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return and the — er — destruction of the wedding plans between herself and Mr. Donaldson!”
    “She’s quite right, Dad,” Gerry said quietly. “I should get away for a while.”

Chapter Four
    “We must see to it, my dear,” Mrs. Parker said almost casually on the plane, “that Tip never knows anything about — this Donaldson person.”
    Geraldine caught her breath at the sheer effrontery of that.
    “I’m afraid it will be quite impossible for us to keep Tip from knowing of my engagement to Phil,” she said swiftly.
    Mrs. Parker’s gentle mask slipped for a moment and she was the cold-eyed woman Geraldine had known.
    “You’d throw it in his teeth! A man who has been through such an experience!”
    “You know perfectly well,” Geraldine cut in swiftly, “that someone will tell him. I think it much better for Tip to hear it directly from me.”
    “But, my dear” — Mrs. Parker was gentle and winning again, yet the hostility had not quite vanished from her eyes — ”you’re so wrong! It would be the most inhuman cruelty for you to tell him you forgot him. You mustn’t — you simply mustn’t,
ever!”
    On and on went the sweet, soothing voice, until Geraldine felt that she must scream. At last, shattered and exhausted,she promised that Tip should not be told until they had returned to Marthasville.
    And then Mrs. Parker beamed at her happily.
    “That may be a long, long time,” she had said contentedly. “After all, the poor darling has been through a terrible time. Otherwise the government would not be sending him home to recuperate. We must do everything we can to help him back to himself. When he’s quite strong, and quite sure of himself — and of you — then you may tell him and you will both look on it as merely a joke.”
    Geraldine flinched and set her teeth. The gentle, musical voice went on and on until, in sheer weariness, Geraldine stopped listening.
    Reaching the Coast eventually, they managed to stay a few days at a hotel, and then Mrs. Parker managed to rent a furnished cottage in the hills, and there they settled down to wait for Tip’s return.
    There were times when Geraldine felt that their constant questioning, their daily appearances at the hospital, the Red Cross and the various places where they might hope to gain some faint shred of information, constituted nuisances of themselves. But nobody’s patience seemed to wear thin, and they were invariably treated with courtesy.
    Christmas came and went almost unnoticed There were packages from Tom and Beth, packages wrapped and filled and tied with love and anxious longing. There were packages from friends back home and a great stack of Christmas cards. There was a beautiful diamond and sapphire bracelet from Mrs. Parker, who was prettily touched by Geraldine’s hastily thought-of last-minute gift of a handsome leather bag. But there was no present, no card from Phil.
    It was late in January when at last Tip came home. When Mrs. Parker and Geraldine were told that he was in the Navy hospital, and that they might see him for a few moments, they stood for a moment almost shocked by the end of their long ordeal of waiting. Geraldine’s knees were weak and her throat closed tightly.
    She could not speak. She clung to the back of a chair for support, and the middle-aged, kindly navy nurse steadied her and held something pungent to her lips. Geraldine’s teeth clicked against the rim of the glass as something hot and stinging slid down her closed throat. Slowly warmth spread through her chilled body, and her knees stiffened a little.
    Mrs. Parker looked at her, affronted. Because Mrs. Parker was tense and eager and young-looking with excited anticipation, and waved away the glass the nurse offered tentatively.
    “I don’t need a stimulant. All I need is a glimpse of my boy,” she said. Her voice was triumphant, almost a shout for all its soft, low tone.
    “I think that perhaps I should prepare you a little,” said the