Nearly four months had passed and Margaret was still a pantry-maid in the same private hospital. The V.A.D. who was to have gone to France had suffered as great a disappointment as Margaret, for at the very last moment word had been sent to her it had been unavoidably delayed that her services in France would not yet be required. Margaret, with her bigness of nature, had insisted upon the girl retaining the post in the wards and letting things go on as they were. Her “bit” was very, very dull, but it was her “bit,” and nothing she did, she knew, could in any way compare in dullness to the lives of the boys in the trenches. So she worked and endured, and found the necessary change of scene in the mixed company of her garden-square society.

The days fled past. It was a dull life for a young girl, but since the war began all girls worthy of their country had said good-bye to the pleasures of youth. Youth had no time to be young; old age had forgotten that it was old. The renaissance of patriotism had transformed England. The war recognized neither old age nor youth; it opened its hungry jaws and took everyone in.

Margaret had neither seen nor heard anything of Michael since the eventful winter night when she had handed him a cup of coffee in the free-refreshment-room at the large northern station. She did not even know what regiment he was in. That, of course, was owing to her own stupidity; it was a matter of constant regret to her that she had not at the time had the forethought to ask the weeping woman on the platform what regiment her husband was in. Knowing nothing more than that Michael was at the Front, all she could do was to keep an eye on each day’s casualty list in The Times newspaper. But even as her eyes hastily scanned the long columns of small print, she said to herself, “I need not look his name will not be there. I have had my assurance of his safety.”

She was certain now that the mystic message, which lay locked away in the dispatch-box which held her most important papers, had been sent to her to help her. It had been given to her to lessen her loneliness and to ease her anxiety.

Of course, this state of certainty had its feebler moments, and many, many times as she did her day’s work she became affected by the waves of pessimism which spread at intervals over the British Isles. At these times she went about the pantry chalk-faced and tragic-eyed; but generally, when her suffering was becoming more than she could endure, from visualizing Michael blind, or limbless, or, still worse, an imbecile through shell-shock, a clear voice would speak to her, her super-self would repeat the contents of her treasured message.

The fact that her hand had written the message before and not after Michael’s going to the Front established her confidence in it. If it had been after, her sound judgment told her that suggestion might have had something to do with the automatic writing.

It was early spring, and Margaret’s country-loving nature cried out for the smell of damp fields, for the scents and the sounds of untrodden paths. The long twilight evenings seemed the loneliest hours to her in London. Their beauty was wasted. But the real country was denied her, for what distance could her two-hours-off take her from London? Scarcely beyond soot-blackened trees and the prim avenues of suburban respectability. But she had one great pleasure to look forward to the Iretons were to be in London for the season, or, rather, what used to be termed the season in London.

They were to arrive in Clarges Street that very night. They were coming to England to help in the arrangements for the better equipping of native military hospitals in Egypt. Hadassah’s knowledge of the native’s likes and dislikes was considerable.

Margaret was now on her way to a tube railway-station. The afternoon was so glorious that she was going to make an excursion to Kew. She would just have time to look at the maythorns and hurry back. The one brave laburnum which gave brightness and fragrance to her garden-square told her that in the larger open spaces the flowering shrubs would be at their best.

As she ran down the steps of the tube station, she saw that a train which would take her to Hammersmith, where she would have to change for Kew Gardens, was drawn up at the platform; the passengers who were leaving it were trying to ascend the stairs. With youthful tightness she leapt down the last two or three steps and sprang across the platform. She only just had time to step into the train before the iron gates closed behind her.

A little breathless with excitement and greatly pleased that she had succeeded in catching the train, she obeyed the order of the officious guard to “Step along don’t block the gangway!”

The carriage was not full, but there were not many empty seats in it, so Margaret hastily sank into the one which was nearest to her and close to the door. It happened to be near to one on which a soldier was seated. His kit was lying at his feet in front of him. As she sat down, a voice said quietly:

“I’d advise you to sit a little further on I’m not very nice.”

Margaret never grasped the meaning of the words; the voice was all she heard. It made her heart bound, and her senses reel; her bewilderment was overwhelming.

Some instinct made the soldier swing right round; he had been sitting with his broad back turned to the vacant seat, which Margaret still occupied. They faced each other; the soldier was Michael.

Under his ardent gaze Margaret paled pitifully and made a valiant effort to speak, to collect her thoughts. All that came from her trembling lips were the prosaic words, rather timidly spoken:

“Is it you, Michael?”

They seemed to content Michael and tell him a thousand things which dazed and intoxicated him. His surprise was even greater than Margaret’s.

“Yes, it is me, Meg,” he said. “Thank God we’ve met!”

For Margaret, in one moment all the long months of doubt and pride were wiped out. Michael’s eyes had banished them. Her characteristic courage and her self-possession returned. She put her hand on the top of Michael’s, the one which held his rifle. Her touch thrilled the soldier home from the Front; it travelled through his veins like an electric current. Margaret’s eyes had dropped; now they met her lover’s again.

The train in its narrow channel under the city was making such a noise that it was impossible to hear even a loud voice above its hideous rattle. There are few noises more devastating to conversation than the awful roar of a London tube-railway. But Love speaks with an eloquence which no noise can drown; its sympathy and passion carry it far above the din and noise of battle. Margaret and Michael knew it well. If Love depended upon words, what a poor cold thing it would be! No quarrels would ever be settled, no journeys end in lovers’ meetings.

