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diff --git a/19304-h/19304-h.htm b/19304-h/19304-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5fc3fca --- /dev/null +++ b/19304-h/19304-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9566 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Secret History Revealed By Lady Peggy O'malley, by C. N. & A. M. Williamson. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Secret History Revealed By Lady Peggy +O'Malley, by C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Secret History Revealed By Lady Peggy O'Malley + +Author: C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson + +Illustrator: Clarence Rowe + +Release Date: September 17, 2006 [EBook #19304] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SECRET HISTORY *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + + + +<h1>Secret History Revealed by Lady Peggy O'Malley</h1> + +<h2>By C. N. & A. M. WILLIAMSON</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Author of</span> "The Lightning Conductor Discovers America," "A +Soldier of the Legion," "Lady Betty Across the Water," Etc.</h3> + +<h4>With Frontispiece in Colors By CLARENCE ROWE</h4> + + +<h4>A. L. BURT COMPANY<br /> +Publishers New York<br /> +Published by arrangements with<br /> +<span class="smcap">Doubleday, Page</span> and <span class="smcap">Company</span></h4> + +<h4><i>Copyright, 1915, by</i><br /> +C. N. & A. M. <span class="smcap">Williamson</span></h4> + +<h4><i>All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign +languages, including the Scandinavian</i></h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a> +<img src="images/frontis.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3><i>"As I kicked it away, one of the slippers flew off and seemed spitefully to follow the coat."</i></h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + + +<p>If I didn't tell this, nobody else ever would; certainly not Diana, nor +Major Vandyke—still less Eagle himself—I mean Captain Eagleston March; +and they and I are the only ones who know, except a few such people as +presidents and secretaries of war and generals, who never tell anything +even under torture. Besides, there is the unofficial part. Without that, +the drama would be like a play in three acts, with the first and third +acts chopped off. The presidents and secretaries of war and generals +know nothing about the unofficial part.</p> + +<p>It's strange how the biggest things of life grow out of the tiniest +ones. There <i>is</i> the old simile of the acorn and the oak, for instance. +But oaks take a long time to grow, and everybody concerned in oak +culture is calmly expecting them to do it. Imagine an acorn exploding to +let out an oak huge enough to shadow the world!</p> + +<p>If, two years ago, when I was sixteen, I hadn't wanted money to buy a +white frock with roses on it, which I saw in Selfridge's window, a +secret crisis between the United States and Mexico would have been +avoided; and the career of a splendid soldier would not have been +broken.</p> + +<p>One month before I met the white dress, Diana and Father and I had come +from home—that's Ballyconal—to see what good we could do with a season +in London; good for Diana, I mean, and I put her before Father because +he does so himself. Every one else he puts far, far behind, like the +beasts following Noah into the Ark. Not that I'm sure, without looking +them up, that they did follow Noah. But if it had been Father, he would +have arranged it in that way, to escape seeing their ugly faces or +smelling those who were not nice to smell.</p> + +<p>I suppose I should have been left at Ballyconal, with nothing to do but +study my beloved French and Spanish, my sole accomplishments; only +Father had contrived to let the place, through the New York <i>Herald</i>, to +an American family who, poor dears, snapped it up by cable from the +description in the advertisement of "a wonderful XII Century Castle." +Besides, Diana couldn't afford a maid. And that's why I was taken to +America afterward. I can do hair beautifully. So, when one thinks back, +Fate had begun to weave a web long before the making of that white +dress. None of those tremendous things would have happened to change +heaven knows how many lives, if I hadn't been born with the knack of a +hairdresser, inherited perhaps from some bourgeoise ancestress of mine +on Mother's side.</p> + +<p>When the American family found out what Ballyconal was really like, and +the twelfth-century rats had crept out from the hinterland of the old +wainscoting ("rich in ancient oak," the advertisement stated), to +scamper over its faces by night, and door knobs had come off in its +hands by day, or torn carpets had tripped it up and sprained its ankles, +it said bad words about deceitful, stoney-broke Irish earls, and fled at +the end of a fortnight, having paid for two months in advance at the +rate of thirty-five guineas a week. Father had been sadly sure that the +Americans would do that very thing, so he had counted on getting only +the advance money and no more. This meant cheap lodgings for us, which +spoiled Diana's chances from the start, as she told Father the minute +she saw the house. It was in a fairly good neighbourhood, and the +address looked fashionable on paper; but man, and especially girl, may +not live on neighbourhood and paper alone, even if the latter can be +peppered with coronets.</p> + +<p>I don't know what curse or mildew collects on poor Irish earls, but it +simply goes nowhere to be one in London; and then there was the handicap +of Father's two quaint marriages. Diana's mother was a music-hall +"artiste" (isn't that the word?) without any money except what she +earned, and also—I heard a woman say once, when she thought Little +Pitcher's ears were engaged elsewhere—without any "h's" except in the +wrong places.</p> + +<p>My mother, the poor darling, must have been just as unsuitable in her +way. She was a French chocolate heiress, whom Father married to mend the +family fortunes, when Diana was five; but some one shortly after sprang +on the market a better chocolate than her people made, so she was a +failure, too, and not even beautiful like Diana's mother. Luckily for +her, she died when I was born; but neither she nor the "artiste" can +have helped Father much, with the smart friends of his young days when +he was one of the best-looking bachelors in town.</p> + +<p>Diana was considered beautiful, but "the image of her mother," by those +inconvenient creatures who run around the world remembering other +people's pasts; and though she and Father were invited to lots of big +crushes, they weren't asked to any of the charming intimate things which +Diana says are the right background for a débutante. This went to Di's +heart and Father's liver, and made them both dreadfully hard to get on +with. Cinderella wasn't in it with me, except that when they were +beastly, I was beastly back again; a relief to which Cinderella probably +didn't treat herself, being a fairy-story heroine, stuffed with virtues +as a sultana cake is stuffed with plums.</p> + +<p>The day I asked Father for the white frock with roses on it in +Selfridge's window, he was so disagreeable that I went to my room and +slammed the door and kicked a chair. It was true that I did not need the +dress, because I never went anywhere and was only a flapper (it's almost +more unpleasant to be called a flapper than a "mouth to feed"); still, +the real pleasure of having a thing is when you don't need it, but just +want it. The farther away from me that gown seemed to recede, the more I +longed for it; and when Father told me not to nag or be a little idiot, +I determined that somehow or other, by hook or crook, the frock should +hang on my wall behind the chintz curtain which calls itself a wardrobe.</p> + +<p>The morning of the refusal, Father and Di were starting off to be away +all that day and night. They were asked to a ridiculous house party +given by a rich, suburban Pickle family at Epsom for the Derby, and Di +had been grumbling that it was exactly the sort of invitation they +<i>would</i> get: for one night and the Derby, instead of Ascot. However, it +was the time of the month for a moon, and quite decent young men had +been enticed; so Di wasn't so very sorry for herself after all. Her +nickname at home in Ireland, "Diana the Huntress," had been already +imported, free of duty, to England, by a discarded flirtée; but I don't +think she minded, it sounded so dashing, even if it was only grasping. +She went off moderately happy; and I was left with twenty-four hours on +my hands to decide by what hook, or what crook, I could possibly annex +the dress which I felt had been born for me.</p> + +<p>At last I thought of a way that might do. My poor little chocolate +mother made a will the day before she died, when I was a week old, +leaving everything she possessed to me. Of course her money was all +gone, because she had been married for two years to Father, and Himself +is a very expensive man. But he hadn't spent her jewels yet, nor her +wedding veil, nor a few other pieces of lace. Since then he's wheedled +most of the jewellery out of me, but the wedding veil I mean to keep +always, and a Point d'Alençon scarf and some handkerchiefs he has +probably forgotten. I had forgotten them, too, but when I was racking my +brain how to get the Selfridge dress, the remembrance tumbled down off +its dusty little shelf.</p> + +<p>The legacies were at the bottom of my trunk, because it was simpler to +bring them away from Ballyconal, than find a stowaway place that the +American family wouldn't need for its belongings. The veil nothing would +have induced me to part with; but the scarf was so old, I felt sure it +must have come to my mother from a succession of chocolate or perhaps +soap or sardine grandmammas, and I hadn't much sentiment about it. I had +no precise idea what the lace ought to be worth, but I fancied Point +d'Alençon must be valuable, and I thought I ought to get more than +enough by selling it to buy the white dress, which cost seven guineas.</p> + +<p>Taxying through Wardour Street with Di, I had often noticed an antique +shop appropriately crusted with the grime of centuries, all but the +polished window, where lace and china and bits of old silver were +displayed. It seemed to me that a person intelligent enough to combine +odds and ends with such fetching effect ought to be the man to +appreciate my great—or great great-grandmother's scarf. I didn't run to +taxis when alone, and would as soon have got into one of those appalling +motor buses as leap on to the back of a mad elephant that had +berserkered out of the Zoo. Consequently, I had to walk. It was an +untidy, badly dusted day, with a hot wind; and I realized, when I caught +sight of myself in a convex mirror in the curiosity-shop window, that I +looked rather like a small female edition of Strumpelpeter.</p> + +<p>There was a bell on the door which, like a shrill, disparaging <i>leit +motif</i>, announced me, and made me suddenly self-conscious. It hadn't +occurred to me before that there was anything to be ashamed of or +frightened about in my errand. I'd vaguely pictured the shopman as a +dear old Dickensy thing who would take a fussy interest in me and my +scarf, and who would, with a fatherly manner, press upon me a handful of +sovereigns or a banknote. But as the bell jangled, one of the most +repulsive men I ever saw looked toward the door. There was another man +in the place, talking to the first creature, and he looked up, too. Not +even the blindest bat, however, could have mistaken him for a +shopkeeper, and his being there put not only a different complexion on +the business, but on me. I felt mine turning bright pink, instead of the +usual cream that accompanies the chocolate-coloured hair and eyes with +which I advertise the industry of my French ancestors.</p> + +<p>The shopman stared at me with a sulky look exactly like that of +Nebuchadnezzar, our boar pig from Yorkshire, which took a prize for its +nose or something. This person might have won a prize for his nose also, +if an offer had been going for large ones. The rest of his face, olive +green and fat, was in the perspective of this nose, just as the lesser +proportions of his body, such as chest and legs, were in the perspective +of his—waist. The shop was much smaller than I had expected from the +window—a place you might have swung a cat in without giving it +concussion of the brain, but not a lion; and the men—the fat proprietor +and his long, lean customer, and two suits of deformed-looking armour, +seemed almost to fill it. I've heard an actor talk about a theatre being +so tiny he was "on the audience"; and these two were on theirs, the +audience being me. I was so close to the fat one that I could see the +crumbs on the folds of his waistcoat, like food stored on cupboard +shelves. I took such a dislike to him that I felt inclined to bounce out +as quickly as I had bounced in, but the door had banged mechanically +behind me, as if to stop the bell at any cost. The shop smelt of moth +powder, old leather, musty paper, and hair oil.</p> + +<p>"Well, my little girl, what do you want?" inquired Nebuchadnezzar, with +the kind of lisp that turns a rat into a yat.</p> + +<p>Little girl, indeed! To be called a "little girl" by a thing like that, +and asked what I wanted in that second-hand Hebrew tone, made me boil +for half a second. Then, suddenly, I saw that it was funny, and I almost +giggled as I imagined myself haughtily explaining that I had reached the +age of sixteen, to say nothing of being the daughter of two or three +hundred earls. I didn't care a tuppenny anything whether he mistook me +for nine or ninety; but I did begin to feel that it wouldn't be pleasant +unrolling my tissue-paper parcel and bargaining for money under the eyes +and ears of the other man.</p> + +<p>They were very nice eyes and ears. Already I'd had time to notice that; +for even in these days, when men aren't supposed to be as indispensable +to females as they were in Edwardian or Victorian and earlier ages, I +don't think it's entirely obsolete for a girl to learn more about a +man's looks in three seconds than she picks up about another woman's +frock in two.</p> + +<p>This man wasn't what most girls of sixteen would call young; but I am +different from most girls because I've always had to be a sort of law +unto myself, in order not to become a family footstool. I've had to make +up my mind about everything or risk my brain degenerating into a bath +sponge; and one of the things I made it up about early was that I didn't +like boys or nuts. The customer in the curiosity shop, to whom the +proprietor was showing perfect ducks of Chelsea lambs plastered against +green Chelsea bushes, was, maybe, twenty-eight or thirty, a great age +for a woman, but not so bad for a man; and I wished to goodness he would +buy or not buy a lamb and go forth about other business. However, I +couldn't indefinitely delay answering that question addressed to "little +girl."</p> + +<p>"I want to show you a point-lace scarf," I snapped. Nebuchadnezzar's +understudy squeezed himself out from behind the counter, and lumbered a +step or two nearer me, moving not straight ahead, but from side to side, +as tables do for spiritualists.</p> + +<p>"We don't mend lace here, if that's what you've come for, my child," he +patronized me.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't need to be mended," said I. "It's beautiful lace. It's to be +sold."</p> + +<p>"Oa—oh," he exploded with a cockney drawl, and a rude look coming into +his eyes which he'd kept out while there was hope that the dusty, +blown-about little thing might turn into a customer. "Well! Let's see! +But I've got more old lace on hand now than I know what to do with."</p> + +<p>As I unrolled layers of tissue paper which seemed to rustle loudly out +of sheer spite, I was conscious that the customer had sauntered away as +far as possible, and was gazing at some old prints on the wall which +gave him an excuse to turn his back to us. I thought this sweetly +tactful of him.</p> + +<p>Nebuchadnezzar (over the shop he calls himself Franks, the sort of +noncommittal name a Jacobs or Wolfstein likes to hide under) almost +snatched the lace from my hands as I opened the package, shook out its +folds, held it close to his eyes, pawed it, and sniffed. "Humph!" he +grunted ungraciously. "Same old thing as usual. If I've got one of 'em, +I've got a dozen. What did you expect to ask for it?"</p> + +<p>"Ten pounds," I announced, as bold as one of those lions that could not +be swung in his shop.</p> + +<p>"Ten pounds!" I don't know whether the sound he made was meant for a +snort or a laugh. "Ten grandmothers!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I, flaring up as if he'd struck a match on me. "That's just +it! Ten of my grandmothers have worn this scarf since it was made, and I +want a pound for each of them."</p> + +<p>There was a small funny noise behind me, like a staunched giggle, and I +glanced over my shoulder at the customer, but his back looked most calm +and inoffensive.</p> + +<p>"You'll have to take it out in wanting, I'm afraid, my girl," returned +the shopkeeper. "I can offer you thirty bob, no more and no less. That's +all the thing's worth to me."</p> + +<p>I tried to pull the scarf out of his hands, but he didn't seem ready to +give it up. "It's worth a great deal more to me," I said. "I'll carry it +away somewhere else, where they <i>know</i> about old lace."</p> + +<p>"My word! You're a pert young piece for your size!" remarked the +horrible man; and though I could have boxed his ears (which stood out +exactly like the handles on an urn), I felt my own tingle, because it +was <i>true</i>, what he said: I was a pert young piece. Holding my own at +home, and lots of other things in life (for sixteen years of life seem +fearfully long if they're all you've got behind you), had made me pert, +and I didn't love myself for it, any more than a porcupine can be really +fond of his own quills. I couldn't bear, somehow, that the man with the +nice eyes should be hearing me called a "pert piece," and thinking me +one. Quite a smart repartee came into my head, but a heavy feeling in my +heart kept me from putting it into words; and Nebuchadnezzar went +grunting on: "I know as much about old lace as any man in this street, +if not in town. That's why I don't offer more."