlp of theirs, and as she recalled that what she had first set down as forwardness had been merely bis eagerness to behold 'the homo of a visualized Ideal,- she was suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of compassion compas-sion which left her palpitant. "In tho dusk of the theater sho put out her hand'. It encountered his, and automatically ho drew away. Frances smiled a deprecatory little smllo toeherself and wnltcd, and as she hnd .correctly anticipated, his strong .lean fingers came stealing back and closod around hers and tightened. She could fathom, as definitely as though his sensations were spread before her for tho laboratory la-boratory test, Jut what wore his reactions re-actions at this moment. She knew that he was reverent in his attitude toward her, and that he was Immeasurably Immeas-urably grateful to her, and sne could not possibly have avoided the knowledge know-ledge that she fascinated him; and yet his clasp was firm and'steady and reassuring to her, for It told hor that he was In itidlsputed control or himself. him-self. It also told her that ho was a palpablo foreigner In tho realm of flirtatlousness." |