Michael moved the hand which Margaret clasped. It was hard to do it, but he felt compelled to.

“I’m horribly verminous,” he said, apologetically. “I’m just back from the trenches you ought to keep further off.”

Margaret’s eyes dropped; a flame of love’s shyness spread over her glowing face. It heightened her beauty and bewildered Michael. He longed to take her in his arms and kiss her even before the whole carriage-full of people. Perhaps in the early days of the war the scene would only have brought tears and tender smiles to worldly eyes.

Margaret tried to say something, she scarcely knew what just anything to break the passion of their silence, but the roaring of the train drowned her trembling question. How she hated the swaying and groaning and the rattling of the tube train as it dashed through its confined way! Never before had it seemed so awful, so maddening.

Michael, too, was tongue-tied. How could he offer Margaret any explanation, or ask if she had understood, while the train drowned the loudest voices? What a hideous place for a lovers’ meeting, after months of weary longing!

When the train drew up at Knightsbridge Margaret rose from her seat. Her desire to see Kew had fled. It mattered little now where she went; she was only conscious of the fact that she must put an end to the present strain. If Michael was as anxious to speak to her as she was to speak to him, he would follow her. He was obviously home on leave. He was a free man.

As she rose from her seat, Michael hurriedly gathered his kit together and rose also, and pushed his way through the crowd of passengers who were disgorging from the train. Whatever happened, he must keep her in sight; her obviously unpremeditated leaving of the train left him in doubt as to her feelings towards him.

He was on leave, he was in “Blighty,” and Margaret was only a few steps ahead. He would risk anything rather than let her disappear and be lost once more.

When Margaret reached the platform, she turned round. She wondered if Michael had left the train. He was standing by her side. She laughed delightedly, a girl’s healthy laugh, and gave a breathless gasp.

“May I?” he said. “I have risked annoying you.”

“Annoying me!” Margaret’s eyes banished the idea; they carried him off his feet. He was a soldier, home from the war; she was a girl, fresh and sweet. She laid her hand on his arm. “I’m not angry, Michael I never was angry. Besides, you’re . . . you’re . . .” she hesitated. “You’re a Tommy,” she said, “and I love every one of them.”

Michael knew that her shyness made her link him with the men who were fighting for their country. Even with the fondest lovers, there is a nervous shyness between them for the first moments of meeting after a prolonged separation. Margaret had moved closer to his side. His passion drew her to him; it was like the current of a magnet.

“You mustn’t stand so close,” he said, laughingly. “I’m horribly verminous really I am!”

“As if I cared, Mike!” Margaret’s words poured from her lips. Ordinary as they were, they were a love-lyric to his ears.

“May I come with you?” he asked. “Where were you going to? I’ve so much to say, so much to ask you!”

“I was going to Kew,” she said, blushingly. “But I changed my mind.”

Their eyes laughed as they met; he knew why she had changed her plans.

As they went up the station steps together, they were separated by a number of people who were hurrying to catch the next train. When they reached the open street, Michael made a signal to the driver of a taxi-cab who was touting for passengers. He instantly drew up, jumped from his seat and opened the door. Michael stood beside him, while Margaret, obeying his eyes, stepped into the cab. She asked herself no questions; she was only conscious of Michael’s air of protection and possession. After her lonely life in London, it almost made her cry. It was the most delicious feeling she had ever experienced. She gave herself up to it.

In Michael’s presence her pride and dignity and wounded womanhood were swept away. Even Freddy, in his soldier’s grave, was forgotten. Her whole life and world was Michael; he began it and ended it. This verminous and roughly-dressed Tommy, who was gazing at her with eyes which bewildered and humbled her, was the dearest thing on earth.

She was comfortably seated; Michael had shut the door, and they were side by side, waiting for the taxi to go on. The next moment the driver popped his head in at the window.

“Where to, sir?” he said, politely. Michael’s worn, weatherbeaten face had called up his sentiment for the men at the front.

“Where to?” Michael repeated foolishly. He paused. “Oh, anywhere! Anywhere will do it doesn’t matter.” He smiled. “I’m back in old Blighty that’s all that matters anywhere is good enough for me.”

“Right you are, sir! I’ll take you somewhere pleasant.”

Margaret smiled. She was, indeed, all smiles and heart-beats and nervous anticipation.

The moment the taxi had swung away from the station, it entered a quiet street, bordered with high houses on either side. Michael lost no time; he folded her in his arms and kissed her again and again, and held her to him.

“This is heaven, just heaven, darling!” he said ardently. “I could eat you all up, you’re so fresh and sweet and delicious!”

Meg was unresisting. Her yielding told her lover more than hours of explanation could have done. All she said was:

“But what if I don’t think it’s heaven?”

“What indeed?” he said, happily. “But don’t you?” He had released her to read her answer in her eyes.

She said nothing; words seemed for lighter moments.

“Say something nice,” he pleaded.

“I love you, Mike,” she said shyly. “Is that enough?”

“It’s all I want,” he said, while Meg wound her arms round his neck and drew his face nearer hers to receive her kiss. As she nestled against him, he said tenderly, “Remember, I’m verminous; I’m not fit to touch, dearest.”

“I don’t care! I don’t mind if I get covered with them,” she laughed. “And I don’t care if all the world sees me kissing you! I just love you, Mike, and you’re here nothing in all the world matters except that!”

