“I don't,” he said. “They say all the brains of the army are in the Engineers. I think that's why I joined them — to get the credit of other people's brains.”

He said this quizzically and with chagrin.

And she became alert to him. It interested her. Whether he had brains or not, he was interesting. His directness attracted her, his independent motion. She was aware of the movement of his life over against hers.

“I don't think brains matter,” she said.

“What does matter then?” came her Uncle Tom's intimate, caressing, half-jeering voice.

She turned to him.

“It matters whether people have courage or not,”