</p> + +<p>"Give me back my scarf, please," was my only answer, in quite a small +voice.</p> + +<p>Still he held on to the lace. "Look here, miss," said he in a changed +tone, "how did you come to get hold of this bit of property, anyhow? +Folks ain't in the habit of sending their children out to dispose o' +their valuables. How can I tell that you ain't nicked this off your +mother or your aunt, or some other dame who doesn't know you're out? If +I was doin' my dooty, I shouldn't wonder if I oughtn't to call in the +police!"</p> + +<p>"You horrid, horrid person," I flung at him. "You're trying to frighten +me—to blackmail me—into selling you my lace for thirty shillings, when +maybe it's worth twenty times that. But if any one calls the police, it +will be me, to give you in charge for—for intimidation."</p> + +<p>Almost before I had time to be proud of the word when I'd contrived to +get it out, the customer had detached himself from the prints and +intervened.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon for interfering," he said (to me, not to +Nebuchadnezzar), "but I can't help wondering"—and he smiled a perfectly +disarming smile—"if you aren't rather young to be a business woman on +your own account. Will you let me see the lace?"</p> + +<p>Of course the shopkeeper gave it up to him instantly, shamefaced at +realizing that his customer, instead of admiring his smart methods, was +entering the lists against him.</p> + +<p>While my champion (I felt sure somehow that he was my champion at heart) +took the scarf in his hands, and began trying to look wise over it, I +had about forty-nine seconds in which to look at him. Even at first +glance I had thought him nice, but now I decided that he was the nicest +man I had ever seen. Not the handsomest; I don't mean that, for our +county in Ireland is celebrated for its handsome men, both high and low. +Also I'd seen several Dreams since we came to London: but—well, just +the <i>nicest</i>.</p> + +<p>Because it was the middle of the season and he was in tweeds, I fancied +that he didn't go in for being "smart." I'd learned enough already about +London ways to understand as much as that. But all the same I thought +that he had the air of a soldier. And he had such a contradictory sort +of face that it interested me immensely, wondering what the +contradictions meant.</p> + +<p>He had taken off his hat when I came into the shop (I'd noticed that, +and had been pleased), and now I saw that the upper part of his forehead +was very white and the rest of his face very tanned, as if his +complexion had slipped down. He had almost straw-coloured hair, which +seemed lighter than it was because of his sunburned skin; and his +eyebrows and the eyelashes (lowered while he gazed at my lace) were two +or three shades darker. They were long, arched brows that gave a look of +dreamy romance to the upper part of his face, but the lower part was +extremely determined, perhaps even obstinate. It jumped into my head +that a woman—even a fascinator like Diana—would never be able to make +him change his mind about things, or do things he didn't wish to do. +That was one of the contradictions, and the nose was another. It was +rather a Roman sort of nose, and looked aggressive, as if it would be +searching about for forlorn hopes to fight for; anyhow, as if it must +fight at all costs. Then, contradicting the nose, was the mouth (for he +was clean-shaven as all young men ought to be, and not leave too much to +our imagination), a mouth somehow like a boy's, affectionate and kind +and gay, though far from being weak. I didn't know what to make of him +at all, and, of course, I liked him the better for that.</p> + +<p>"I think this is mighty fine lace," he pronounced, when he had studied +it long enough to show off as a connoisseur; and all of a sudden I +realized that he was an American. Diana had collected two American +friends who often invited her to the Savoy, and I'd heard them, and no +one else, say "mighty fine." "Are you sure you want to get rid of it?"</p> + +<p>I thought he was a dear to put it like that, as if I could have no real +need for money, but had such a glut of lace scarves at home that I must +rid myself of a few superfluous ones. As he spoke he was looking +straight at me with the kind eyes I had noticed first of all—gray and +yellow and brown mixed up together into hazel. I suppose it must have +been some quality in that look which made me decide instantly to tell +him everything. I'd have suffered the torture of the boot (anyhow, for a +minute or two) before I would have explained myself to Nebuchadnezzar.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure I do want to sell, if I can get as much as ten pounds for the +thing," I answered. "Nothing less than seven guineas would be of any use +to me. There's something which costs seven guineas—a thing I'm dying to +buy. My mother left this scarf to me, as well as some other lace I +wouldn't sell for the world. But it's quite mine and I can do as I like +with it."</p> + +<p>"Let me see! Ten pounds is fifty dollars, isn't it?" the man reflected +out aloud.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," I caught him up, "anything about American money or +America."</p> + +<p>He smiled at me again. Perhaps I had hoped he would.</p> + +<p>"That's too bad! You ought to come over on our side and learn."</p> + +<p>"I'd love to, especially to the parts where I could show off my French +and Spanish. But I'm sure I shall never get the chance to cross the +sea." I was three thousand miles from dreaming then of all the things +that were to come out of this little affair of the scarf and the dress +which had tempted me to put my lace on the market.</p> + +<p>"Well," he went on, going back from me to my property. "I'll buy this +pretty thing for ten pounds if you like to sell it to me; but honestly, +I warn you that for all I know it may be worth a lot more."</p> + +<p>"I'll be perfectly satisfied with ten pounds," I said. "But I don't wish +you to buy just out of kindness, when I'm almost sure you don't really +want to."</p> + +<p>"But I do," he assured me. "I came into this place to carry out a +commission for an aunt of mine in America. She wrote and asked me to +find her something in a curiosity shop in England that she could give +for a wedding present to a girl who's wild about antiques. An old friend +of ours is going to take the parcel back with her when she sails +to-morrow; smuggle it, maybe, but that's not my business. I thought of a +miniature on ivory, but I haven't taken a big fancy to anything I've +seen so far. I like your lace better, and it costs just the money my +aunt told me to spend. So there you are."</p> + +<p>"And there's the lace," I added, laughing. "It's yours. Thank you very +much."</p> + +<p>"It's for me to thank you," said he. "I'm awfully afraid I'm getting the +best of the bargain, though. Wouldn't you rather go somewhere first and +consult an expert?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed," said I. "Maybe the expert would tell us the lace was worth +only five pounds, not ten. What I'm in a hurry to do is to dash to +Selfridge's, and buy the dress I want before some beast of a girl gets +it before me. Oh, horror! Maybe she's there already!"</p> + +<p>"The worst of it is," said my new friend—I felt he was that—"I haven't +got the ten pounds on me. I meant to have anything I might decide to buy +sent home and paid for at my hotel."</p> + +<p>"Can't I go with you to your hotel, and you give me the money there?" I +wanted to know. "You see, I'm in such a hurry about the dress."</p> + +<p>He glanced at me with a funny look in his eyes, and somehow I read what +it meant. <i>He</i> hadn't called me a "little girl," and had behaved as +respectfully as if I were a hundred; but I could see that he thought me +about twelve or thirteen; and now he was saying to himself: "No harm +carting a child like that about without a chaperon."</p> + +<p>This was the first time I'd ever been glad that I had sacrificed myself +for Di, and come to London in my old frocks up to the tops of my boots, +and my hair hanging in two tails down to my waist. Of course, if any one +were caddish or cattish enough to look her up in the book, it could be +found out at a glance that Lady Diana O'Malley was twenty-three; but +even if a person is a cad or a cat, he (or she) is often too lazy to go +through the dull pages of Debrett or Burke; and besides, there is seldom +one of the books handy. Therefore, Di had a sporting chance of being +taken for eighteen, the sweet conventional age of a débutante on her +presentation. Every one did know, however, that Father had married +twice, and that there must be a difference of five or six years between +Diana and the chocolate child. Accordingly, if I could be induced to +look thirteen at most, it would be useful. As for me, I hadn't cared +particularly. I knew I shouldn't get any grown-up fun in London, whether +my hair were in a tail or a twist, or whether my dresses were short or +long. Sometimes I had been sorry for beginning in that way, but now I +saw that virtue was going to be rewarded.</p> + +<p>"All right," said my friend. "Maybe it will be the best arrangement." +And we left Nebuchadnezzar looking as the dog in the fable must have +looked, when he snapped at the reflected bit of meat in the water and +lost the bit in his mouth.</p> + +<p>A taxi was passing, and stopped at the flourish of a cane. I jumped in +before I could be helped. The man followed; and though I was looking +forward only to a little fun, my very first adventure in London "on my +own," the chauffeur was speeding us along a road that didn't stop at the +Waldorf Hotel: it was a road which would carry us both on and on, toward +a blazing bonfire of wild passion and romance.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + + +<p>The first thing we did when we were in the taxicab was to introduce +ourselves to each other. I told him that I was Marguerite O'Malley, but +that, as I wasn't a bit like a marguerite or even a common or garden +daisy, I'd degenerated into Peggy. I didn't drag in anything about my +family tree; it seemed unnecessary. He told me that he was Eagleston +March, but that he had degenerated into "Eagle." I thought this nickname +suited his aquiline nose, his brilliant eyes, and that eager, alert look +he had of being alive in every nerve and fibre. He told me, too, that he +was a captain in the American army, over in England for the first time +on leave; but before he got so far, I knew very well who he was, for I'd +read about him days ago in Father's <i>Times</i>.</p> + +<p>"Why, you're the first American who's looped the loop at Hendon!" I +cried out. "You invented some stability thing or other to put on a +monoplane."</p> + +<p>He laughed. "Some stability thing or other's a neat description. But +you're right. I'm the American fellow that the loop has looped."</p> + +<p>"Now I know," said I, "why you're not at the Derby to-day. Horses at +their fastest must seem slow to a flying man."</p> + +<p>"This time you're not right," he corrected me. "I'm not at the Derby +because it isn't much fun seeing a race when you don't know anything +about the horses, and haven't a pal to go with."</p> + +<p>"But you must have lots of pals," I thought out aloud. "Every one adores +the airmen."</p> + +<p>"Do they? I haven't noticed it."</p> + +<p>"Then you can't be conceited. Perhaps American men aren't. I never knew +one before, except in business."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens! So you really are a business woman, as well as a +linguist, apparently. At what age did you begin?"</p> + +<p>"What age do you take me for now?" I hedged.</p> + +<p>"About twelve or thirteen, I suppose, though I'm no judge of girls' +ages, whether they're little or big."</p> + +<p>"I'm over twelve," I confessed, and went on hastily to change the +dangerous subject. "But I really did have business with an American. It +was in letters. My father made me write them, though they were signed +with his name. He hates writing letters. I'm so thankful your name isn't +Trowbridge. I hope you aren't related to any Trowbridges?"</p> + +<p>"Not one. But why?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, because, if you were, you might want to throw me to the wolves—I +mean under the motor buses. We've done the Trowbridges of Chicago a +fearful wrong. We let them our place in Ireland, while we came to London +to enjoy ourselves."</p> + +<p>He laughed aloud, that very nice, young laugh of his, which made me feel +more at home with him than with people I'd known all my life. "You +really are a quaint little woman," he said. "Now I come to think of it, +I do know some people in Chicago named Trowbridge."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," said I, "if you must throw me out of anything, do it out of +your monoplane. It would be so much more distinguished than out of a +mere taxi. And at least, I should have flown first! For you would have +to take me up before you could dash me down. And so my dream would have +come true."</p> + +<p>"Is it your dream to fly?" he asked, interested.</p> + +<p>"Waking and sleeping," said I. "Ever since I was a tiny child, my very +best dream has been that I was flying. Even to dream it asleep is +perfectly wonderful and thrilling, worth being born for, just to feel. +What must it be when you're actually awake?"</p> + +<p>"You are an enthusiast," said Captain March. "You've got it in your +blood. What a pity you're not a boy. You could be a 'flying man' +yourself."</p> + +<p>"Well, it's something to know one," said I. "Why, I'd give my hand—the +left one—or anyhow, a finger of it—for just an hour in the air. A toe +would be too cheap."</p> + +<p>"I'd take you up like a shot, if your people would let you go," said he.</p> + +<p>I gasped with joy. "Oh, <i>would</i> you?" I exclaimed. "Really and truly, I +didn't mean to hint! But it would be heaven to go!"</p> + +<p>"Not in my <i>Golden Eagle</i>," he laughed, "for I'd guarantee to bring you +safe and sound back to earth again, this side of heaven. I can take up +one passenger, though I haven't yet, since I came out here. I haven't +met anybody, till now, I particularly cared to ask, and who would +particularly have cared to go."</p> + +<p>"And you <i>would</i> care to take me? How kind of you!"</p> + +<p>"Kind to myself. I told you I hadn't any pals in England. You seem to be +the stuff they're made of. You'd be a 'mascot,' I'm sure. But your +people——"</p> + +<p>"People? I haven't any. At least, a governess I once had said you +couldn't call two, 'people.' They must be spoken of as 'persons.' I have +only <i>persons</i> who belong to me—just Father and a grown-up sister—a +half-sister. They like each other so much that they haven't room to care +about me. If the <i>Golden Eagle</i> tipped me out, and smashed me as flat as +a paper doll, they wouldn't shed a tear."</p> + +<p>"Poor little child! But maybe you're mistaken. Maybe <i>you</i> are not +conceited!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am! That's why I notice when I'm not loved. Oh, <i>do</i> take me up. +Take me up to-day! I'm all alone in the world. My 'persons' have gone to +the Derby, and are staying all night at Epsom with a fat, rich family. +I'm left to the mercy of the landlady in our lodgings. I'll even give up +the dress at Selfridge's to go with you. That's more than sacrificing a +toe!"</p> + +<p>But he had stopped laughing. Instead he had turned quite grave. "I +couldn't possibly do it," he said. "I'm awfully sorry to refuse. If you +were older, you'd understand that it wouldn't be the right thing for a +strange man and a 'foreigner,' to kidnap a little girl and fly off with +her into space. Supposing I had an accident? I'm sure I shouldn't—but +just supposing. I should never be able to forgive myself. Don't despair +though. If you can manage to introduce me as a respectable sort of chap +to your father, and he gives his permission——"</p> + +<p>"But how did I get to know you?" I groaned. "I shall have to fib."</p> + +<p>"No, you won't," he said quickly. "I refuse to be fibbed about. You must +think of some other way."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid," I said dolefully, "you agree with that hateful curiosity +man about me!"</p> + +<p>"Agree with him? I don't understand."</p> + +<p>"That I'm a pert minx or something. That's what he called me—or a pert +piece. It's all the same thing. And I am it. I don't mind telling fibs. +I've told lots."</p> + +<p>"You poor little thing!" exclaimed Captain March in a pitying tone, but +with the kind of pity the proudest person wouldn't resent, because it +really came from his heart. "You seem to have had to fight your own +battles. Maybe your mother died when you were very young?"</p> + +<p>"When I was a week young," I said, and suddenly I felt myself choked up.</p> + +<p>"That explains the telling of fibs, you see, and saying you don't +mind—though I'm sure you do, when you stop to think of it; because the +sort of girl who can be a good pal to a man just can't tell fibs, any +more than the man can—if he's worth being a pal to."</p> + +<p>Two boiling hot tears ran down my face, one on each cheek. I couldn't +answer. I only looked up at him, feeling all eyes.</p> + +<p>"What a beast I am!" he exclaimed. "I've made you cry!"</p> + +<p>"It's I who am the beast," I managed to gasp out, because I saw he was +badly distressed about me, and what he had done. "I'm crying because I'm +a little beast. But I'd like not to be."</p> + +<p>"You're not. You're a little soldier. Will you forgive me? I didn't mean +to preach."</p> + +<p>"You didn't preach. I expect you'd talk like that to a real soldier—one +of those you're captain of. Well, I'll pretend I'm one of those +soldiers, and that you're my captain."</p> + +<p>As I spoke, the taxi was drawing up in front of his hotel; but I went +straight on with my play, and gave him a military salute. "Thank you, +Captain," said I, "for taking an interest. I shan't forget. No more +fibs! I'll work for my corporal's stripe!"</p> + +<p>"Good child!" he beamed on me, looking young and happy again. "I'll get +you the stripe. I have it ready for you upstairs. I'll bring it down +when I bring the money for the lace scarf. Would you rather wait in the +taxi, or will you come into the ladies' parlour in the hotel?"