She unclasped her hands. Her weeping face was pressed to his rough uniform; horrible as it was, she was kissing it tenderly, almost devoutly, stroking it with her fingers. It gave her a sense of pride and assurance that he was there beside her.

In the beautiful way known to love and youth, the foolish things they said and left unsaid told them whispers of the wonderful things which were to be. Michael was too exacting in his demands to allow of sustained conversation; sentences lost themselves in “one more kiss,” or in one more bewildering meeting of happy eyes.

At last Michael said not without a feeling of nervousness, for he had asked few questions, and the scraps of information which Margaret had volunteered he had so often interrupted by his own impetuous demands, that she had accepted the fact that all explanations and questioning must wait until the excitement of their meeting had abated “Why did Freddy not answer my letters? Why did you leave Egypt without one word?”

His voice expressed the fact that his letters had contained the full explanation of his conduct. It also said, “Why this forgiveness, if you were so unkind?”

It brought a strange revelation to Margaret of the ravages of war, of the changes which it had made in their lives. She remained lost in thought.

“Will Freddy consent? Will he understand, as you do?”

Margaret shivered. Her hand left Michael’s; her fingers touched the band of crepe which she was wearing on her uniform coat-sleeve.

“No, no, Meg!” he cried. “Not Freddy! Anybody but Freddy!” His words were a cry of horror, of anguish. In the surprise and excitement of their meeting, he had forgotten to ask for Freddy. Even though he was in his soldier’s uniform, his happiness had obliterated the war. He had the true soldier’s temperament a fighter while fighting had to be done, a lover of pleasure in peace-time.

“Yes,” she said, “Freddy. He was only in Flanders a few weeks.”

Michael put his arms round her tenderly, protectingly. “You poor little girl, you brave little woman!”

Margaret loved his anguish, his complete understanding of the fact that of all people it was Freddy who should have been spared.

“If you had only seen him, Mike! He was so young, so fair. And he never had a chance.”

Michael’s eyes questioned her words.

“He was just sniped at the very beginning. That was the hardest part of it to know that all his talents and intellect had been wasted!”

Michael held her closer. “Not wasted, dearest, don’t say that.”

“I didn’t exactly mean wasted. But he could have done such great things for the world; he could surely have been given work more worthy of his abilities!”

“He is doing wonderful things now, Meg, he’s hard at work. Freddy just got his promotion look at it that way.” He kissed her trembling lips; tears were flooding her glorious eyes.

“That’s what Hadassah says.”

“Hadassah?”

“Yes, Hadassah.” Margaret sighed. “Oh, Michael, we have so much to talk about whatever shall we do?” She laughed tearfully. Telling Michael about Freddy’s death had brought back the anguish of the year which had separated them. “You can’t imagine how kind and sweet she has been to me, and how hard they both tried to find you!” She paused. “Freddy tried, too he was the best and dearest brother, Mike.”

“I know it,” he said; his words were a groan. He was trying to grasp the truth of Margaret’s news. Nothing which he had seen in the war brought its waste and sacrifice more vividly before his eyes than the fact that Freddy was dead, the living, vital Freddy, the energetic, brilliant Freddy, whom he always visualized picking up the gleaming gems in the vast Egyptian tomb; he saw the scene with painful clearness.

There was a little silence. Margaret’s hands were clasped tightly in the sunburnt hands of her “Tommy.” Freddy was in both their minds, and the life they had shared with him in the Valley the sense of order and method and ardour for work which he had instilled into their days.

Margaret was resting against Michael, as open about her love for him as any ’Arriet. She could think of Freddy without any feeling of guilt or even doubt of his approval. The things which come from within cannot be explained by forces from without. It was not what Michael had done or had said which had banished her pride and told her of his faithfulness. It was the consciousness which came from within, the consciousness which had always fought back the forces from without. She had not felt one qualm of conscience, for Freddy was understanding and approving. He would know that any doubt she had ever had had been banished the moment Michael had taken her in his arms. Freddy, who had only blamed him for his weakness, would realize that even in that he had misjudged him. If Michael had had any guilt on his conscience, he would never have behaved as he had done. He had read in her eyes that her love for himself was unchanged, and knowing himself to be worthy of her love, he had not stopped to consider smaller things. She was so thankful that he had taken the bull by the horns.

And now they were thinking of less bewildering things than their own love for each other. Michael was tenderly dreaming of Freddy. Margaret was reviewing Freddy’s true attitude towards Michael in her mind. It was true that he had said that until he gave some satisfactory explanation of his behaviour, she was not to treat him as her lover. Well, her finer senses told her that Michael had given her a satisfactory explanation, and she was certain that Freddy also knew it. He had, by his taking her in his arms without one word of pleading or explanation, given her the fairest and most perfect assurance of his faithfulness to her and of his right to ask for her love.

These thoughts passed rapidly through her mind, while she silently enjoyed the delight of feeling Michael’s close presence by her side. Never, even in Egypt, under the high-sailing moon in the great Sahara, had she loved him as romantically as she did at this moment. As a weather-stained, wind-tanned Tommy he was dearer to her than ever he had been in the days when, as a painter and an Egyptologist, he had opened her eyes to a new world of intellectual enjoyment.

