The guests had all gone home; Marjorie and Lily were resting before dinner. Neither, however, seemed inclined to sleep; both were occupied with their own thoughts.  
“Marj,” began Lily, dreamily, after she had herself that her companion was awake, “would you care an awful lot if I didn’t come to meeting every Saturday night?”
 
The other girl regarded her tenderly.
 
“Of course not, Lil—I understand. You have so much to plan for to think about, if you’re going to be married right after Commencement. I know I’d feel the same way.”
 
“You won’t think me a quitter, then?” she asked, anxiously. “It isn’t as if I weren’t interested in the troop—but I’m so sure it’s going to keep on going splendidly that I don’t believe you really need me. Sophia can take my place on the team. If it were any other night but Saturday——”
 
“Yes, of course, Lil,” repeated Marjorie sympathetically. “I really think you are right. After all, Dick has some claims. And he ought to have your week-ends.”
 
“I’m so glad you see it that way, Marj! I do want to come home, too, whenever I can, for mother and dad’s sake as much as for my own. She even insists on a New York dressmaker for my trousseau, though I’d rather just find somebody in Philadelphia. You know I haven’t any classes on Saturday, so I could leave college sometimes on Fridays.”
 
“The will agree, I am sure,” continued Marjorie, “especially when they see your ring. They won’t think it’s because you’re tired of them.”
 
“Do you think that you ought to get another ?” Lily inquired. “Daisy or Floss?”
 
“All three of the juniors are busy with that troop in the village,” Marjorie reminded her. “So I’d hate to take them away, for they’re doing good work there. And I’m sure I don’t want an outsider. No, I think I can manage myself, if you’ll drop in whenever you can.”
 
“Indeed I will!” the other girl promised.
 
Marjorie closed her eyes and tried to sleep, but she found it impossible. Although up to this time she had been quite successful in dismissing her scout troop from her mind during the vacation, she found her old perplexing problems returning. It was Florence who had stirred up this questioning, Florence who had suggested that she did not have a firm hold on the troop, that they would be interested only as long as the basketball season lasted.
 
When the girls began to dress for dinner, she sought Lily’s advice.
 
“I don’t want to bother you, Lil, but I must talk scout affairs over with you once in a while. Floss’ remark that the girls are only interested in basket-ball sort of worries me. Couldn’t you suggest some new interest, like you did this one?”
 
Her chum, who at that moment was trying to decide whether to wear a georgette or a black dinner dress, brought her attention with difficulty to Marjorie’s question.
 
“What—er—yes,” she answered absently.
 
“Think of something, Lil!” Marjorie pleaded.
 
Lily looked at her companion in amusement.
 
“I think, Marj, for your own sake, you ought to forget that troop for a while. You promised you would during the holidays, you know. And everything’s going beautifully—remember the game, and our boxes of chocolates!”
 
“I know—but who was it who said, ‘In time of peace prepare for war?’ That’s my idea—just keep things going every minute, so that the girls haven’t time to wonder whether they are bored.”
 
“But my dear, you can’t expect this to keep up all your life! You probably wouldn’t have time for them next year, anyway.”
 
“All the more reason why I must make a desperate attempt to secure a really firm hold, so I could be as sure of them as I am of our senior patrol.”
 
“You’ll never be able to do that, Marj. That would be almost a miracle. But I do think you’ve done ; why not be content?”
 
“Oh, I can’t! If that is all, then I shall have failed!”
 
“Better fail, as you call it, than give your life to such a tremendous struggle. Marj, do be normal! Just enjoy things while you’re young! Don’t be aiming at the impossible.”
 
Marjorie laughed, but it was without heart. There was no use appealing to Lily now, indeed she ought to be thankful that her roommate had already given her so much assistance.
 
She knew that she had made the same promise to John—not to refer to the troop during the vacation—yet she to risk breaking it. If there was a possibility of his her, he would not want her to worry over her problem alone. So, as soon as the young men had arrived, and had heard all the details of the luncheon, and John had presented his best wishes to the couple, Marjorie sought an opportunity to talk with him in confidence. As she had hoped, she found him eager to listen.
 
“I have been expecting this—though I didn’t think you would see it until nearer the close of the basketball season,” he said quietly. “And I have been doing some thinking along lines of my own. I have a suggestion to offer, although you may not consider it very good. Don’t hesitate to tell me if you don’t approve.”
 
“Oh, thank you, John!” cried the girl, with a feeling of deep in her heart.
 
“Well, one day last week our wash-woman’s little171 girl was run over and was taken to the Children’s Hospital. She is getting along all right, fortunately, but Mother wanted me to go see her and take her some flowers and fruit. I found her in the children’s —the most pathetic, and yet the most marvellous place in the world.”
 
“Yes?” breathed Marjorie sympathetically.
 
“I just wish you could have seen the brave little patients there, some of them the most dreadful cases, but all trying to be so . I admit I could scarcely keep back my tears, and when I got home and told Mother all about it, she had a good cry. I don’t think I ever have been more deeply touched.
 
“I felt as if I must do something—send more money, more toys, more nurses. I wanted to go out and preach children’s hospitals from morning till night, I wanted to get every girl I knew to as a nurse. If you could see the way the little things depend upon those nurses! They adore them, they wait patiently till they have time to attend to them. Oh, they are wonderful!”
 
Marjorie herself felt near to tears, so realistic was John’s description of the little sufferers. She did not trust herself to say anything.
 
“And then I thought of your girl scouts, girls who have no definite aim in life, who are not preparing for anything special, and I wondered whether we couldn’t turn at least part of their interest there. Perhaps we have been thinking too much of what we could do for them; maybe if we realized that the greatest thing would be for them to do something for others, we might succeed further.”
 
“I believe you’re right, John,” Marjorie said, thoughtfully. “But how?”
 
“Well, I would begin by taking them to see the children. There are about fifteen little girls in that ward; suppose I bought a doll for each child—would your girls dress them? That would give them a chance to see the hospit............