</p> + +<p>I thought "parlour" a lovely word, and very French, though I supposed it +might be American, too. It was quite an adventure going into an hotel.</p> + +<p>My captain (already I'd begun to think of him as that, since he'd called +me a soldier) paid the chauffeur and led me to a big drawing-room where +several women sat, so prettily dressed and so trim that they made me +feel shabby in my brown holland frock and my blown-about hair. I +wondered what he had meant by saying he would bring me a "corporal's +stripe," and whether he had meant anything at all, except a passing +joke. Somehow, I felt that he had had a definite idea, but I didn't +dream it would be anything half so fascinating as it turned out.</p> + +<p>He was not gone more than five or six minutes, and when he appeared +again he drew up a chair in front of me, deliberately turning his back +to the other occupants of the room, so that they could not see what was +going on. Then he made me hold out my hands (I was ashamed of my untidy +gloves) and receive in them ten golden sovereigns, which he counted as +they dropped into my open palms.</p> + +<p>"I hope you'll never regret bartering away your +great-great-grandmother's beautiful lace for this pittance," said he. +"And now for the corporal's stripe, if you're going to enlist in my +regiment."</p> + +<p>"I am," I cried. "I've enlisted in it already."</p> + +<p>"Here, then," and he took from his coat pocket a little crumpled-up ball +of something black and gold, evidently thrust in with haste. "This is +one of the chevrons I wore on my sleeve when I was made corporal of +cadets at West Point, eleven years ago this very month. You'll laugh, I +guess, when I tell you why I brought the thing with me over here. I kept +it, out of a sort of—of sentiment, or sentimentality maybe, because I +was so dashed proud when I got it. I thought it marked an epoch in my +life; that it was a token of success. Well, when I was coming over to +your side of the water, to try out the <i>Golden Eagle</i> among all the +English flyers, I was silly enough to think if she did any good, I'd +stick this poor old stripe on her somewhere, for auld lang syne. Now I'd +rather give it to you, little soldier."</p> + +<p>I think it was at that minute I began to worship him. I worshipped him +as a child worships, and as a woman worships, too; except that, perhaps, +when a woman lets herself go with a flood of love for a man, she +unconsciously expects some return. I'm sure I didn't expect anything. +That would have been too ridiculous!</p> + +<p>I felt rather guilty about depriving the <i>Golden Eagle</i> of her master's +trophy, but after all, a girl is more appreciative than a monoplane; and +besides, it would have hurt Captain March's feelings in that mood of +his, if I'd refused. I had a conviction that a corporal's stripe, given +as a reward and an incentive, would be to me a talisman. I decided that +I'd keep it in a place where I could rush to look at it whenever I +needed encouragement to go on being a soldier. If I wanted to sneak +myself out of trouble with a fib, or be snappish to Father or cattish to +Di, or say "damn," or bang a door in a rage, it seemed to me that I +should only have to think of that little triangle of black cloth and +gilt braid to be suddenly as good as gold, all the way through to my +heart.</p> + +<p>Maybe I showed some of these thoughts in my eyes when I thanked Captain +March (Di says my eyes tell all my secrets), for he was nicer than ever, +in the chivalrous, almost tender way some men have with girl-children. +He said he was just as lonely as I was, or worse, because he hadn't a +soul who belonged to him in England, and would it be quite proper and +all right for an old soldier like him to invite a little girl like me to +lunch?</p> + +<p>Of course I said yes—<i>yes</i>, it would be entirely proper and perfectly +splendid, though they might have forgotten to put anything of the sort +into books of etiquette. By that time it was half-past twelve, only a +few minutes left to dash to Selfridge's and rescue the dress (if it +wasn't already lost) before luncheon, so Captain March offered to whisk +me up to the shop in a taxi. He promised, if the gown were gone, that +he'd help me choose another. But it wasn't gone; which showed that, as +I'd felt in my bones, it really had been born for me.</p> + +<p>"Why, it's a party dress, isn't it?" my captain innocently wanted to +know. "And isn't it a bit too old for you?"</p> + +<p>"I can have it made shorter," I said. "And if it is a little too old for +me it doesn't matter, because I'm never invited to any parties. I shan't +be for years, if ever. I shan't come out like my sister Di, I shall just +slowly <i>leak</i> out, with nobody noticing. It isn't that I expect to +<i>wear</i> this frock. It's the joy of having it which is so important."</p> + +<p>"Girls begin to be queer evidently, even when they're children," said +he. "But that doesn't make them less interesting. I know of an +invitation to a party you <i>could</i> have, though, if you wanted it. The +wife of our American ambassador is giving a ball to-morrow night. I know +her a little. She'd be awfully pleased to send your people cards for the +show, if I asked her. Or perhaps they've had cards already?"</p> + +<p>I shook my head. "I'm sure they haven't. Are you going?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I've accepted."</p> + +<p>"I know Diana would love it. I'll tell her about you—and about to-day, +for she can't be cross with me if it ends in an invitation. And you'd be +her <i>first</i> flying man."</p> + +<p>Even as I spoke I had a misgiving. It came like a cramp in the heart. +Di's nickname seemed to whisper itself in my ear: "Diana the +Huntress—Diana the Huntress!" I didn't want her to shoot her arrow +through this man's heart, because—well—<i>just because</i>. But they would +have to meet if he were not to be lost to me, since he refused to be a +partner in fibs. The idea seemed exactly the chance I had been looking +for; and if the invitation came through me, provided I were included by +the ambassadress, I didn't see how Di and Father could leave me out.</p> + +<p>"All right, you shall have the card, I can promise that!" my captain +said cheerily.</p> + +<p>"But," I haggled, "will the ambassadress ask a—a little girl like me, +who isn't out yet?"</p> + +<p>"Of course she will. I'll see to that. Why shouldn't a little girl go +for once? Here is one partner for her."</p> + +<p>To dance in the white dress, with him! The thing must be too good to be +true. Yet it really did seem as if it might come true.</p> + +<p>He let me select the place for luncheon, and I chose the Zoo. He said I +couldn't have chosen better. It wasn't a very grand meal, but it was the +happiest I'd ever had. Captain March told me things about America, and +aeroplanes, though very little about himself—except that he was +stationed at a beautiful place in Arizona, called Fort Alvarado, close +to the springs of the same name, where girls came and had "the time of +their lives." Afterward we wandered about and made love to the Zoo +animals, and at last saw them fed. When the lions and tigers had +finished their glorious roaring, which seemed to bring the desert and +the jungle near, it was almost five o'clock, so we had tea at the +crescent-shaped tea house, in front of the Mappin Terraces. I lingered +over my strawberries as long as I decently could, because, though I +searched hard for it, there seemed to be no bored look on Captain +March's face. When I did reluctantly say, "I suppose I'd better go +home?" he actually had the air of being sorry.</p> + +<p>"It's been the nicest day I ever lived in," I told him.</p> + +<p>"I've enjoyed every minute of it, too," said he. "What a pity we can't +polish it off with a dinner and the theatre. Look here, if you'd like +it, Miss Peggy, I guess I can get that old lady I told you of, who's +sailing to-morrow and will take the lace scarf, to go with us as +chaperon. What do you say?"</p> + +<p>What could I say? Being a child, it didn't matter showing the wildest +delight. There are some advantages in being a child.</p> + +<p>He took me home to our lodgings in Chapel Street (which cheaply gave us +the address of Mayfair) and then I had to break it to him that I wasn't +a Miss.</p> + +<p>"Good gracious!" he exclaimed, when I began with those words. "Children +don't marry in your country at thirteen, do they?"</p> + +<p>I explained that, because my father happened to be an earl, his +daughters had a courtesy title; and when he looked a little shocked, as +if he were wondering whether he had been indiscreet, I nodded toward the +house, as our taxicab stopped before the insignificant green door. "You +see by where we live how unimportant we are!" I excused myself in such a +pleading voice that he laughed. Then he flashed away to make +arrangements for the evening—<i>our</i> evening!</p> + +<p>The landlady had a telephone, and presently I got the message which +Captain March had told me to expect. Mrs. Jewitt had consented to dine +and go to the theatre. Would I like the Savoy, and to see "Milestones" +afterward? And was I sure this business wouldn't get me into trouble +to-morrow?</p> + +<p>If it had sent me into penal servitude for life, I shouldn't have +hesitated; but I replied that my sister would forgive me for the sake of +the American Embassy ball. I knew Di could be counted on, in the +exceptional circumstances, not to tell Father; but I didn't mention that +detail to Captain March. I was afraid he might think the corporal's +stripe had been ill-bestowed, but one must draw the straight line of +truth somewhere!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + + +<p>Next morning when Di came back, I told her what was necessary to tell, +and not a bit more. I explained how I had met Captain Eagleston March, +and how we had spent the day and the heavenly evening. But first, I let +her open the invitation which had just come by hand from the American +Embassy (she opens all Father's letters, except those that have a +repulsively private look), and when she began, "I wonder how on +earth——," I was able to work my story in neatly, as an explanation.</p> + +<p>Di listened to the end, without interrupting me once except by opening +her eyes very wide, and now and then raising her eyebrows, or giving +vent to expressive sighs. I saw that she was thinking hard as I went on, +and I knew what she was thinking: about the need of forgiving me because +of the new interest in life my naughtiness had brought her.</p> + +<p>When I had finished up the tale with our dinner at the Savoy, and seeing +"Milestones," and then on top of all, having supper with Mrs. Jewitt and +Captain March at a terribly respectable but fascinating night club of +which he had been made a member, Diana didn't scold. She said that +Captain March being an officer and a flying man made all the difference, +but she hoped I would not have put myself into such a position with any +other sort of man, whether he mistook me for a child or not. Even as it +was, she wouldn't dare tell Father the history of my day: but, as they +had made several American acquaintances lately, she could easily account +for the Embassy invitation.</p> + +<p>"We'll go, of course, won't we?" I catechized her, knowing that her word +with Father was pretty well law.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we'll go," she answered. "I'll write an acceptance and send it by +hand."</p> + +<p>I was so enchanted at this that I dashed up to my room and began +shortening the new dress. I had mentioned it vaguely to Di, but it was +the one part of my story in which she took no interest. I saw how the +keenness died out of her beautiful sea-blue eyes, and how her soul +retired comfortably behind them, to think of something else, just as you +see people walk away from windows through which they've been looking +out, leaving them emptily blank. As she didn't care what little Peggy +wore, little Peggy decided to give her a surprise at the last moment. +Nothing much was said about the Embassy ball by Father or Di before me, +on that day or the next, so I, too, kept my own counsel. I was afraid if +I gabbled as I longed to do, Father might take it into his head that the +child had better stop at home. All I heard was a little talk about the +time to start, and whether a taxi should be ordered or a coupé. I +thought there would be rather a squash in a coupé with Father, Diana, +and me folded together in a sort of living sandwich; but I was so small, +I could perhaps manage not to slide off the little flap seat with its +back to the horses.</p> + +<p>It was a coupé they finally decided on, and it was ordered for a quarter +to ten. We had a short and early dinner, and as I did Diana's hair, it +seemed to me that I had never seen her look prettier. I wondered whether +Captain March would admire her very much, and I hoped for his own +sake—I almost believed it was for his own sake!—that he wouldn't fall +in love. As I thought this, I looked with a new kind of criticism at Di, +to judge whether he were likely to be one of her victims.</p> + +<p>Heaps of men had fallen in love with Di since I began to be old enough +to notice such things. They had never been the right sort of men, from +her point of view, for none of the lot had had a penny to bless himself +with, or even a title worth the taking. But all of them had been worth +flirting with; and after they had been dropped with more or less of a +dull thud, I'm afraid some of them had suffered. I didn't wish Captain +March to suffer, yet I couldn't help thinking that if I were a man I +might be as silly as the rest and go down before Di.</p> + +<p>She was then—and she is now—the most lovable looking thing that can be +imagined. She doesn't appear to be cool and calculating, but +warm-hearted and gentle and soft, far more so than most of the girls one +meets, especially in London, where I think they have the air of being +rather hard: ready to sacrifice everything and everybody for the sake of +what they want to get or do.</p> + +<p>If you were going to paint a picture of Ireland, typified by a beautiful +girl, so that you might name your canvas "Dark Rosaleen," you would give +the world to get Di for your model. She is tall, as a Diana ought to be, +and slender though not thin. She gives the effect of fashionable +slimness, yet she is all lovely curves and roundnesses. She has a long +white throat with a charming upturned chin that has a deep cleft in the +middle. It's no exaggeration to say that her skin is as white as creamy +milk; and on each cheek, just beneath the shadow under her eyes, is a +faint pink stain, as if it had been tapped hard with a carnation, and a +little of the colour had come off. Perhaps, if her face has a fault, the +nose is too short and flat, but it gives her a sweetly young and +innocent look, added to her eyes being set far apart. And the eyes are +really glorious: very big and long, with deep shadows under them only +partly cast by her thick black lashes. A man once wrote a Valentine +verse to Di, in which he remarked that her eyes were "like sapphires +gleaming blue where they had fallen among dark grasses"; and it wasn't a +bad comparison. The man died of taking too much veronal a year after. +Nobody said he had done it on purpose. But I wondered. He was very +unhappy the day he said "Good-bye" to Ballyconal. I've never been able +to forget his look.</p> + +<p>Di's mouth is large, and a tiny bit greedy, but all the more fascinating +for that, because it is so red and curved. Her forehead is rather high, +really, but she makes it seem only a white line above her level +eyebrows, because of the way she likes best to wear her crinkly dark +hair: parted in the middle, pushed forward and down, and banded in place +by a rope of hair from the back.</p> + +<p>That night for the ball at the American Embassy she had it fastened with +big, very green jade hairpins. From her little pink ears hung long loops +of emeralds (heirlooms in our family, or they would have been sold long +ago), and the gown she chose was the same shade of green: some very +thin, soft stuff, with one of those new names dressmakers think of in +their dreams. It was simply made, and not very expensive; but in it Di +looked like a classic personification of Ireland at its loveliest, and I +was sure that not the best-dressed girl in the room would be as +exquisite as she. I told her this on an impulse, and she was pleased. +Yet she sighed. Of course she couldn't help knowing, said she, that she +wasn't bad looking. But Venus or Helen of Troy couldn't make a success, +handicapped as she was.</p> + +<p>"It might be different in some other country," she went on, more to +herself than to me. "A country like America, where titles are more of a +novelty, and everybody one meets doesn't remember all about one's poor +mother."</p> + +<p>"Now I must run and get ready, myself," said I, when I had established +connection between Diana's most intricate hooks and eyes.</p> + +<p>"Get ready? For what, dear?"</p> + +<p>"Why, for the ball, of course!" The first chill of suspicion that I had +been cast for the part of Cinderella crept through me, like a +caterpillar walking inside my spine.</p> + +<p>"But, my <i>child</i>!" Di exclaimed. "You couldn't have thought you were +going? Officially you are a little girl. You don't exist, and if you +did, you haven't a dress——"</p> + +<p>"I have a dress. The one I bought with the money from the lace. I didn't +say much, because I thought it would be fun to surprise you."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm awfully sorry, dear, that you've been counting on it. I never +dreamed—you ought to have told me——"</p> + +<p>"You said you'd accept for '<i>us</i>.'"</p> + +<p>"I meant Father and me. It never crossed my mind that you——Too bad! +But anyhow, it's too late now. Father would never consent."