Michael’s mind was obsessed by Freddy’s death. He had never for one moment imagined that such a thing was in the least likely to happen. He did not know that Freddy was at the Front; he had imagined to himself that such exceptional brains and unusual qualities would have been given other work to do, than to stand all day long knee-deep in mud in the trenches of Flanders. His heart ached for Margaret. Her devotion to Freddy was exceptional; her pride in him had been the keynote of her existence. He spoke abruptly, while his hands clasped hers hungrily and tightly.

“Would Freddy mind?” he said. “I can’t be disloyal to him!”

“Mind?” Meg said questioningly. “Mind my loving you? He knew my love could never change it was born in unchanging Egypt.”

“Yes, mind if you married me while I’m on leave? I’ve got a whole fortnight, and my commission.”

“Oh!” Meg said breathlessly. “You go at such a pace!”

Michael laughed boyishly at her astonishment. Her woman’s mind had not thought of marriage; it was satisfied with the present conditions.

“I don’t think Freddy would mind not now. But” her laugh joined Michael’s “you see, you haven’t asked if I’d mind. We aren’t even engaged you wouldn’t be. Do you remember?”

Michael pulled round her head with his hands, and kissed her lips. “I don’t care if the whole world sees,” he said, quoting her words. “Don’t pull away your head I’m just ‘a bloomin’ Tommy’ back in Blighty with his girl.”

Meg resigned herself to his kisses. “All London’s doing it,” she said breathlessly. “You’ll see fathers and sons, and mothers and sons, and lovers walking arm in arm, in the West End even. Their time together is too short and precious to think of stupid conventions. The national reserve of the English nation is swept away.”

While Margaret was speaking, she was thinking and thinking. Could she marry him before he returned to the Front? It was all so sudden. But why not? War had taught women to take what happiness they could get in their two hands, not to let it slip. Michael made her thoughts more definite.

“Did Freddy trust me?” he asked.

Meg’s eyes dropped; her heart beat painfully.

“He didn’t,” Michael said. “Don’t pain yourself, dearest, by answering. He’ll understand better now everything will be made clear.”

“Don’t blame him, Mike!”

“I’m not blaming him I’d have done the same. It sounded beastly, the whole story. Hang Millicent Mervill!”

Margaret proceeded to tell him in broken sentences that she had seen Millicent in Cairo, and related something of what she had told her and how, after that, she had kept the promise which she had made to Freddy, to go back to England if she heard from either Michael himself or from Millicent that they had been together in the desert.

“And you heard that she was in my camp?”

“Yes Millicent took care that I heard that, and . . .” she paused.

Michael looked into her eyes. “And you went back England?”

“Yes, I kept my promise.” Her eyes told him that she had kept it because her honour demanded it, not because she believed all that Millicent had told her.

“And, knowing her story, you didn’t condemn me, you still believed in me and loved me?” His eyes thanked her.

Margaret returned his steadfast gaze. “Yes, it was not hard to trust you, Mike. I remembered our promise to help and trust one another. What are promises and vows made for if they are not to be kept when they are put to the test? We did not make ours lightly I told you I should understand.”

“Dearest, how beautiful your love is! To-day you welcomed me without one shadow of reproach! Had I not read in your eyes all that I did, I should not have dared to follow you when you left the train.”

“Would you have taken me in your arms if you had been guilty, if Millicent had told the truth?” The words conveyed a world of meaning to Michael. “I have often grumbled, Mike I have thought that you might have let me hear the story from your own lips, or by letter. I know that in his heart Freddy always thought you were only to be blamed for allowing her to stay in your camp I know he never really believed that you had arranged the meeting, or that you were her lover.”

Michael grasped her two hands in his, tightly. “I never was, Meg, I never was! I hated her for coming, I tried to get rid of her.”

“I knew it, Mike deep, deep down I knew it. But it hurt.” She leaned against him. “Oh, how it hurt, dearest! And you never wrote or explained that was what I found hardest to bear. I suppose you were so certain that I trusted you that you never thought about what others might say; but love makes us exacting, jealous, and you might have written, dearest! Then Freddy would have known. How could I make him understand all that my heart knew? How can one make others see the things which come from within?”

Michael put his arms round her. “My darling,” he said, “I did write, I wrote often. I wrote directly Millicent appeared in the desert; I wrote again before I was ill. You know how many letters go astray you know how many were intercepted by German spies before the war broke out.”

“You were ill?” Meg started. “I knew you were, I told Freddy you were ill. But Millicent spoke as if you were in such perfect health that I had to abandon the conviction.”

Her voice was an apology.

“I was so ill with fever,” Michael said, “that I wasn’t able to write, and the faithful Abdul couldn’t. Like many Arabs, he can speak a smattering, and a very fair one, of three or four languages, but he can’t write a line in any one of them. As soon as I was strong enough to travel I went back to the Valley.”

“Oh, did you?” He felt Margaret tremble as she said the words.

“I went back to find our Eden a barren desert, Meg, no sign of either Freddy or you in it. It was horrible. I started off to Cairo in hopes of learning from the Iretons where you had gone to, to discover what you had heard of Millicent.” His pressure of Meg’s hands explained the full meaning of his words. “But they had left Cairo it was very hot so I returned to England by way of Italy. In Naples I had a slight relapse I had to wait there for some time, until I was able to continue my journey. I only arrived in London the day before war was declared. Of course I volunteered at once I was glad to do it. Life seemed empty of all its former sweetness. I don’t think I cared what happened to me; and I did care what happened to England and Belgium. I was at last going to fight in the great fight against absolute monarchy and militarism!”

