"Yes, but tell me what it was? Something you valued highly?"

I felt my cheeks reddening, yet there was no reason why I should not
answer.

"It was a medal, an army medal."

"You were in the army then?"

"Yes, I served an enlistment in the Philippines, and was invalided
home; discharged at the Presidio. Someway I have been up against tough
luck ever since I got back. I think the climate over there must have
locoed me; anyhow the liquor did. Tonight the pendulum is swinging the
other way."

"Why do you think that?"

"I have met you, have I not?"

There was no brightening of her eyes, no acknowledgment of the words.

"To have the misery of another added to your own requires no
congratulations," she said gravely. "But I am glad you told me. I
know there are many who return home like that. I can understand why
much better now than I could once. I have had experience also. It is
so easy to drift wrong, when there is no one to help you go right. I
used to believe this world was just a beautiful playground. I never
dreamed what it really means to be hungry and homeless, to be alone
among strangers. I had read of such things, but they never seemed
real, or possible. But I know it all now; all the utter loneliness of