</p> + +<p>I might have retorted that she was the one person in the world who could +make him consent to anything she wanted, but then, the truth was that +she didn't want this thing. Diana had—and has—the manners of an angel; +and strangers would think she was as easy to melt as sugar in the sun. +But I, who have lived with her all the years of my life, know that the +sugar is only on the surface. And I have learned what is underneath. +Even then, I realized that Di had understood perfectly well from the +first that I expected to go to the ball, and she had kept quiet in order +to have no more than one short, sharp fuss at the end. While it was +being borne in upon me that I was to stop at home, instead of going on +arguing and "fishwifing" I shut up like a clam. I suppose it was a kind +of obstinate pride, the sort of pride that makes condemned people not +scream or throw themselves about on the way to execution. But when +Father and Di had gone, I cried—oh, how I cried! There was a kind of +wild pleasure in letting the sobs come, and feeling the hot tears spout +out of my eyes. In any clash between us, Di always won, because she was +"grown up," and I was a "little girl"; but the trick she had played on +me this time roused my sense of its injustice, and with all my body and +mind and soul I resolved to strengthen my soul against her. "Some day," +I said to myself, letting the tears dry on my cheeks as I listened to a +spirit of prophecy, "some day there'll be a battle for life or death +between our characters, Di's and mine, and I'll save myself up to win +<i>then</i>."</p> + +<p>It seemed weak, as if I were a whipped child, to creep off to bed, yet I +couldn't force myself to read, or do anything to turn my thoughts from +the great injustice. At ten minutes to eleven I was making up my mind +that, after all, sleep would be the best consolation, when our +lodging-house landlady knocked.</p> + +<p>We had the "drawing-room floor," up one flight of stairs from the +street. Luckily I was still in the draw-dining-room—a fantastic +apartment crowded with nouveau-art furniture all out of drawing, like +daddy longlegs—when the woman tapped and peeped in. If I had gone +upstairs to my own top-floor room, I'm sure, being a prim person, she +would have considered it improper to summon me down, and I should have +missed a heavenly half hour.</p> + +<p>"A gentleman has called, Miss, and could he come up for five minutes? +The name is Captain March."</p> + +<p>It was true! It was he! And he hadn't even met Diana yet. She had been +dancing. But the hostess had introduced him to Father, and Captain March +had worked round to the subject of me. When he heard that I was "too +young for balls," he just slipped out, took a taxi, and made a dash to +Chapel Street to tell me he was sorry. I was so grateful, I could have +cried more than ever. It seemed to me one of the very nicest things a +man ever did. He was in full-dress uniform, because an American officer +is on his native heath when he's at his own Embassy; and I thought that +he looked adorable in uniform.</p> + +<p>He stayed half an hour instead of five minutes, and then said he must go +back, and "do the right thing." The right thing, which he didn't +particularly want to do, was to dance with the girls who weren't booked +up to the eyes, and—to meet my sister. It was my first triumph to have +a man—and such a man—put me in front of Diana. I was thrilled by it, +though I ought to have had sense enough to know what would happen.</p> + +<p>Eagle March (he told me that night to call him Eagle) did go back to the +ball, and did meet Diana. I heard about it next morning when I took in +her breakfast: how he had asked Father if he might be introduced, and Di +had liked him so much that she found a dance to give him, although +everything was engaged by the time he arrived; how an American girl who +knew him at home said that he had a rich aunt who might leave him "a +whole heap of money" some day (the aunt of the lace, I said to myself); +and how Father had consented to take Diana and me to Hendon, to see +Captain March's monoplane in its hangar.</p> + +<p>"I managed that for you, dear, to make up for your disappointment last +night, and because you're really a good, useful little flap of a +flapper," Di finished. "Once we're at Hendon, I'm sure Father can be +coaxed to let us go up for just a short flight, though he thinks now +that nothing could induce him to. Captain March has promised that I +shall be his first woman passenger. Never has he taken a woman with him +yet."</p> + +<p>I only gasped inaudibly, and bit a little piece off my heart. Of course +I guessed then what must have happened; and when Eagle came that +afternoon, I <i>knew</i>. I was for him a nice child still—a "good, useful +little flapper," as Di said, and he was my friend as before; but Diana +had lit up the world for him. He could hardly take his eyes off her. +When she spoke, even at a distance, he heard every word, and nothing +that any one else said.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you tell me your sister was such a wonderful beauty?" he +mumbled as he was saying good-bye.</p> + +<p>Old people, and even middle-aged people over twenty-five, must have +forgotten how it can hurt when you are sixteen to be in love with some +one who loves somebody else; for neither in books nor in real life do +these worn-out persons ever take such a thing seriously. But I shall +never cease to remember how it feels: like having to keep smiling while +a bullet is probed for in your heart, not probed for only once, and +finished for good, but prodded and poked at every minute of every hour, +day after day, week after week, month after month. How can you tell +whether or no it's going to be year after year as well, till all the red +blood of your youth and hope has slowly been drained away?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + + +<p>Neither Diana nor I had ever been at Hendon. Captain March sent a motor +car for us, and I saw Father and Di were both impressed by this. They +thought he must have money (as all proper Americans have, according to +their idea) apart from his future expectations. What <i>I</i> thought was, +that having fallen in love with Di, nothing but a motor car could be +good enough for a goddess, and—hang the expense!</p> + +<p>Di, who was invited sometimes for a spin in friends' automobiles, had a +fetching motor get-up which, eked out with one of those horrific +headpieces flying people wear, could be used for a short flight. I had +nothing of the sort, but Di offered to lend me her lined coat. After +all, she owed the expedition and the airman to me.</p> + +<p>It was a hired car, but, in Father's opinion, a dashed decent one. It +flashed us out past the Marble Arch, straight along the Edgware Road, to +the Flying Ground, which, even two years ago, was the favourite resort +of fashion, especially female fashion. I had often wondered what it +might be like out there, and was rather disappointed to see only some +large flat fields close to the highroad, with a long line of low, +uninteresting sheds ranged side by side. It did seem as if airmen, who +must be brimming like full cups with wine of romance and imagination, +ought to have invented sightlier houses for their beloved machines. But +the very thought that the ugly huts were hangars gave a thrill. Captain +March was to meet us at Hendon, but we didn't see him at first. As we +arrived, an aeroplane went up, and a monoplane was circling the +enclosure, giving sudden dips at fearfully steep angles as it took the +turns, righting itself like a lazy, long-tailed eagle with far-spread +wings as it came again into the straight. Captain March's hired +chauffeur, who had been told exactly what to do, ran the car up a short +road on the right, and stopped.</p> + +<p>"That's the captain's hangar, my lord," said he to Father, pointing to a +shed near which we had halted; and his arm hadn't time to drop before +the man-made bird, which had been circling round, planed down and glided +in at the wide-open door like a homing pigeon into a pigeon house.</p> + +<p>It was beautifully managed, and so dramatic that it was like the climax +of an act on the stage. Perhaps Captain March had been performing some +feat before we came; anyhow, as he brought his monoplane to rest a lot +of people standing about applauded him. In a minute he came almost +running out of the shed straight toward us, in his leather clothes and +leather helmet, with goggles pushed up to the top of his head. Instead +of being proud of what he had done, whatever it was, he apologized +abjectly for "being late," and I could see that Di was vain of her +conquest. Lots of women were there, staring enviously at the pretty girl +who knew a real, live airman—evidently, too, one of the popular ones; +and Di loves to be envied. I'm afraid we all do, in the secret places of +our hearts which we don't like to peer into, under the dust.</p> + +<p>One thing about Di, which makes men adore her, is that she contrives to +seem exquisitely sympathetic and enthusiastic without ever gushing. It's +partly the shape of her eyes and the shortness of her upper lip, which +combine together to give a lovely, rapt, brooding expression, that saves +her the trouble of thinking up adjectives. With this look on, she +appeals to all the love of romance and adventure in their hearts, I'm +sure. They would do anything to win it for themselves. I would myself if +I were a man, and didn't know her; so when Captain March took us into +his hangar, and she turned on the look, I didn't blame him for +forgetting the very existence of his small pal. It only made me sad.</p> + +<p>"I thought I'd better take the <i>Golden Eagle</i> up for a short run, and +test her before you came, to see that she was all right," he was still +apologizing. "Then she behaved so well, I got going, and stayed up +longer than I meant. But I saw the car stop, so I hurried down."</p> + +<p>"I should think you did 'hurry down!'" laughed Diana. "The way you aimed +at your hangar from far up in the sky, and shot in, was like a marksman +aiming at the bull's-eye on a target, and getting it. What do you call +'testing' your monoplane? What had you been doing to make all those +people applaud?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, only a little upside-down flying," said Captain March, as he might +have said "only a little breathing exercise." "You see, I make stability +tests. That's what I'm <i>for</i>. And with my appliances, being upside +down's no more to me than it is to a fly when he walks on the ceiling."</p> + +<p>Di's eyes said, "You hero! you splendid, modest hero!"—said it so +plainly that the hero faintly blushed, though it was hard to trace a +blush on his face, burnt red-brown by sun and wind. My eyes said nothing +at all, but if they had recited a whole page of Shakespeare's sonnets he +would have been none the wiser.</p> + +<p>He led us into the hangar, where two fascinatingly smudged mechanics +were in attendance on the magic bird; and he remembered to be nice and +respectful to Father. Explanations of the mechanism were ostensibly +addressed to our parent, but in reality all the eloquence was for Di, +whose eyes poured forth appreciative intelligence as stars pour forth +rays. Captain March couldn't be expected to know, poor fellow, that Di, +if obliged to choose between two deadly dull evils, would rather hear a +cook tell how to boil potatoes than listen to any mechanical talk. +However, it wasn't really needful to listen, if one's eyes were well +trained; and Di was having the "time of her life" in meeting an airman.</p> + +<p>Even I could see that this monoplane, fitted with Captain March's +inventions, was a different looking creature from the other bird +machines which were shooting up into the air, or darting back into their +dens, all around us. The <i>Golden Eagle's</i> quiet, graceful wings, instead +of being in a straight line with each other, were set at an obtuse angle +one from another; and on the end of each were odd little extra +triangular tips, hinged to the main wings. I longed to pour out +questions, for the "why" of things, especially mechanical things, has +interested me ever since I was old enough to pick a doll to pieces, to +see what made its eyes open and shut. But Di was asking idiotic +questions in the sweetest way, and Captain March was laughing and +delighted. It pleased him a great deal more that she should want to know +precisely why he had named his monoplane the <i>Golden Eagle</i> than if +Father or I had catechized him with the trained intelligence of a +scientist.</p> + +<p>"I've been unoriginal enough, I'm afraid, to name my big baby after +myself," he said, "my nickname being Eagle. The golden eagle, you know, +is our national bird."</p> + +<p>"So her hangar is 'The Eagle's Nest,'" said Di. "That's awfully nice. +But why not name her instead the <i>Winged Victory</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't it be rather conceited?"</p> + +<p>"Not after what she's already done, and shown that she can do. It's +conceited of me to suggest it, though, for—for the <i>Winged Victory</i> is +a sort of a nickname of <i>mine</i> since a fancy dress ball at the beginning +of the season."</p> + +<p>"It suits you exactly," said Captain March. "If Lord Ballyconal will let +you be my first lady passenger, and if, after she's given you a run, you +think her worthy, she shall be renamed the <i>Winged Victory</i>, provided +you'll baptize her."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bally, dear, you will let me go, won't you?" Di pleaded, using her +pet name for Father, which he likes because it sounds young and +unparental. Then catching a bleak gleam in my eyes, she hastily added: +"And afterward Peggy, if Captain March will take her up."</p> + +<p>Father hesitated, but the newspapers and people at the Embassy ball who +knew all about Eagle March had spoken so highly of the machine, that it +seemed an insult to a famous airman's skill to refuse. The two mechanics +wheeled the monoplane out of the shed, and Captain March explained how +easy and safe he could make things for a passenger. Lots of men had been +up with him, but he had never asked a woman. "Only a short flight, I'll +take her," he almost pleaded. "I can give her a helmet. Perhaps you'd +rather go first yourself, though, and see what it's like."</p> + +<p>Father may not have had a particularly good time on earth, but anyhow, +he preferred it to atmospheric effects. He said that he had no head for +heights, but if Di and Peggy wanted to go, and Captain March was kind +enough to take them—er—up, a tiny way into the—er—air, he supposed +that in these days he ought not to offer any objections.</p> + +<p>Captain March had the spare helmet ready (it looked so new and smart, I +felt sure he had bought it for the occasion), and nothing stood between +Diana the Huntress and her quarry—nothing except her own changing mood. +I think it was the look of the helmet which gave her that sinking +feeling of irrevocability which seems to sever you, as with a sword, +from all the dear little safe things that have made up your life in the +past. She glanced from the helmet which the airman held toward her to +the monoplane spread-eagling on the ground. I saw her big eyes dilate as +they fixed themselves anxiously on the passenger's perch, to which the +honoured guest must climb, above the conductor's seat, crawling through +the wire stays, or whatever you call them, which were like a spider's +web inviting a fly. Diana turned pale. Even her lips were white. The +shadows under her eyes darkened as if she were ill.</p> + +<p>"You're—you're sure it's safe?" she faltered.</p> + +<p>"Safe as a house. Safer than a <i>jerry</i>-built house," Captain March +assured her cheeringly. "Look at these!" and he pointed out again all +the features of his invention that made the automatic stability of the +machine. "But if you——"</p> + +<p>"Oh! I'm not afraid," quavered Di, her eyes roving in an agonized way +over the crowd collecting to see the lovely girl taken up into the sky +by the brave airman. "It isn't that. Only—it won't make me seasick, +will it?"</p> + +<p>"I've never had a passenger seasick," said Eagle.</p> + +<p>"And—you won't turn upside down, will you?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not!"</p> + +<p>"Well, then, I—I'll go."</p> + +<p>On with the condemned cap!—I mean the leather helmet. Diana's paling +beauty was blotted out. Wrapped in her fur-lined cloak, she was +trembling all over. Her hands, which she held confidingly out for the +thick mittens Captain March had got for her, shook like the last leaves +on a frozen tree.</p> + +<p>"Think you're fit for it, Di?" Father asked anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed!" came hissing through the helmet. But I felt it was only +the tonic of other women's envy which was keeping her up. I was envying +her, too.</p> + +<p>Captain March helped Di scramble into her perch. His hand was steady and +strong. All his life and skill and manhood were for her. She was +tenderly yet firmly strapped into place, and told how she was to hold +on, and not to be afraid. There would be some noise, but she mustn't +mind; and there was the little apparatus Captain March had invented, by +which a passenger could communicate with the conductor. It was something +like the bulb you squeeze in a motor car when you want the chauffeur to +turn right or left or stop.</p> + +<p>"Press once if you're sick of it, and want to come down," said Eagle. +"Twice if you want to go higher. There's a whistle close to my ear, so +sharp it cuts through the motor noise."</p> + +<p>My heart beat almost as fast as if I were in the monoplane myself when +Eagle was ready to start, looking like a twentieth-century, +leather-masked Apollo starting out to drive his sun chariot up to the +zenith and down the other side. The motor purred, and the propeller +began to revolve. Diana, tense as a stretched violin string, was hanging +on already, like grim death. The two mechanics held the tail of the +impatient giant bird, and when Eagle raised one hand, they let go. For +perhaps fifty yards the <i>Golden Eagle</i> ran lightly over the turf on her +bicycle wheels; then her master tilted the planes, and his namesake +soared upward from the ground into the air.</p> + +<p>As she went, through the noise she made I heard a shriek from the +passenger. Diana's pride, which denied cowardice in the joy of being +envied, was forgotten in the primitive emotion of fear. What my sister +did I could not see, as the monoplane mounted so quickly; but almost at +once I realized that she must have signalled her wish to descend, for +the <i>Eagle</i> ceased to soar, dropped, and began gently gliding down. A +moment later the great winged form was landing once more close to its +own shed.