When Michael had finished his short account of his doings, which merely touched on essentials, they realized that they were in Hyde Park. Margaret’s eyes had caught sight of a clock over the gateway as they entered; she had noticed how her two hours were flying, even while her conscious self was enthralled with her lover’s story. Spring was in the year; it was in the hearts of the united lovers. Love smiled to them from the budding shrubs and from the daffodils swaying in the breeze.

To Michael “Blighty” was the most beautiful land in the world. His heart was so burdened with happiness that Margaret had to laugh at his high spirits and absurd remarks. He was the old enthusiastic Mike, delighting in life and embracing it rapturously.

In the midst of this intoxication of happiness, Margaret’s sense of duty and responsibility, her Lampton characteristics, urged her. The clock over the archway had subconsciously reminded her that she was, after all, a pantry-maid in a hospital full of wounded soldiers; that the soldier by her side was a part and portion of the great war; that war, not love, ruled the world; this interlude had been stolen from the God of Battles.

“Time’s flying, dearest,” she said. “I’ve less than one more hour. Let’s drive to a little garden-square close to my hospital we can dismiss the taxi there and talk until I have to go in that’s to say, if you are free to come.”

“Are you nursing?” he said. His eyes looked questioningly at her blue uniform.

“No, not yet I’m a pantry-maid.”

“A what?” he said, laughingly. “You’re a darling!"’

“I wash up tea-cups and saucers which Tommies drink from, and lay out trays with tea-cups and saucers all day long.” She paused. “That’s as near as I’ve got to the war.”

“With your brains, Meg is that all they could find for you to do?” His encircling arm hugged her closely. Each moment she was becoming more desirable and beautiful in his eyes; each moment life in the trenches seemed further and further away.

“Freddy was sniped,” Margaret said, “before he even killed a German. Washing up dirty cups makes me mind it less.”

“You dear darling,” Michael said. “I understand and Freddy knows.”

“I’ll tell the man where to drive to,” Margaret said bravely. “Then we can be together until I have to begin work.” She raised the speaking-tube to her lips and told the driver where to go, explaining the most direct way to the secluded square, When she dropped the tube and sank back into her seat Michael’s arm was round her; she had felt his eyes and their passion, gazing at her while she instructed the driver.

“Will you marry me the day after to-morrow?” he said. “I’ll get a special licence. Let’s start this little time of perfect happiness at once, Meg it may never come again.”

Meg laughed nervously, but there was gladness in the sound of her voice. “But, Mike, it’s so sudden the day after to-morrow!”

“So was our love, darling don’t you remember?” He paused. “Am I asking too much? You might be my wife for less than two weeks, beloved, remember that.”

They looked into each other’s eyes. Meg knew the meaning of his words; he was a Tommy on leave.

“I can’t go on having hairbreadth escapes to the end of the war,” he said. “Up to now I’m the mascot amongst the boys; I’ve had prodigious luck.”

Meg remained silent. Her heart was beating. His hair-breadth escapes what were they due to? She saw her vision of him in her London bedroom, surrounded by the rays of Aton. She nursed the knowledge of it in her heart she dared not tell him.

“Over and over again, Meg, the most extraordinary things have happened. I can’t tell you them all now they would sound like exaggerations, but I’m almost beginning to agree with the boys that I’ve a charmed life.”

Meg longed to confide her secret to him, but something held her back; something said to her that he was not meant to know it, that if he knew he might be tempted to do still more foolhardy deeds, he would feel compelled to put her mystical message to the test. She remained silent; her mind was working too quickly for speech. She had forgotten that Michael wanted her answer. Her heart had given it so willingly that words were scarcely needed, but he pressed her for her consent. There are some words which lovers like to hear spoken by beautiful lips.

“You are the mistress of my happiness,” he urged. “And if our happiness in this world is to be condensed into twelve days, surely it would be worth while seizing it and being thankful for it? In this world of agony and death, twelve days of life at its fullest is of more account than a long lifetime of unrecognized benefits and indefinite happiness.”

Meg agreed that the war had taught people to be thankful for what seemed to her pitifully small mercies; people married for ten days or for a fortnight at the longest, knowing that for that little time of forgetfulness their husbands were among the quick; at the end of it they might be among the dead.

“Then, if I can get a special licence to-morrow, will you marry me the day after? If I may go back to the Front as your husband, Meg, I think I can win the war. My life will be more charmed than ever.” He laughed gaily. “What will the boys say? I’m the only one in the trench who doesn’t write to about six girls every day, telling each one that she is the only girl he loves.”

Margaret’s answer was in her laugh, which was all love, and in the lips she held up to meet Michael’s kiss. “And it’s proud I’ll be to be Mrs. Amory!” she said. “And ye can tell the boys that, if you like.” She broke off suddenly from her mock Irish tones, and said more gravely, “Isn’t it wonderful? Only an hour ago I was alone in London, so lonely that the very flowers hurt me! I hated the spring in the year it laughed at my dull room and humdrum existence. And now ”

“And now,” he said, “you are going to be a soldier’s wife, you are going to marry a verminous Tommy in two days’ time, you darling!”

Meg looked at her own dark uniform. “I don’t see even one,” she said, “but I’ll have to be careful. I’ll change when I go in. Are you really as bad as that?”

