The boy has a real dignity; not the stiff-necked kind he'd acquire around an army post, but the dignity that comes with the consciousness of being, not in the service, but of service." He fell silent there, and Katie watched him.

He had never spoken to her that way before--she had not dreamed he felt like that; heretofore it had been only through laughing little jibes at the army she had had any inkling of his feeling toward it.

That she had not taken seriously; half the people she knew in the service jibed at it to others in the service.
This depth of feeling disturbed her, moved her to defense.

After a moment's consideration she emerged triumphant with the Panama canal.
He shook his head.

"When you consider the percentage of the army so engaged, you can't feel as happy about it as you'd like to.