</p> + +<p>Father rushed to the rescue of his darling, and Captain March—out of +his seat in a second—was unfastening the straps and anxiously +extricating Diana from the passenger's perch. I couldn't help feeling +ashamed before all the people—scornful or sympathetic, who were looking +on—that my sister had shown herself a coward; but I was sorry for her, +too. She had quite collapsed, and lay in Father's arms as Captain March +unfastened her helmet. I wasn't mean enough to think of rejoicing +because, in taking my place away, she had been tried and found wanting. +Instead, I found myself really afraid that Captain March might despise +the poor girl for the timidity which humiliated him as well as her. But +I need not have worried. Pulling off the helmet in that clumsy way a man +has with any sort of headgear, the wheel of braided hair Diana wore, +wound over each ear in the Eastern fashion that came from "Kismet," was +loosened, and a thick plait with an engaging wave at the end fell down +on either side of her face. Standing, but supported in Father's arms, +her head lay on his shoulder, her eyes closed, long curling lashes +resting on marble cheeks. I had never seen her half so beautiful, and +Captain March gazed at her as if he would gladly give his life for a +reassuring smile.</p> + +<p>"Shall I fetch a doctor?" he asked miserably. "There's sure to be one, +somewhere around."</p> + +<p>Before Father could answer, Di opened her eyes, and Captain March got +the smile without paying the price.</p> + +<p>"I—I'm all right," she breathed. "So sorry! I wasn't afraid, you know. +It was my <i>heart</i>. It seemed to stop."</p> + +<p>"Of course you weren't afraid," Eagle encouraged her. "I can never +forgive myself for making you suffer."</p> + +<p>Diana's smile graciously forgave the brutal fellow for his blundering, +and she extricated herself from Father's arms, the colour slowly +stealing back to her lips and cheeks. She shook her head a little, and +the two braids, stuck full of tiny tortoise-shell hairpins, tumbled over +her breast. Captain March nearly ate her up with his eyes, and then, +through their windows, his soul might be seen worshipping, and begging +the goddess's pardon on its knees.</p> + +<p>"She's not strong," Father apologized. "It's my fault for letting her go +up; I ought to have remembered her heart."</p> + +<p>It's a great asset, a weak heart, for a person who has just made an +exhibition of cowardice. Like charity, it covers a multitude of sins. +I'd never before heard of Di's heart being weak; and at home, if there +were a ball anywhere within twenty miles, she could always dance at it +till morning. However, I was glad she'd thought of her heart in time, +and saved the situation. It was an accommodating heart, for it came up +smiling, when the petting Di got had satisfied her that she wasn't to be +blamed for the fiasco.</p> + +<p>"I think flying must be a wonderful experience for any one whose heart +is quite right," she consoled Captain March. "It's a pity, for the +credit of the family, you didn't take Peggy up first."</p> + +<p>"I suppose she won't feel like going, after what has happened to you?" +said he, remembering my existence.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I do feel like it, more than ever," I exclaimed, "that is, if you +don't mind risking another of us."</p> + +<p>"I don't think we'd better trouble Captain March again," Father cut in. +"He wouldn't like a second failure."</p> + +<p>"He won't have one," I said. "My heart is as strong as a Gnome motor. Do +let me go. It will give Di time to rest."</p> + +<p>Whether that argument decided Father, or whether he really did hope I +might reestablish the family credit for courage, I don't know; anyway, +he made no further objections. The fur-lined cloak, helmet, and mittens +were handed over to me. I crawled through the spider's web to the tiny +throne vacated by its late queen, and was strapped in as Di had been. +Not one qualm did I feel as I looked down over Eagle's leather-clad +shoulder at the various instruments fixed on to what in an aeroplane +corresponds, I suppose, to the dashboard of an earth-bound automobile: +the revolution gauge, which Eagle had explained to us; the watch; the +map to roll up on a frame, like a blind; the compass, the height +indicator. I felt secure and happy in the thought that my courage would +at least make my captain respect me. He had shown us how his invention +enabled the monoplane to balance itself in meeting every gust of wind, +or falling into an "air pocket," without any effort from the conductor. +That assurance hadn't been enough for Di, Winged Victory, Goddess, and +Huntress, but it was enough for humble Peggy. Besides, in the mood which +had swept over me like a blinding flame of white fire, I didn't care +what happened, provided it happened to Eagle March and me together. I +should have liked him to aim straight for the sun, and never to come +down again.</p> + +<p>The last thing I said before we started was, "Go as high, please, as you +would if you were alone. If I press the bulb, it will be twice, to fly +higher."</p> + +<p>Then came the starting of the motor, the wheeled run, and the leap into +air. As we took wing, I could have sung for joy. I was so gloriously +excited, I was hardly conscious of the noise of the engine. That +helmeted head and the firm leather-clad shoulders beneath me seemed the +head and shoulders of a god.</p> + +<p>We circled over the enclosure. The <i>Golden Eagle</i> hadn't risen very high +yet, but I had a queer feeling of being no longer related to any one on +earth. I was with my champion, a creature of another sphere. Intoxicated +with joy, I pressed the bulb twice. I could not hear the shrill whistle, +but the driver evidently heard, for in obedience we shot up—up—up! The +height indicator showed that we had reached the height of five hundred +feet. I pressed the bulb again twice over. Eagle began to steer the +monoplane in immense circles. I felt I could almost see our +corkscrew-track in the air, like twisted threads of gold on blue. The +hangars in the fields of Hendon were toy sheds on a green-painted tray. +Even the aerodrome was no more than a big rat trap. London spread itself +out beneath us, a vast dark patch, like a fallen cloud. A shaft of +sunlight set a golden dome on fire. It must have been St. Paul's. For +the third time I gave the signal to mount. For the third time Eagle +obeyed. I wondered if he liked me a little for sharing the confidence he +had in his machine.</p> + +<p>A few white clouds floated lazily beneath us, like snowy birds of an +intolerable brightness and titanic size. Then they joined together in a +glittering flock, and lost the semblance of birds. The mass became a +sparkling silver sea, with here and there a dark gulf in it like a +whirlpool. The air grew biting cold. I felt it press on me through the +fur-lined coat Di had lent, like blocks of solid ice. But the strange +sensation only exhilarated me the more. "I'm not a coward, I'm not a +coward. I'm brave!" The words sang themselves in my head to the +accompanying roar of the motor.</p> + +<p>It was a glorious, dependable roar, but suddenly, in the midst of a +spiral movement, I noticed a change in the sound. A gurgle—a choking +stammer. A spray of petrol dashed across my goggles.</p> + +<p>"Now—what?" The question asked itself in my soul. But there was no fear +with it, only an awed realization that this might be the end of things, +as I had known them, in a very little world low down and far away. "What +does it matter?" the answer came. But Eagle had turned round in his +seat, and was handing me a spanner. Now he was motioning to me. If he +spoke, I couldn't hear a word. Yet I understood from the gestures of one +mittened hand what he hoped I might be able to do. Somehow, even then, +the driving force of thought in my brain was to please him, to show him +that he hadn't relied on me in vain, rather than to save us both from +threatening danger, though danger I saw there must be. I was determined +that the corporal should not fail the captain.</p> + +<p>The thing I had to do, as I seized the situation, was to turn the +spanner on a loosened nut in the petrol pipe, to which Eagle pointed. +Reaching up with my right hand, I steadied myself with the left, and +touched something hot, horribly hot. There was an involuntary flinch of +the nerves as the heat burned through the thick mittens I wore and +scorched my fingers, but I didn't scream, I'm glad to say, or let go the +spanner. I screwed and screwed at the union, with the nasty smell of +burnt wool, and perhaps flesh, in my nostrils. Then there came the +glorious sensation of success as the song of the motor took up its old +refrain again. No more choking and spluttering, and it was I who had +cured it.</p> + +<p>I gave a little sob of thanksgiving, because I hadn't failed; and a +voice seemed to whisper far, far down under the renewed song of the +engine, "What if this is a prophecy? What if, after Diana has left him +in the lurch, it should be given to <i>you</i> to atone—to help or save him +in some danger?"</p> + +<p>The little voice was so strong, so clear, that I thrilled all over. What +it said seemed to become part of an experience which I could never +forget.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + + +<p>In the remaining six weeks of his leave, Eagle March made himself very +popular in England. He secured a record for altitude, and flew upside +down longer than any one else had at that time, two years ago, which is +a whole age in the aeroplane world. He did other quaint tricks, too, +that nobody had thought of or accomplished then, such as walking on a +wing of the monoplane when she was in the air; and all the prettiest and +smartest women in London were proud to meet him. He was invited +everywhere, and people who pretended to know said that peeresses, +married and unmarried, made violent love to Captain March. Naturally a +girl like Di was enchanted to lead him about, tied to what would have +been her apron strings if she'd been frumpish enough to wear such +things. When it began to be said that Eagle March found excuses not to +accept invitations unless Lord Ballyconal and Lady Di O'Malley might be +expected to turn up, Father and Diana were asked by a great many +hostesses who wouldn't have thought of them except as bait. Di realized +this, even if Father were too proud or too conceited to do so, and she +used Eagle in every way, for all he was worth. She liked him, too, +better than she'd ever liked any man, perhaps, except her first +love—the handsomest Irish boy you ever saw, whom she couldn't think of +marrying because he'd no family and no money. But she was only seventeen +then and Jerry Taylor was a mere subaltern. He died in India of enteric +when Di was eighteen; and before Captain March came on the scene she had +liked and flirted with at least a dozen others.</p> + +<p>Besides, Eagle March was a very different "proposition," as they say in +his country, from poor Jerry Taylor. There was no reason why she +shouldn't think of marrying him if he wanted her, and he did want her +desperately. A moderately intelligent bat could have seen that he was +dying for my lovely sister. Anyhow, <i>she</i> saw it, and I saw that she saw +it, and that she was troubled as to which way to make up her mind. She +didn't want to lose her golden eagle, with his brilliant plumage of fame +and popularity, and the future fortune from his aunt. On the other hand, +through Eagle, Di had met a number of desirable men, some moneyed, some +titled; and she was a girl who would rather marry a rich nobody of the +country she had known, than fly with a hero to a land she knew not. I +used to notice in her soft, thoughtful eyes the "wait and see" policy.</p> + +<p>As the time drew near for Eagle to go back to his regiment on the other +side of the world, things grew exciting. I felt electricity in the +atmosphere, though Diana didn't confide in me, and I had no idea what +she meant to do. I couldn't bear to think of Eagle having to suffer, as +he must suffer if she threw him over, for already I knew enough of him +to know that, quiet as he was, he had very deep and sensitive feelings. +I am too young, even now, after all I have lived through in the last +year or two, to set myself up as a judge of character; yet I couldn't +then help forming my own opinion of all those who came near me. I seemed +to see under Eagle March's simple, half-humorous, calmly deliberate +manner, flashes of inner fire. I thought his character was not really +simple at all, but very complex. I don't mean in a deceitful way, far +indeed from that; but I believed there was much in him which he did not +yet know himself, about himself. I fancied that the Southern blood he +had in his veins from one side of his family had made him high-strung +and passionate, as well as daring, quick to think, and quick to act; and +that his study was to hold this side of his nature in check. I felt sure +that he was generous even to a fault, yet I was certain that, if driven +to desperation, there might be a cruel streak which would make him a +dangerous enemy unless some tide of love broke down the barrier of +hardness in his soul. He was not hard at that time, however, and I +didn't want my sister to be the one to make him so.</p> + +<p>For this reason, I sometimes wished that she would marry him, and give +him as much happiness as she had it in her to give. And yet, apart from +my own feelings (they didn't count, for his losing Di would not give him +to me), I couldn't believe that having her would really be for his +happiness in the end. The two hadn't one idea or taste in common. But +all I could do was to hope that, whatever happened, it would be for +<i>his</i> best; because, you see, knowing him, and having that chevron of +black and gold as a "reward of valour," had made me a nicer, less +selfish girl than I had been before we met. Because I loved a soldier, I +wanted to be a soldier, too! Hardly anything of the pert minx remained +in me, I used to think sometimes, and comparatively little of the pig or +cat. This was fortunate, because, when toward the last he confided in +me, everything bad that was left in my composition longed to turn and +rend Diana.</p> + +<p>The way he did this made it all the harder for me not to desert the +colours. He told me that ever since the day when I had been "such a +little trump in the air, and maybe saved both our lives," I'd been more +to him than any other female thing, except, of course, my sister. +Something in Diana's weakness had appealed to him as much as my +strength; and he loved her with a different love from the affection he +gave me. I was his little sister, his brave little friend, and because I +was so dear to him, he dared to ask me what chance he had with Diana. +Did I think she tried to keep him from telling her what he felt, because +she didn't care and wanted to save him pain, or was there just a +possibility that she was only shy?</p> + +<p>I could have given a bitter laugh to both questions, because the +truthful, straight-out answer to one and the other was the same: "No!" +Di loved to get proposals, and counted them up as if they were scalps, +or those horrid little soft, boneless masks which head hunters collect. +The only trouble was, that among the lot, she had never had one scalp +worth the wearing, for a real live beauty, who needed only a bit of luck +to be at the top of the world. As for her shyness, it was all in the +tricks she played with her eyelashes and the way she curved her upper +lip.</p> + +<p>But I didn't laugh. I merely said I wasn't sure how Diana felt, as she +never talked to me about such things. And I got for answer, spoken +reflectively: "I suppose not. You're too much of a child."</p> + +<p>He knew by this time that I was sixteen, instead of thirteen as he had +thought at first; but what you're not much interested in makes little +impression on your mind if you're a man and in love. For him I was a +child, a nice sympathetic child. And such affection as he gave me, I +lived upon, as if it had been the washings from a cup of the elixir of +life.</p> + +<p>For his sake, I studied Di more closely than ever, after that day, and +soon I understood what she was driving at. She wanted to have her cake +and eat it, too. And she got it. Any girl can manage this, if she is +clever enough; and Di, though she isn't bookish or intellectual, is +very, very clever in the way women have been clever since they emerged +from cave life.</p> + +<p>She succeeded in keeping back a real proposal which she would have had +to answer with a "yes" or "no"; but she hinted to Captain March that, if +she could have just a little more time to think about it, with the +glamour of his presence gone, she would probably realize that she +couldn't be happy without him. Of course it would be a blow for poor, +dear Bally if she married out of Ireland or England, but still—but +still—only give her time to read her heart.</p> + +<p>Eagle told me something of the scene between them, and of course, I saw +exactly what Di was up to: but I caged all the wild cats in me, and said +I was glad, if <i>he</i> were happy. Yes, indeed, I'd take care of Di for +him, and write him how she looked and what she did, and use all my +influence to make Father escort us both over to America as soon as +possible. Di, it seemed, had also agreed to use her influence in +bringing this result about. I couldn't tell at the time whether she had +thrown the promise as a sop to keep Eagle quiet, or whether she really +thought that she would like to go. All I knew was that, if she did use +her influence—and Father could get hold of enough money—the thing was +as good as done.</p> + +<p>Eagle took his departure; and we, and lots of his new friends, went to +Euston to see him off for Liverpool, Di, no doubt, secretly thinking +that sort of public "good-bye" safer than a private one. As for our +going to America, the scheme hung by a thread, as I guessed soon after +Eagle's back was turned. A bird in the hand is always worth at least two +in the bush, and Di's hand was ready. If the right bird could be palmed +before the season's end, it would mean that nothing of Di except her +wedding cards would sail across the sea. But as it turned out, home +birds were wary, and we crept back to Ireland in time for the horse show +with Diana empty handed, and Father with pockets cleaned out. It was +then that Di seriously set her thoughts upon the new world—new worlds, +it is said, being easier to conquer than old ones.