“I tried to clean myself up a bit,” he said. “But I have been awful. That’s the thing I hate most about the whole business. I’ve got used to all the other discomforts long ago, and to everything else.”

“Even to the killing of human beings, Mike?”

“Yes,” he said. “Even to the killing of brave men. I know what you’re saying to yourself I thought that too, I thought it would send me mad, I longed to kill myself to get out of it. But, in an attack, when you’ve seen your own jolly pals, who have lived in the trenches with you, bleeding and tattered, spatchcocked against barbed wire, and had to leave them sticking to it, their eyes haunt you, your blood gets up, you long for a hundred hands to shoot with, instead of only two. When you’ve seen the result of Prussian militarism on decent German soldiers, you know that it’s your duty to destroy it, to give the German people, as well as the rest of the world, their freedom and rights.”

“If only we could get at the Prussian military power, and spare the wretched soldiers they are all sons and husbands, and somebody’s darlings,” Meg said pathetically.

“But we can’t. It’s their punishment, perhaps, poor devils, for having submitted to such an arrogant, absolute monarchy. To get at the rulers we have to slaughter the innocent. It sounds all wrong, but I know it’s the only way.”

“I suppose so,” Margaret said. “But it does seem hard, just because they have been law-abiding, industrious, obedient subjects, they are to be slaughtered like sheep and made to do all sorts of cruel acts which will brand them for ever as barbarians in the eyes of the world. There must be thousands and thousands of them who are decent men.”

“There is a saying that every country has the Government it deserves. They have got theirs. A German Liberal has written these words to-day, or something like them. He says, ’Peace and war are, after all, not so much the result of foreign policy (strange though it may appear) as the inevitable consequences of the inward constitution of the State. “International anarchy” is not a thing apart, but only the natural consequence of feudal military institutions. Hence away with these institutions.’”

“But will they ever away with them in Germany?”

“Not unless we, the Allies, crush the feudal military constitution; not until the people realize that their submission has brought this war upon themselves.”

“But surely up to now we have admired law-abiding, uncomplaining peoples?”

“I haven’t,” Michael laughed. “You know I haven’t.”

“Oh no, you haven’t! But then you’re a firebrand, always ’agin the Government.’”

“I always walked on my head.” He hugged her as he spoke. “I’m doing it to-day, darling.”

“Poor old Freddy!” Margaret said. “If he could only hear us now, he’d think I was anti-war, and you were pro-war.” She sighed. “If he could only see you in a Tommy’s uniform, defending the morality of taking human lives!”

“Qui sait, Meg? He probably sees far more of it than you or I do. Don’t you make any mistake about that. He knows that I’m fighting in the war because I’m anti-war, with a vengeance. If this war isn’t won by the Allies, Meg, there will be no end to war. It will never cease; it will burst out at intervals until the Kaiser’s Alexandrian and Napoleonic dream is accomplished. If he wins this war, he’ll turn his eyes in other directions, for new worlds to conquer. With Europe subdued, there is Egypt, India, America. Lamartine said, ’It is not the country, but liberty, that is most imperilled by war.’”

“What did he mean?” Margaret asked.

“’That every victorious war means for the victorious nation a loss of political liberty, whilst for the vanquished it is a foundation of inspiration and democratic progress.’”

“Oh, Mike, and if we win? I mean, when we win?”

“As our cause is the cause of right over might, ours is not a war of aggression or annexation. He was speaking of an aggressive war.”

“Who was speaking?”

“Well, I was voicing Hermann Fernau, the brave Liberal who is exiled from the Fatherland. I can’t give you his exact words, but he says something like this in his wonderful book, Germany and Democracy: ’For what would happen if we Germans emerged victorious from this war? Our victory would only mean a strengthening of the dynastic principle of arbitrary power all along the line. Those of us who bewail the political backwardness of our Fatherland must realize that a German victory would prolong this backward condition for centuries. And not only Germany, but the whole of Europe, would have to suffer the consequences.’”

“Fancy a German saying that!”

“There are some sane Germans left, darling. Fernau belongs to the small band of German Liberals who have been driven from their country.”

The taxi had reached the garden-square. They got out and Michael prodigally overpaid the driver. The man took the money.

“I’d have driven you for nothing, sir,” he said delightedly, “if the car was my own. I was young once, and so was the missus.” He saluted respectfully.

As they turned into the quiet little garden, Michael said happily, “Why, Meg, what a dear little bit of France! How did you discover it?”

“My hospital’s just across the square, and so is my bedroom. This is my sitting-room.”

They found a quiet seat amongst the tombstones and sat down, a typical resort for a Tommy and his sweetheart. When they had been seated for a few moments, Michael said:

“It’s a far cry to the Valley, and the little wooden hut, and the tombs of the Pharaohs, Meg.”

Meg’s eyes swept the garden-square; the laburnum-tree was shedding flakes of gold from its long tassels; they were falling like yellow rain in the spring breeze.

“Very, very far,” she said as her eyes pointed to the smoke-begrimed tombstones. “Here the homes of the dead seem so forsaken, so humble. Death has triumphed. In the Valley the dead were the eternal citizens, their homes were immortal. The dead have no abiding cities here, and even the palaces of the living will be crumbled into powder before Egypt’s tombs show any signs of wear and decay.”

