Lilian saw Madelaine Fenwick now and then but was not about to ask her for news of Walter Vail. The chill coming off Madelaine Fenwick threatened to contaminate her feeling. Lilian enlisted Dolly Cushing to find out something from the Nobles who sometimes saw Mrs. Vail’s brother. All the information Burt Noble had was that Walter Vail had volunteered to stay overseas. Was he planning to return? Burt Noble didn’t know. Burt had been over there himself at the end of the war and knew that some boys went a little strange after what they’d seen — Bud Sears still hadn’t spoken since he’d gotten back, and Fellowes Moore had picked up a twitch. Hadn’t Walter Vail been one of the fellows who’d been in the Rhine Valley? Yes, that was right, and Burt Noble knew there’d been some awfully bad things went on there.

Lilian shuddered to imagine.

Once she sat down to write Walter Vail’s parents and in the middle of the stiff and formal letter reflected how little Walter Vail had told her about them. It was likely he’d not told them a thing about her. She put the paper away.

A strange foreboding began to creep into her usual musings. Where once she had feared for Walter Vail’s safety and was concerned for his morale, she now grew nervous about her place in his affections. Might he have forgotten her? Perhaps his tastes had reverted to Nita Russell. She flushed, and in doubting him, it was as if she were doubting her own feeling. She was still young enough to believe that depth of feeling made something true. And yet, the strange uneasiness grew, too unformed to put her finger on, too frightening to articulate. She tried to focus on her feelings for him, on how splendid he was, on how happy they would be. She created long, complex scenarios which involved arriving trains and understanding gazes. She thought of what a compelling figure he had cut, not like anything she’d ever seen. But then, perhaps he was too compelling for her. Surveying her memories, she dwelt on his kisses, and the trepidation passed. She knew that nothing as sweet as that could ever be bad.

That fall Jane Olney heard from Emmett Smith, who had it from his cousin, that Walter Vail was doing settlement work in Paris, helping families displaced by the war. Was there an address? Jane went directly to the cousin but just missed her — she’d gone on a trip to Virginia. When the cousin returned some time later, she had to get the address from a friend of hers, and by the time Lilian got it, it was the new year and months had gone by and there was some question as to whether the address was still good.