</p> + +<p>Father had two or three acquaintances in the diplomatic service at +Washington. He hoped to squeeze invitations out of them; for in a +country entirely populated by monotonous Misters and Mrs-es, with +nothing more decorative than a colonel or a general or a judge, even a +poor Irish earl isn't to be sneezed at. Di needn't be handicapped by +every one remembering that her mother would have described herself as a +"music 'all h'artist"; and several Americans living in New York had +asked us to their houses.</p> + +<p>At first it wasn't proposed to take me if the family went, and the +thought of going through again what I had endured when seeing Di and +Eagle March together, kept me from raising my voice in persuasion. It +would be heartwearing to be left behind, never to know what was +happening except from an occasional letter; but to be on the spot and +see for myself would be heartbreaking. I wasn't quite sure which would +be worse, so I left the decision to Fate; and as I said before, it was +my Frenchified genius for doing hair which settled the matter. Di +discussed it with Father frankly before me, and argued that not only was +I cleverer than the average maid, but actually cheaper. "Besides," she +finished, "Peggy dear would like to go, and she's not a bad little +thing. Who knows but she might pick up something over there for +herself?"</p> + +<p>"A picker up of unconsidered trifles!" the scotched, not killed minx in +me couldn't resist quoting, at the suggestion that I was welcome to Di's +leavings if I could bag them. But neither Father nor Di was paying the +slightest attention.</p> + +<p>By superhuman efforts in borrowing, and perhaps begging (I wouldn't "put +it past him"), and selling the portrait of our best-looking, +worst-behaved ancestor, Father scraped up enough money to take us to +America and have a little over for travelling expenses there. Further +than that he did not look, for we should be living board free most of +the time; and besides, something was almost sure to turn up. In December +we sailed on a slow, cheap ship; and once on the other side, lived for +six weeks, like the lord and ladies we were, upon friends Di had +carefully collected, as if they were rare foreign stamps or postcards, +in London during the past season. Most of these she had met through +Eagle. She had a gorgeous time, and even I came in for plenty of fun; +because it seems that a girl in America ceases to "flap" while she is +still quite young. I was strictly reduced by my elders to "just +sixteen," although my seventeenth birthday was upon me; but there were +men in New York not above talking or tangoing with a girl of sixteen, +and my hair, though only looped up flapper fashion, with a ribbon, was +actually admired. I saw it in the newspapers—not the hair, but the +admiration.</p> + +<p>Never were people so hospitable as those kind ones in New York, and +never were houses more beautiful or more luxurious than theirs. I had +never seen anything quite like them at home: but it wasn't the luxury +that stirred in my heart a wondering love for America. I began to feel +it from the very moment when our cheap liner brought us into the +harbour, and the Statue of Liberty (about which Eagle had told me) was +suddenly unveiled to my eyes from behind a curtain of silver mist. The +thrill warmed my blood, and I had the sensation of being at home, as if +I were coming to stay with kinsfolk; a dim but deep conviction, that I +<i>belonged</i>; that there was a place for me.</p> + +<p>We were doing something from morning till night—or rather till the next +morning; and the air was like a tonic to keep us up to the work of play. +Luncheons and dinners and dances were given for Di, and she was written +and talked about as the "Beautiful Lady Diana O'Malley"; but, though she +had proposals, nothing better offered than Captain March, whose rich +aunt, Mrs. Cabot, lived in New York, and proved to be the genuine +article. Consequently, we turned our attention to Washington. Washington +also turned its attention to us, and made itself agreeable to Father and +Diana. Place and people were both fascinating; and we had five weeks +more of dinners and dances, without the result we all knew in our secret +souls we had come to get. The men who wanted Di, she didn't want, and +vice versa. So at length we came to the last item marked on our +programme: a visit to the fashionable Alvarado Springs, close to Fort +Alvarado, in Arizona, where Captain March was stationed.</p> + +<p>It was the end of March when we arrived at Alvarado, and the newspapers +were thickly sprinkled with the name of the Mexican President Huerta, +printed in big, black letters. A few weeks ago the name would have meant +nothing to me, but I hadn't lived in vain in Washington for more than a +month. If the name of a Mexican president or general who had done +anything conspicuous during the past six years had been suddenly flung +at my head (as in the children's game where they shout "Beast, Bird, +Fish!" and you answer before the count of three), I could have told who +he was, and whether the conspicuous deed had been good or bad.</p> + +<p>At Alvarado we had thought to be past invitation zone, and Father had +been fearfully hoarding his resources at the expense of his friends, to +hold out against high charges at a big hotel. There was said to be a +very big one indeed, at the Springs, with bills to match; but at the +eleventh hour one of Father's devoted band of rich widows (the widows +thoughtfully provided for him by deceased financiers) took a furnished +cottage there and asked us to visit her. She was an unusually nice +widow, whose husband had made a fortune through inventing gollywogs with +different eyes from other gollywogs. The strain had given him a weak +heart, and he had died. The widow's name was Mrs. Main, and Di +shamelessly christened her the "Main Chance." She certainly <i>was</i> ours!</p> + +<p>Mrs. Main, whom we'd met in New York, dashed off to Alvarado Springs a +fortnight ahead of us, in time to get acquainted through letters of +introduction with the highest-up officers at Fort Alvarado, and the +wives of those who had any; also to put the furnished "cottage," as she +called it (there must have been fifteen or twenty rooms), in order; and +the night we arrived, after our long but utterly fascinating journey, +she gave a dinner in honour of Father and Diana.</p> + +<p>I had been tremendously interested in the whole trip from Washington to +Arizona, and with the first glimpse I had of the romantic Springs I felt +a thrilling sensation that it was a place where things were bound to +happen. The hotel, as all who have heard of Alvarado must know, stands +in the midst of a young forest, overlooking a canon that for colour is +like a vast cup full of rainbows, and beyond the forest to the left is +the garrison. From the higher stories of the hotel you can see the red +roofs of the officers' quarters, and farther away the barracks and the +big, bare drill ground, but from the wide verandas no houses are +anywhere visible, except the colony of cottages built in Spanish fashion +like the hotel itself, each having its own little garden with a flowery +hedge. From the glorified cottage Mrs. Main had taken we could walk up +to a dance at the hotel in five minutes.</p> + +<p>I think Eagle would have liked to meet us at the railway station, but Di +had plenty of excuses for not allowing that. He had met Mrs. Main, +however, and in the afternoon he called. Father was out prospering round +the little town, and visiting the smart club at which he had been put up +as an honorary member. Di and our hostess (she made us call her Kitty, a +sprightly name to which she struggled to live up to) were in the garden +when Eagle came, but I happened to be in the drawing-room with a book, +so I had about five minutes alone with him before Mrs. Main's black +butler found the others.</p> + +<p>I hadn't tried, as a well-regulated young girl would no doubt have +tried, to "get over" being in love with Captain March. I had just simply +said to myself that the kind of unhappiness which loving him made me +suffer was better than any little wretched pretence at half-baked +happiness I could hope for by putting him out of my mind. So I had +basked in the painful luxury of thinking about him constantly, and +dreaming dreams of how I might serve or sacrifice myself for him, and +win his passionate gratitude. Consequently, when I raised my eyes from +the Spanish novel I wanted to translate, and saw Eagle March come in at +the door, I loved him a thousand times more than ever. I don't know if +an unprejudiced person would call him actually handsome; but I thought +there couldn't be on earth a man worth comparing with that brown-faced +soldier.</p> + +<p>He was glad to meet his "dear little pal" again, because of what he +could get out of her about his loved one. He did hold back his eagerness +long enough to rattle off, "Why, Peggy, you're growing up! By Jove, +you're almost a woman, aren't you? and a pretty one, too—though you've +kept your impish look, I'm glad to see!" But that was only the preface. +As soon as he decently could, he turned the conversation to Diana. How +was she? As beautiful as ever? Though of course she was! Did she ever +speak of him? He'd passed sleepless nights after reading newspaper +paragraphs which reported her on the eve of an engagement with this man +or that—disgustingly rich, overfed brutes. Was there a grain of truth +in any of the reports? No? Thank heaven! Well, then, perhaps there was a +sporting chance for him after all!</p> + +<p>"But, just like my luck," he went on, half laughing, "there's +a chap here who's as formidable as any of them. A regular +twelve-and-a-half-inch gun, latest make and improvements; his name's +Vandyke; only a major; all the same he's got a pot of money. There's +hardly a man in the army as rich as he is, if there's one. Soldiering +means only fun for him. Most of us here are like me; or if they don't +come from generations of soldiers as I do, they're in the service for a +career. Vandyke will probably resign if he gets bored. He's dining at +this house to-night. Notice him, and tell me what you think of him +afterward, will you?"</p> + +<p>"You're coming, too, aren't you?" I asked. "Mrs. Main—Kitty—said you +were, and I was so glad."</p> + +<p>"I should say I was coming!" he exclaimed. "Catch me giving Vandyke a +clear field at the start, if he <i>is</i> my superior officer! You see, +Vandyke——"</p> + +<p>But on the name, as if it were her cue, Diana floated in, and Mrs. Main +steamed in with her, through one of the long windows which opened on to +the veranda. After that I ceased to exist.</p> + +<p>Di wore white that night for the dinner party. A good deal of what +Father was saving in hotel bills he put into clothes for her. It was a +new dress, and sparkled all over like a moonlit lily crusted with dew. I +had a fancy to put on the frock with roses on it, which I'd bought at +Selfridge's so many months ago, with the money paid me by Eagle for my +mother's lace. The dress was still alive, and on active service (though +the roses began to look somewhat sat upon); and Eagle had never seen me +in it. Not that he would notice me now! But I had a queer feeling of +sentiment about the gown, and often I had told myself that never, never +would I throw it away. I should have had a much queerer feeling if I'd +known all that was yet to come of my first meeting with Eagle March in +the Wardour Street curiosity shop.</p> + +<p>Kitty Main had explained that it wasn't to be a big, tiresome dinner on +our first night: merely a few people she thought dear Lord Ballyconal +and Lady Di would like to meet, and "who would love to know them—little +Peggy, too, of course!"—with a belated gasp of politeness for me.</p> + +<p>There would be, besides ourselves, only Mr. and Mrs. Tony Dalziel of New +York; their pretty daughter, Millicent, just out; their son, Lieutenant +Dalziel—"Tony," too; Major Vandyke; and Captain March, who was already +our friend.</p> + +<p>The gossips did suggest, Kitty had gone on to hint, that Millicent +Dalziel was rather throwing herself at Captain March's head (if an +heiress could be said to throw herself at the head of a poor man); but +of course, Milly wouldn't have a look in now, if dear Lady Di had any +attention to spare for Eagleston March. Di, however, was to be taken in +to dinner by Major Vandyke, and Millicent Dalziel by Captain March. It +wasn't probable that Milly would give him much chance for talk with Lady +Di, although he was to sit beside her. "Good little Peggy" would have +young Tony, so nice for both of them! and dear Lord Ballyconal would be +placed between his hostess and Mrs. Dalziel.</p> + +<p>I ought to have had eyes only for my special prey, Lieutenant Dalziel; +but whether I pleased or bored him seemed so comparatively unimportant, +that before the guests began to arrive, I found my faculties preparing +to concentrate elsewhere. Di hadn't mentioned the name of Major Vandyke +while I did her hair, or melted and poured her into the sparkly frock, +but I felt her consciousness of him in the air; and when his name was +announced at the door of the "cottage" drawing-room, my heart gave a +jump as if it wanted to peer over the high wall of the future.</p> + +<p>He came before any of the others, so I had time to make a quick +black-and-white study of him in my brain. I say black and white, because +you would always think of Sidney Vandyke in black and white. An artist +sketching him on the cover of a magazine would need no other colour to +express the man, except—if he had it handy—a dash of red for the full +lips under the black moustache.</p> + +<p>"Major Vandyke!" the soft, drawling voice of Kitty's negro butler +proclaimed him; and that was when my heart knocked its alarm. Kitty Main +generally described people in superlatives, so I hadn't been excited +when she remarked that Major Vandyke was the "best-looking man in the +army." But this time, she seemed not to have exaggerated. There couldn't +be a handsomer man in any army or out of it, and a horrid, sly little +voice whispered to me: "What a splendid-looking couple he and Di would +make!"</p> + +<p>I was standing far in the background, at a window opposite the door, +while the others were grouped together more in the foreground; and what +I saw was a very tall man (so tall that he could dwarf Eagle March's +five foot ten almost to insignificance), six foot two, perhaps, and—not +stout yet, but showing signs that one day he might become so. I noticed +that he held himself magnificently, his broad shoulders thrown back, his +head up; and that he walked with a slight swagger, more like a +cavalryman than an officer in the artillery. Perhaps it was the electric +light which made his skin look as white as Diana's, without a touch of +the tan that darkened Eagle March's fairer complexion; but the white was +of a different quality, somehow, from Diana's. Hers is pearl white; his +had the thick, untranslucent look which pale Jewish faces have. I didn't +know then that Sidney Vandyke was of Hebrew blood, but afterward I heard +that his mother had Spanish Jews for ancestors on one side, and that +with her came most of the family money. He was in full dress uniform, +which became him splendidly; and I had a glimpse of a rather large face, +drawn with square, straight lines that gave it a relentless look; square +white forehead; straight black brows; straight, short nose; large, +squarely opened dark eyes, brilliant and self-confident; straight black +moustache; thick, square red lips; square chin, and a full neck set on +square shoulders. After that first glimpse I saw only the profile, for +in meeting Kitty Main and being introduced to Di and Father, Major +Vandyke had to turn half away from me. Even a profile, however, tells +something; and when Major Vandyke began to talk to Di, bending down a +little, I could see that he admired her very much, or else wanted to +convey this impression to her mind.</p> + +<p>Next came Eagle March, very slim and boyish in shape and size compared +to Major Vandyke, though he can't be more than six years younger; and +hardly had he time to greet his hostess and look wistfully at Di, when +the Dalziels arrived, a party of four. I thought that the father and +mother (a dear little, merry, round-faced couple, curiously like each +other and like Billiken) looked too young and irresponsible to be +parents of anything grown up; but perhaps they had married when they +were almost children, for Lieutenant Dalziel, who was inches taller than +his father, had the happy air of being twenty two or three, and Mrs. +Main had said that the girl was "just out." Young Tony—nut-brown eyes, +skin, and hair, clean shaven, smiling, with teeth white and even as +kernels of American corn—was a glorified edition of his Billiken +father. Miss Dalziel—Milly—was not a bit like any of the others, who +had all been cut from the same pattern and painted with the same paint. +She was even slimmer and smaller than I am; very fair, with a few +freckles, and lots of blue veins at her temples. She had an obstinate +pink button of a mouth; dimples, which she made come and go every minute +by working the muscles of her cheeks; bright, fluffy red hair done high +on her head, floating eyes of gray green, and blackened brows and lashes +which, I suppose, had started life in red. She gave an effect of +prettiness and of thinking herself prettier than she was, an opinion in +which her dress-maker had backed her up.</p> + +<p>Tony Dalziel was jolly, and said so many quaint things in priceless +slang that he kept me laughing; but I had eyes if not ears only for Di +and Major Vandyke. "Say, he's rushing your sister, isn't he? Making a +direct frontal attack—what?" remarked my neighbour, so it must have +been conspicuous. One could see Major Vandyke consciously absorbing +Diana, throwing over her head a veil of his own magnetism, as if to hide +her in it from other men, and make her forget their existence.