Their thoughts having turned to Egypt, beautiful memories were recalled. Often broken sentences spoke volumes. Their time was very short, so short that Love devised a sort of shorthand conversation, which saved a thousand words.

And so for the rest of Margaret’s precious hour they talked and dreamed and loved. There was so much to explain and so much to tell on both sides that, as Margaret laughingly said, they would both still be trying to get through their “bit” when Michael would have to leave for the Front.

Margaret just left herself time to hurry upstairs and change her uniform in her lodgings before she returned to the hospital. Michael waited for her in the square.

Before they left it, Margaret said, “I want you to shake hands with an old friend of mine. We’ll have to pass her seat; she is always here. She’s a great character, an old actress such a good sort.”

As they passed the shabby little woman, picking down old uniforms, Meg stopped. The woman looked up; her eyes brightened. The V.A.D. had a soldier with her her lover, she could see that at a glance. He had brought an atmosphere of romance and passion into the laburnum-lit garden.

Margaret introduced Michael, who was perfectly at his ease on such an occasion.

“My friend has arrived from the Front,” she said. “We are going to be married the day after to-morrow . . .” she paused, “. . . that is to say, if I can get leave from my hospital for a week.”

The woman looked up at the handsome couple. “Well, what a surprise!” she said, as she stared hard at Michael. “Who would ever have thought that you were going to be married so soon? You never even told me you were engaged! You were very sly.” She smiled happily.

Margaret laughed at her astonished expression. “I mustn’t stop to tell you about it now,” she said. “My time is up I ought to be back in ten minutes to my cups and saucers. I just wanted you to shake hands with the man I’m going to marry.”

The woman rose from her seat. As she did so, the old scarlet coat which she had been unpicking fell to her feet. She glanced at her hands, as much as to say, “They aren’t very clean.” Michael held out his, ignoring her hesitation, and gave her slender, artist’s fingers a hearty shake and warm grasp.

The old actress’s emotions were kindled; poverty had not dimmed the romance of her world.

“You’ll do, sir,” she said. “You’ll do you’ll do for the sweetest and truest lady that lives in London town.”

“We have your blessing, then?” he said gaily. “And you’ll look after her when I’m at the Front promise me that?”

“That I will, sir. But it’s she who looks after me, and more than me.” She cast her eyes round the strange neighbourhood. “Looks after us and helps us in a hundred different ways.” But she was speaking to Michael’s retreating figure, for Margaret and her lover had left her. As she watched his swinging strides, she murmured to herself, “He’ll do for her there’s no mistaking his kind. He’ll do for her.” Her thoughts flew to familiar scenes. “There was something in his voice which reminded me of . . .” she recalled a celebrated actor. “He would make a fine Hamlet, a heavenborn Hamlet.”

As they left the gardens Margaret said, “I have a feeling, Mike, that someone has been watching us ever since we came into the gardens have you?”

“No,” Michael said. “I hadn’t any eyes or ears for anything but you.”

Margaret smiled. “I felt it,” she said, “rather than saw it. But, just this minute, didn’t you see that dark figure?”

“No. Anyhow, let them watch I don’t care. Everybody’s doing it.” His arm was round her.

Meg laughed, but not so whole-heartedly, and when she was saying good-bye to him at the hospital, she said, nervously and anxiously, “There’s that black figure again she’s just passed us. I saw her yesterday she watched me go in after my hours on.”

In spite of that fact, Margaret kissed her Tommy quite openly and flagrantly and in the broad daylight. She had promised to walk with him again on the next afternoon during her hours off, and to marry him the day after, if he got the licence and she got her leave.

When they had parted she said to herself, “Ours will be a war-wedding with a vengeance! When I went out for my two hours this afternoon I was absolutely free, not even engaged. Now,” she blushed beautifully, “I am the bride-elect of a Tommy home on leave for a fortnight!”

After her day’s work was done, she tried to find the busy matron. When she found her, she went straight to the point it was Margaret’s way.

“I want to get married the day after to-morrow,” she said. “Could you get someone to take my place? Can you let me go?”

“For good, do you mean?” The matron was scarcely surprised. These sudden marriages were all a part of her day’s work, the flower and the passion of war.

Margaret’s eyes brightened. “If you could get a temporary V.A.D., I think I’d like to come back when he’s gone.”

The older woman looked at her. “I think you’d better take a rest. You’ve been at this dull job for a long time now. Don’t you think you would be better for it?”

“Perhaps you are right,” Margaret said. “I really haven’t had time to consider details I’d only got as far as wanting the week while he is at home, to get married in.”

“Take it, by all means,” the matron said. “I’ve a good long waiting-list on my books of voluntary helpers to choose from.” She paused. “I don’t mean that it will be easy to replace you, Miss Lampton I wish all my workers gave me as little trouble as you have done.”

“Oh, but it’s been such ordinary work! Anyone could have done it as well.”

“I’ve not been a hospital nurse for twenty years, Miss Lampton, for nothing. You can comfort yourself with the fact that a good worker always makes herself felt in whatever capacity she is in. No sentiment or romance finds its way into an area-pantry, though there’s plenty of it in the wards.” She smiled. “But in spite of that, your romance seems to have progressed. I wish you every happiness and the best of luck.”

Luck nowadays, Margaret knew, meant but one thing the life of her husband. “Thank you,” she said. “I’ve loved being of use. I’ve really been grateful for the work it’s been what I needed.”

