Chapter 52: Francie meets a young soldier, Lee Rhynor, who is about to ship overseas to the war. She likes both his smile and his honesty and agrees to go out alone with him, even though he is engaged to a girl back home. They go out to dinner, where Lee asks Francie to pretend that she is his girl just for the evening. The next day, Francie and Lee go dancing. At the end of the evening, Lee asks Francie to spend the night with him. She refuses but agrees to Lee's request that she write a letter to him telling him how much she loves him. As soon as she gets home, Francie writes a letter to Lee in which she pours out her love for him.
Chapter 53: Francie waits for Lee's reply and within a few days, a letter does arrive. The letter, however, is from Lee's fiancée, whom he married two days after he left Francie. In the letter, Lee's bride thanks Francie for entertaining her fiancée while he was in New York. In a postscript, the new Mrs. Rhynor says that it was mean of Lee to pretend to be in love with Francie and he sends his apologies. Francie is devastated and thinks about writing to Ben but decides not to do so.
Chapter 54: Sergeant McShane comes to visit the Nolan family. He has waited for a year of mourning after his wife's death to pass before coming to see Katie. He asks Katie to marry him. Her reply is that she will marry him, not because he is a wealthy man, but because he is a good man. He asks if he can adopt Laurie and give her his name. Neeley asks whether he and Francie can call McShane "Dad."