</p> + +<p>As for Di, she behaved perfectly, if she wished to fascinate and +tantalize a flirt, such as Sidney Vandyke was said to be. She let +herself seem to fall under his spell, and then suddenly slipped gently +away, turning to Captain March who sat at her other side. She would talk +to him in a friendly, intimate way, in a low voice, with little happy +outbursts of laughter over their reminiscences of a year ago; then, half +apologetically, she would turn back to Vandyke again, raising and +letting fall her eyelashes in a way entirely her own, which, somehow, +gives the effect of a blush. It was Victorian, or Edwardian at latest, +but much more useful than any substitute girls have invented since. That +night began the battle which was to have so strange a finish.</p> + +<p>I don't know if Major Vandyke was serious at first. Perhaps he wanted no +more than a good flirtation with a pretty girl, one of the prettiest he +had ever seen, and desperately loved by a brother officer. You see, he +had probably heard already from Kitty Main, who told everything she knew +and a great deal she didn't know, that Captain March was in love with +Di, just as we heard from the same source that Major Vandyke was jealous +of his junior because of flying exploits and honours. I think, though, +that from the moment they met, Di never meant to let the man go free. +She saw that he was flirting, and was angry that he should dare. This +put her on her mettle; and Diana on her mettle was and ever will be +formidable, because of her cleverness, which never lets the mettle show. +She determined that Sidney Vandyke should fall in love—over ears and +eyes in love—and he did. But she wasn't satisfied even with that. She +couldn't bear to have Eagle March escape, and perhaps be snapped up by +Milly Dalziel, who was sitting on the bank of the fishpond with her hook +baited. Oh, it must have been an amusing little comedy for outsiders to +watch; and I was an outsider in a way; but it didn't amuse me. I was +sick at heart, and cross with Tony Dalziel, who wouldn't leave me alone +or give me time to think things over.</p> + +<p>This sort of maneuvering lasted for three weeks; then a bombshell fell +in our midst. Two batteries of the —th Artillery were ordered +immediately to El Paso, on the Mexican border, where a raid was +apparently threatened. Major Vandyke and Captain March and Lieutenant +Dalziel were all to go.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + + +<p>There was desolation at Alvarado Springs, in the hotel, and in the +super-cottages. People—when I say people, I mean women—didn't come to +Alvarado to drink the celebrated waters, or to admire the wonderful +scenery. They came to play with the officers, and now the bravest and +best (looking) were to be snatched from them. What had happened, or what +might happen, was a mystery to mere civilians; but it was whispered +about that possibly there might be real fighting at El Paso. There must +have been, everybody said, something serious under the rumours of a +threatened attack from across the Rio Grande, otherwise government would +not be sending troops to reinforce the large garrison at Fort Bliss, or +be offering to take women and children away from the river towns, in +armoured trains if desired. Cavalry and infantry were moving south from +other army posts, we heard, to guard the concentration camp of Mexican +refugee prisoners at El Paso, and to beat back a rabble of invaders if +need came.</p> + +<p>The order reached Alvarado late in the afternoon, and the batteries were +to leave by train at four o'clock the next morning. As it happened, +Kitty Main, Father, Di, and I were all invited to a dance that evening +at the house of an officer and his wife, Captain and Mrs. Kilburn; but +when the news about the batteries going away began to flash from cottage +to cottage we expected the party to be given up. Di looked rather blank +when Mrs. Main flung the tidings at her, for Sidney Vandyke hadn't +proposed yet. If the dance were abandoned, he might be too busy getting +his men ready to see her before he left; and heaven alone knew when the +batteries would come back. There might be fighting; there might at worst +even be war with Mexico; and whatever happened, we couldn't stay on +indefinitely at Alvarado. Kitty Main had taken the cottage and asked us +to visit her only for six weeks. Besides, Alvarado would be desolate +without our best friends and possible lovers.</p> + +<p>I could see these thoughts developing and following on one another's +heels in Diana's mind. But in my head there was nothing concrete enough +to call a "thought." Feelings seemed to have raced upstairs from heart +to brain, and driven ideas out of the house. They ran wildly round and +round, saying to each other, "What if I never see him again? What if he +should be killed?" But while we were in this state, Mrs. Kilburn +telephoned to Kitty Main that she had decided to have her dance in spite +of all. Her husband was not among those ordered away, and the officers +who were going had arranged to spare time to look in for three or four +dances in any case. Some of them might be very early, some very late, +but there would be plenty of other men to go round; and Mrs. Kilburn +suggested that we might "keep things up" long enough to see the soldiers +off at dawn, before motoring back to the Springs, if that would interest +Lady Diana and Lady Peggy O'Malley.</p> + +<p>There was only one answer to this, and when we went over to Fort +Alvarado for the dance we put on warmer cloaks than we should have worn +ordinarily.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kilburn had brought her husband money; and as she loved gayety she +had somehow got permission to build on to the captain's quarters a +ballroom surrounded on three sides by a wide veranda. Consequently, a +dance at the Kilburns' was worth going to always, and particularly on +this moonlight night of April when the whole fort was humming with +excitement. The officers who were ordered away had their hands full of +work, yet the young ones managed to get off duty if only for a few +minutes, long enough to snatch a dance or two with the girls they liked +best, or to "sit out" with them on the veranda, where there were +colonies of chairs, and garden seats, and hammocks.</p> + +<p>Tony Dalziel was one of those who came early to the Kilburns'. He had +asked me beforehand for six dances, and I had given him three. When he +appeared it was just in time for the first, a two-step. The second would +follow directly after, and the third I knew already, from a note sent me +in haste, he would have to miss.</p> + +<p>"Do you care for this?" he asked, out of breath with his hurry to dress +and sprint over from the far-off line of bachelors' quarters. "If you +don't, will you come outside and see the moon rise? It's going to be a +great sight."</p> + +<p>There is no poetry in a two-step, and if there were it would have been +lost in hopping up and down with Tony, so I chose the moon. I thought +the moon a perfectly safe object to gaze at with such a jolly young man, +who made jokes at everything in the heavens or upon the earth; and +unsuspectingly I went with him to a nook on the veranda screened off +with tall plants from an adjacent hammock. It was a nook intended for +two and no more. There were a great many nooks of that sort on Mrs. +Kilburn's veranda. She specialized in flirtation architecture.</p> + +<p>"Tell me about everything, please," I cheerfully began. "We haven't very +long, have we?"</p> + +<p>"That's the worst of it," said Tony, "and that's why I must be careful +to tell you only the important things. There's just one that really +interests me."</p> + +<p>"What's that?" I asked eagerly. "I hope not that you expect fighting?"</p> + +<p>"No such luck, I'm afraid. But I'm not worrying about that now. What I +want to tell you is this." And to my stupefaction he shot a proposal at +my head as if it came out of a field gun. I knew he liked me, and liked +to be with me, but I couldn't associate the idea of anything so serious +as marriage with Tony Dalziel. I gasped and said he couldn't mean it, +but he assured me that he did, and a dictionary full of other assurances +besides.</p> + +<p>Perhaps, if I had not seen Eagle March and fallen in love with him once +and forever, I might have thought twice before saying "No" to Tony, if +only for the pride of being engaged sooner than Di, and when I wasn't +yet eighteen. Tony Dalziel was what all women call "such a dear!" and, +besides, he had—or would have—plenty of money, a consideration in our +family. I could imagine what a rage Father would be in with me if he +knew what I was doing at that moment, calmly refusing a heaven-sent +opportunity. But Eagle March, though he was not for me, made all the +difference, and put my heart into a convent where it was now undergoing +its novitiate. I let the opportunity slip, and told Tony how sorry I was +to hurt him. But he wasn't inclined to take that for an answer. He +wanted to know if I wouldn't "leave it open," in case anything happened +to make me change my mind. I warned him that, so far as I could see, I +would never change it; but if an "optimist will op"—as Tony +remarked—what can you do? You can't prevent his opping, and rather than +hear an irrevocable word he bade me good-bye while I protested. This was +in the midst of what should have been his second dance, and I didn't +feel equal to going indoors again directly after that scene, even to +tango. I asked Tony to leave me where I was, to gather up my wits, and +when he had darted away I sat quite still for a few minutes. I had no +engagement until the time for my one dance with Eagle March should come; +and as Tony hadn't given me much chance for gazing at the "great sight" +he had brought me out to see, I tried to cool my brain with moonlight. +But I had forgotten all about the hammock on the other side of the +flower screen. I remembered it only when I heard footsteps, and a +creaking of chairs as some one—or rather some two—sat down.</p> + +<p>"Good gracious!" I said to myself. "<i>Now</i> what shall I do?" For as the +pair came to a halt they went on with their conversation, which had +evidently reached a critical point. I recognized the man's voice, and as +it was that of Eagle March, I knew as well as if I had already seen her +that the girl must be Diana. I knew also that she would never forgive me +if I popped out at this moment, like the wrong figure on a barometer. +Nothing on earth would make her believe that I hadn't been "spying"; for +though Di didn't realize how much and in what way I cared for Eagle, she +often teased me about being jealous because my great "chum" had forsaken +me for her. If at any time she could call him away from me by a glance +or a smile, it amused her to do so; and she would believe I was +"revenging" myself, in the best way I could, on this their last night.</p> + +<p>I had half jumped up from the low seat which Tony had shared with me; +but on second thoughts I sat down again.</p> + +<p>"She won't let him say much," I thought, "so there'll be nothing to +overhear. Anyhow, I can stop my ears, if worst comes to worst." But +before I had time to resolve on this precaution, I heard Eagle say, "If +it wasn't for the money, I shouldn't feel I had the right——"</p> + +<p>The rest was silence, for I kept my resolution and refused to catch +another syllable; yet those words had set me thinking hard. If Eagle +were telling Di that he was now certain to come in for his aunt's +fortune, she might look upon him as a bird in the hand, whereas a +notorious flirt like Major Vandyke might be worth no more than two in +the bush with the saltcellar empty.</p> + +<p>I struggled to find consolation by reminding myself that, if Di did +marry Eagle, she might make him happy, provided there were enough money +for everything she wanted, and if he were willing to cut the army for +her sake and live mostly in England. She wasn't an ill-natured or +sharp-tongued girl when things went as she wished, I reflected, and if +he were content to sacrifice his career for love of her, they might get +on very well together. But—what <i>desolating</i> words to use in connection +with Eagle March—"get on well together!" He wasn't one to be satisfied +with mere contentment, where he had hoped for rapture.</p> + +<p>I sat with my ears stopped, until suddenly the two began speaking in a +much louder tone; and a third voice, that of a man, joined the +conversation. Then I decided that I might come back to life again; and +as I let my tired arms drop, I became aware that the newcomer was Sidney +Vandyke. He was telling Di that this was his dance, and that he had been +looking for her everywhere.</p> + +<p>"I heard Kilburn mention that the Old Man had sent for you, March, and I +know they're on your scent," he announced.</p> + +<p>"In that case, I may not see you again, Lady Diana," Eagle said.</p> + +<p>"Peggy and I are going with Mrs. Kilburn and a lot of others to wave to +you for good luck, when you start," answered Di, rather nervously, I +thought.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad. We shall have a last glimpse of you all," replied Eagle. "But +I'm afraid I shan't get a word with you then. So I'll bid you good-bye +now!"</p> + +<p>He spoke in quite a matter-of-fact way; but I, who knew every tone of +his voice, guessed what it covered; and I could almost feel the pressure +of his hand as it clasped Di's, with Major Vandyke mercilessly looking +on. I wondered whether she had been cruel or kind.</p> + +<p>In a moment he was gone; and with a stab of pain I realized that, if the +colonel had sent for him, he must miss out his dance with me. Would he +even remember it? Would he scribble me a line of farewell? I longed to +run out and catch him before he went, if only for a word, but I dared +not dash past Di, and give her the shock of learning that I had been +within three yards of her all the time. Again I was trapped, unless Di +and Major Vandyke should go indoors to dance; but no sooner was Eagle +March out of earshot than Vandyke asked Di to stay.</p> + +<p>"Of course we've known all along that we might get marching orders," he +said, and there was no harm in my hearing that. "It's a surprise only to +those outside. The adjutant has been fussing over stores and ammunition, +and target practice has been a confounded bore. All the same, at the end +the move's been sprung on us, just when we'd forgotten to expect it. I +feel as if I'd wasted a lot of precious time one way or another, but it +isn't too late yet, Lady Di, if you——"</p> + +<p>I stopped up my ears again so effectively that I heard no more, and a +few minutes later was flabbergasted when Diana and he suddenly broke +upon me from behind the screen of plants.</p> + +<p>My first thought was that Di had suspected my presence there, and had +wanted to pounce; but she gave a jump and a cry of surprise as she saw +me sitting bolt upright on the bench, with my fingers stuffed into my +ears.</p> + +<p>"Good <i>gracious</i>, Peg!" she gasped. "How long have you been here?"</p> + +<p>"Ever since before <i>you</i> came," I answered. I might have put it +differently by telling tales, and so serving Eagle March's cause, +perhaps; but no matter how thoroughly I disapproved of her, I couldn't +give my own sister away. "I didn't like to come out, you see, for fear +you mightn't like it; but I haven't heard anything you've said, if +<i>that</i> interests you to know."</p> + +<p>"I don't care whether you've heard or not," said Di, trying to speak +playfully, but unable to keep sharpness out of her tone. "Major Vandyke +thought this was a nicer seat than the hammock to rest in, so he brought +me to it. Of course, we'd no idea any one was—was <i>hiding</i> here!"</p> + +<p>"Well, there won't be any one, now I'm free to move," I snapped. "I'm +only too thankful to have a chance to get back to the ballroom. You've +made me miss a dance."</p> + +<p>"<i>We've</i> made you? I like that!" gurgled Di. But I waited for no more. I +skipped away toward the nearest long window without looking round, and +was just in time to meet my partner in search of me, the partner after +Eagle March, and a brother officer of his. "Our dance," said he, "and +here's something March asked me to hand you. He's been called away."</p> + +<p>The "something" was a leaf torn out of a notebook and neatly folded into +a cocked hat. It was rather appropriate that Eagle's good-bye to me +should come in this form, because I had given him the notebook for a +birthday present only the week before. I'd saved up my pennies to get a +good one, and have his initials in silver fastened on to the +khaki-coloured morocco cover. The paper of the book itself and the +refills were also khaki coloured to match the cover, with lines in very +faint blue. I had wanted my little gift to be as distinctive as +possible, and had taken a great deal of pains to choose a notebook +different from all others, little dreaming what was fated to hang on the +difference.</p> + +<p>Quietly but carefully I undid the paper cocked hat and read the few +pencilled words: "So disappointed, dear little friend, not to have my +dance with you, but I'm called back to work. Congratulate me. <i>I've got +almost the promise I wanted.</i> The next best thing, anyhow. Farewell for +a while. Write to me to El Paso like the good girl you are. I shall look +for you at the train to-morrow morning early, though we may not have a +chance to speak. Yours ever, E. M."</p> + +<p>I folded up the note and tucked it into the neck of my dress. Then I +danced. And all the rest of the evening I danced. Yet I thought only of +one thing: the half-veiled confidence Eagle had given me. Apparently Di +had said something calculated to send him away happy. But Major Vandyke +had looked far from sad when he walked into the ballroom with Di, after +their <i>tête-à-tête</i> on the veranda in my deserted nook. I felt something +was wrong, and determined to have it out with Diana the minute I could +get her alone. My chance came sooner than I expected, for just before +supper she tore her frock and wanted me to run up with her to the +dressing-room and mend it. "A maid will make an awful mess of the +thing," she said, "but you'll know what to do, and it'll take only a few +minutes."</p> + +<p>We had the dressing-room to ourselves, for Mrs. Kilburn's French maid, +who was in charge, had slipped away, probably for a sly peep at the +dancing. When I had Di at my mercy, holding her by a trail of gold +fringe, I opened fire.</p> + +<p>"Are you engaged to Eagle March?" I flashed out.</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," Di flashed back. "What makes you think such a thing? +You said you didn't hear——" In haste she cut her sentence short, +realizing how she had given herself away. She would have gone on +quickly, but I broke in.