“I think I can get a V.A.D. to take your place to-morrow morning you will want all your time. If you will look in at your usual hour, you will hear if we have got one. But take my advice, Miss Lampton,” the matron said, as she turned to leave the astonished Margaret, “if you are going to nurse, go in for a thorough hospital training. You’d make a good nurse . . .” she paused, “. . . that is to say, if you are free to do it when your husband is at the Front. Anyhow, think it over. It seems to me a pity that you should be content to remain a V.A.D. when you may be wanted for much more serious work later on.”

When she had said good-bye, Margaret fled to the telephone. She had so much to do and arrange that she had to go from one thing to another as fast as she could. She rang up the rooms in Clarges Street where she knew that Hadassah Ireton was going to stay. She ought to have arrived that afternoon. When at last she got on to the right number, she was answered by the husband of the landlady, an ex-butler, and an admirable maitre de cuisine.

“Has Mrs. Ireton arrived yet?” Margaret asked.

“Yes, she arrived at five o’clock. Who shall I say speaking?”

“Ask her if she can speak to Miss Lampton, please, for a few minutes. Will you tell her that it is very urgent?”

The next minute Margaret heard Hadassah’s voice.

“Hallo! Miss Lampton, is that you?”

“Yes,” Margaret said. “But, please, not Miss Lampton!”

“Well, Margaret I always think of you as Margaret. How nice of you to ring me up and welcome me to London!”

“Hadassah,” Margaret said breathlessly; her heart was beating with her news; she spoke rather loudly, “I rang you up to tell you that I’m going to be married the day after tomorrow!”

Hadassah heard Margaret sigh even through the telephone. It was a sigh of pent-up emotion, an expression of relief.

Margaret waited. She knew that she had taken Hadassah so completely by surprise that she had no answer ready.

“Margaret!” she said at last, in amazement, “who to?”

Margaret detected, or fancied she did, a little coldness in her question. There was certainly not the pleased ring of congratulation which she had expected in her words.

“Why, to Michael Amory, of course! Who else could it be?” Margaret’s happy laugh crackled in Hadassah’s ears.

“Oh, my dear, I’m so glad! What a wonderful surprise! Is he in London? When did he turn up?”

“He has been to the Front as a Tommy, but he’s got his commission in the same regiment. I only met him to-day he’s just got back. I feel too bewildered to think; I scarcely know what I am saying.”

“Is this the first time that you’ve seen him since you parted in Egypt?” Hadassah’s voice expressed both amusement and eager curiosity.

“Yes, to speak to. We met in the train. Some months ago I saw him at a railway-station in the North. He was passing through, and I was there, but we had no opportunity of speaking to each other.” In the same breathless voice she said, “Freddy would approve. I know what you are thinking, but it’s all right he’s as keen as Freddy about the war, and there never was anything wrong.”

“I’m so awfully glad. You know I never doubted him.”

“He arrived in England the day before war was declared by us. He tried to find me, but he couldn’t, and so he just gave himself up to the war. He lost himself in it you know his way! He thought that Freddy and I would approve. He was always worthy of me, Hadassah, but now I’m so proud of him. He would have joined up in any case, but he thought that in doing his bit he would atone for his weakness about Millicent. It was only his old method of letting things slide he couldn’t get rid of her, but he was absolutely loyal to me.”

“I understand,” Hadassah said. “But I admit that it was difficult for Freddy to look at it in that light.”

“It’s so hard to explain over the ’phone,” Margaret said. “And indeed, it isn’t what he has told me so much it’s just what he makes me feel.”

“I know, dear. I feel it’s all right I always felt it was.”

“He has been absolutely true, Hadassah. Freddy must know that now. And you know, I can afford to marry.” Her voice lost its buoyancy.

“Yes, I know, dear. I saw your brother’s will.”

“And you approve, Hadassah? It seems a shame not to grasp this little bit of happiness.” She paused, for above her practical words came the assurance of Michael’s safety; the words of the message almost came to her lips.

“I quite approve. In these awful days, even a fortnight of happiness is a wonderful thing. Use your own judgment, Margaret it’s been unerring so far. Take this joy right to your heart.”

“Will you and your husband witness our marriage? I want to telegraph to Aunt Anna may I say that I am being married from your house? We won’t bother you is it awful cheek asking you?”

“Why, my dear, of course you can come here to-morrow, as early as ever you like, and we’ll go into all the details, and fix up everything quite nicely. With telephones and money and London at our backs, you will be astonished at what a nice little dejeuner we shall have ready for you.” Hadassah laughed. “Money has its uses, my dear, in spite of all your Mike’s oblivion of the fact.”

“Oh, you are too kind! Won’t it be nice a little dejeuner a quatre in your rooms? Your husband is with you? I forgot to ask.”

“Yes, he’s here. He’ll stand by your Michael. Now, all you’ve got to do is to look after your own concerns get your things together and send them here. I’ll have them packed for you and do all the rest.”

“You angel!” Margaret said. “Oh, don’t cut us off!” she cried to the girl at the exchange, for a buzzing sound filled her ears. “Are you there? Can you hear? I won’t take much on my honeymoon,” she said, but her words did not reach Hadassah; no answer came back to her. They had been cut off. She quickly put the receiver back on its hook and hurried off to do the next thing which suggested itself as being the most important writing a short list of the things which she would have to buy the next day, and sending a telegram to her Aunt Anna.