</p> + +<p>"You ask what makes me think such a thing when I told you that I didn't +hear a word of your talk. Which shows that if I <i>had</i> heard, I <i>might</i> +have thought of it. Well, I did not hear, but, all the same, I think."</p> + +<p>"You needn't, then," she assured me. "If I'm engaged to any one, it is +to Sidney Vandyke. But I tell you as much as that, only to prove there's +nothing between me and Captain March. It's in strict confidence, and you +must be sure and keep the secret, Peg, till I'm ready to have it come +out. Nothing's to be said until this Mexican bother is over. Can you +make the fringe look right?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, if you give me time," I answered. "But, Di, I won't have you +playing tricks with Eagle March. I simply won't stand it!"</p> + +<p>"It's horrid of you to suggest that I would do such a thing," Diana +protested virtuously.</p> + +<p>"Pooh!" said I, secure in my knowledge that she dared not move. "I know +you pretty well, Di, and although you can be quite a darling when you +like, you'd do anything—<i>anything whatever</i>, that was for your own +interests, no matter how much it hurt others. You'd better tell me the +truth, because I'm sure to find out; and if you mean to hurt or deceive +Eagle March I'll stop you from doing it, I don't care how much it may +cost me or you, or any one else but him."</p> + +<p>"If ever there was a thorough little <i>pig</i>, it's you, Peggy," said Di.</p> + +<p>"Thorough pigs seem to run in our family," I ruthlessly retorted. "But +they're intelligent animals, and this one has rooted up something +already. I believe you've practically promised to marry <i>both</i> these +men, and persuaded them to keep the secret, so you can have time to +decide which one will be the better to take, in the end."</p> + +<p>"You make me out a perfect wretch," Di moaned piteously, peering over +her shoulder to see how the repairs were getting on.</p> + +<p>"So you are! A beautiful one, but a wretch. You like them both, Eagle +and Major Vandyke. You like Eagle because he's so popular and such a +hero as an airman; and you like Major Vandyke because he's awfully good +looking and awfully rich and an awful flirt. You were worried to death +for fear he wouldn't propose, and I'd have known to-night, from the +change in your face, even if you hadn't told me, that he had spoken at +last. But Eagle spoke, too, and you sent him away happy. I know that; +though the only other thing I do know for certain, is that you think now +he's sure to get his aunt's money."</p> + +<p>"It's not such a tremendous lot, anyhow," Di gave herself away again. +"He won't have more than two or three hundred thousand dollars at the +most. If only it were <i>pounds</i>! Every one says Sidney Vandyke has a +million. He's one of the few very rich men in the American army."</p> + +<p>"But he can't fly, and he can't invent things, and he'll never be the +man in any career that Eagle will," I reminded her. "You know this as +well as I do. That's why you're waiting. Don't you think you'd better +explain your true state of mind to me, if you don't want me to work +against you?"</p> + +<p>"You're a cat as well as a pig, you little horror!"</p> + +<p>"What a museum combination! Don't twitch, or the fringe will go crooked. +Is Eagle's rich aunt likely to die?"</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, she is," Diana admitted. "She's very old, you know. She's +had a third stroke of paralysis. If Eagle could have got leave he would +have gone to her, but that was out of the question as things are."</p> + +<p>"Did he tell you about her, or was it some one else who gave you the +news?"</p> + +<p>"It was some one else, of course. Naturally I wanted to make sure, so +I—sympathized with him on his aunt's illness. He had only just heard +about it, himself. He's always been fond of her, and he said he couldn't +have had the heart to come to a dance, if it hadn't been his last night, +and the only way to see me before he left for Texas. But he told me that +Mrs. Cabot's death would make him comparatively a rich man. Those were +the words he used. I don't think he's sure how much he'll get. It was +from Kitty I heard what Mrs. Cabot is likely to leave."</p> + +<p>"And as 'likely' isn't the same as 'certain,' you're hanging fire till +she's dead," I explained Diana to herself.</p> + +<p>"You make me out heaps worse than I am," she reproached me. "If I +haven't given an absolutely definite answer to Eagle March or Sidney +Vandyke, it's—it's—because of this expedition they're both going on. +They may get some chance to distinguish themselves. You're such a +practical little person that you can't realize the romantic sort of +feeling I have about such things. If I marry a man who isn't of my own +country, I should like him to be a great hero, whom every one would read +about and admire. I've told each of them to work, and do his best for my +sake."</p> + +<p>"There'll probably be no opportunity for anything heroic +in such an expedition as this," said I, living up to the +reputation—ill-deserved—for practicality, which Di wished +to thrust on me in contrast with herself.</p> + +<p>"That's what they both said," she agreed, "but one never knows."</p> + +<p>"And so you get a story-book-heroine excuse to wait!"</p> + +<p>"Little viper!"</p> + +<p>"The cat-pig-viper won't sting unless you force it to," I guaranteed. +"There! Your dress is all right again."</p> + +<p>"You could have finished five minutes ago, if you hadn't been determined +to lecture me. Thanks, all the same. You have your uses, though they're +not always sweet, like those of adversity."</p> + +<p>We went our separate ways with the men who were waiting to take us in to +supper; and we didn't come together again till the dance was over, and +every one but the party specially asked to stay had gone home. We heard +the bugles sounding reveille; then presently the beat of drums and the +rumble of the field guns going to the station. When Captain Kilburn +announced that the entrainment was well under way, we started in his big +limousine, shivering a little in evening cloaks flung on hastily over +low-necked dresses. We waited till the platform was clear of the great +mass of khaki-clad young men, and then timidly appeared, to stare +through the dusk of early morning in search of friends. Ours wasn't the +only party engaged in that business. Others were there; and swathed +figures of girls and women, in rich-coloured cloaks over pale-tinted +ball gowns, glimmered in the dawn like a row of tall flowers crowding +along the edge of a garden path. My eyes were trying to find Eagle March +when Tony Dalziel spoke by my shoulder, and made me jump. "I've just a +minute," he said when I turned. "I want to ask you if you'll forget you +turned me down last night, and be friends again. I will if you will. +<i>Will</i> you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I returned gladly, shaking hands. "I'm so glad you've realized +that you were silly to feel about me like that. Why you or any man +<i>should</i>, I can't think!"</p> + +<p>"Can't you? That's because you haven't seen yourself, or heard yourself, +and don't know what a quaint, darling sort of girl you are. But never +mind. Let it go at that. We'll be friends. And promise, if my mother and +Milly ask you to do something for them, you will."</p> + +<p>"Anything I possibly can," I warmly answered. "Good-bye! Good luck!"</p> + +<p>He was off. I meant to follow him with my eyes and wave to him when he +looked out of his window in the train. But before he appeared again, I +caught sight of Eagle March on a car platform, and forgot Tony, just as +Eagle had forgotten me. Behind Eagle's slight figure towered massively +Major Vandyke's splendid bulk; and as I waved my handkerchief to Eagle, +while the train slid slowly out, I was vaguely aware of Diana's +outstretched arm and a butterfly flutter of something white and small. +Eagle's eyes went past me to her, though his smile was for me also; and +Di was able deftly to kill her two birds with one stone, at the last. +Her farewell look and gesture did equally well for both, yet each could +take it wholly to himself.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + + +<p>The next night I had a dreadful dream about Eagle March. Somehow or +other, he had been condemned to death by Major Vandyke (who had +unbecomingly turned into a judge) and Eagle was to be executed unless I +could arrive in time to save him, armed with a reprieve or pardon—I +didn't quite know which—that I had got from Washington. I waked up +crying out, because a hand had been stretched forth through darkness to +clutch my shoulder, and prevent me from getting to El Paso until too +late. Even then, when I was wide awake, the dream had been so horribly +vivid that I couldn't persuade myself it wasn't true. I had always +laughed at superstitious people who believed in dreams, yet I couldn't +clear my mind of this one, or keep from asking myself in a panic, "What +if it's a warning?" It seemed that after all such things might +mysteriously be.</p> + +<p>Alvarado Springs was as dull as a convent after the officers we liked +best had gone from the fort, and Kitty proposed subletting her cottage +to an invalid who, for a wonder, had really come to the place for +nothing but to take the cure. This rare creature was distressed by the +noises of the hotel, and was willing to pay more than Kitty had paid, +for the remaining few weeks of Mrs. Main's tenancy. Our hostess was +enchanted with the idea, clapped her fat, dimpled hands like a little +girl, and proposed to "blow" the money (this was slang she had +delightedly picked up from Father) on a motor tour to California. She +had no car of her own, but she could hire one, with a chauffeur we had +often taken for short runs, and at Los Angeles, Riverside, Santa +Barbara, San Francisco, and other places, she had friends who would +shower invitations. The trip would take from two to six weeks, according +to our own desire. Then, when we were tired of motoring and +country-house visiting, the car would be sent home, and we could have +the fun of going East together by the "Limited," which, Kitty said, was +one of the most wonderful trains in the world.</p> + +<p>This was the proposal, and it suited Father and Di very well. Each had a +reason for wishing to prolong the tour in America, if it could be done +"on the cheap." Di, of course, wanted to see Major Vandyke or Captain +March—whichever she decided to take in the end—and settle her affairs +definitely before going home to prepare for the wedding. As to Father, I +began to ask myself about this time if he seriously thought of making +our "Main Chance" a countess, and counting her dollars into his own +pockets. In any case; travelling luxuriously in a land where poor Irish +earls weighed as well in the balance as a rich English variety, was +better than vegetating at Ballyconal or economizing in London; so he +smiled upon the plan, and I was the one obstacle. The only comfortable +car that Mrs. Main could get at short notice, was ideal for five, +counting a chauffeur and a maid, but close quarters for six. I couldn't +be put permanently with the chauffeur; and, besides, Kitty's looks were +of the sort that depend upon a maid. "Dear little Peggy must just +squeeze in somehow," was her verdict, although Di would temporarily have +done without my services rather than be cramped, if I could have been +disposed of elsewhere. She and Father put their heads together, and I +had begun to feel in my bones that an invitation for me from Mrs. +Kilburn was to be hinted at, when Mrs. Dalziel came to the rescue.</p> + +<p>Her husband had gone back to New York long ago, and she and Milly had +been wondering ever since Tony's orders came, whether it might be +feasible to follow him to El Paso, and "see what was doing there." He +had now wired that all the women of the neighbourhood had refused to +leave the men; that the "scare" was dying down; that it looked as if the +imported troops would have nothing more exciting to do than guard the +concentration camp; and there was a gorgeous hotel in the town, full of +rich Spanish refugees, men who were celebrities, and women who were +beauties. Mrs. Dalziel had accordingly decided to venture; and Milly +would enjoy the trip immensely, if Father would let me go with them as +their guest. The eyes of my family lighted at this hope of liberation, +and I suddenly understood what Tony's last words to me had meant. This +was <i>his</i> plan; but I wanted so violently to go to El Paso and was so +violently wanted to go by Father and Di, that I didn't stop to debate +whether or no it was right to say yes. I simply said it, and—hang the +consequences!</p> + +<p>Di bade me an affectionate farewell, with a plaintive reminder that a +girl not likely to be proposed to every day might do worse than Tony +Dalziel. I, in turn, reminded her that any knavish juggling with Captain +March's faith would be dealt with severely by me; and so we parted, she +to go her way to California <i>en automobile</i>, I to go mine to Texas by +Santa Fé trains.</p> + +<p>I was grateful to Mrs. Dalziel and Milly for taking me, though I +couldn't help seeing that it was not for my <i>beaux yeux</i> they had asked +me to be their guest. I was a handle, or cat's-paw; but I preferred the +part of usefulness to my hostesses to being carted about by them as an +expensive luxury. Mrs. Dalziel really wanted me for Tony, who had never +been denied anything short of the moon that he cried for. Milly wanted +people to think that she wanted me for Tony, in order to have an +invincible, ironproof excuse for the rush to El Paso, which her friends +of the cat tribe might attribute to a different motive. She had been +rather depressed at Alvarado, but began to bubble over with wild spirits +the moment we were off for El Paso. She said that this would be the +great adventure of our lives, and she was only sorry all danger along +the border was over, as we shouldn't get the chance to show how brave we +were.</p> + +<p>It was an interesting journey, every stage of it; and at Las Cruces and +after, we began to realize how close we were to old Mexico. Only the +river ran between us and that mysterious, ancient land, as far removed +in thought from the United States as though it were an annex of Egypt. +Here and there, too, the Rio Grande (which I'd thought of geographically +as a vast stream, wide as a lake) was a mere water serpent, writhing in +its shallow bed of mud. This, we heard our fellow passengers say, +explained the late danger of a raid. It would be as "easy as falling off +a log" for a party of ill-advised Mexicans to make a dash across the +river, and already there had been small private expeditions of cattle +stealers. Staring out of the windows at little adobe villages, their +huddled houses turned from brown to cubes of gold by the afternoon sun, +we listened to all sorts of disquieting gossip. According to the +travellers, who talked loudly to each other across the car, the "scare" +was suddenly on again. Some more Federals had escaped the +Constitutionalist soldiers, and got into Del Rio, where they had been +protected by American soldiers, and there had been some shooting from +one side of the river to the other. Carranza was threatening reprisals; +no one seemed to know what Villa's attitude would be. A few American +women who had little children had decided after all to go north. At Las +Cruces and El Paso you could no longer buy a Browning, or arms of any +kind. All had been snapped up. Las Cruces men, remembering that the +militia was composed of Mexicans, had begun giving their wives lessons +in target practice. At El Paso there was the peril of the Mexican +population to be faced in case of attack from across the river; to say +nothing of the thousand Mexicans employed in the smelting works down on +the flats, and the five thousand refugees in the concentration camp, if +they should mutiny and get out of control.</p> + +<p>Poor Mrs. Dalziel drooped more and more piteously as this ball of gossip +was tossed from one side of the car to the other, and Milly's ever white +face grew so pale that her freckles stood out conspicuously. She ceased +to exclaim with excitement over the cowboys galloping along the road on +the United States side of the river, or to count the automobiles and the +great alfalfa barns near small stations where black-veiled Mexican women +waved sad farewells to weedy, olive-faced youths, perhaps going to the +"war."</p> + +<p>"Of course, we're not afraid for <i>ourselves</i>," said Mrs. Dalziel. +"We—we should want to be near Tony, whatever happened. It's of you +we're thinking, Peggy. I don't know if we ought to have brought you to +such a place. And I do wish Tony's father were with us, anyhow."</p> + +<p>The nearer we came to El Paso, the more foreign and Mexican the country +seemed, with its wild purple mountains billowing along the sunset sky of +red and gold; its queer, Moorish-looking groups of brown huts, and its +dark-skinned men in sombreros or huge straw hats with steeple crowns. It +was quite a relief to draw into El Paso station where everything was +suddenly modern and American, and comfortably normal again.</p> + +<p>Tony had got off duty to come and meet us; and after the first +"how-do-you-dos," his mother began bombarding him with questions. What +had happened? What was likely to happen? Wouldn't it have been better to +telegraph us not to come?</p> + +<p>She and Milly both had the air of eagerly hoping that he might after all +be able to sweep away their fears with a word or a laugh; but for once, +Tony kept as solemn a face as the conformation of his benevolent +Billiken features permitted.</p> + +<p>"There's nothing at all to worry about, if you don't get silly and +panicky," said he. "I did think of telegraphing, not because there's any +real danger, but because I was afraid that when you got down here, if +things hadn't cleared up, the newspaper 'extras' and the way they talk +at the hotels might give you the jumps. I couldn't have wired till after +you'd started, though, because there was nothing doing before that, +worth a telegram. I thought it would scare you blue if you got a message +delivered to you in the train saying better not come, or words to that +effect; so it seemed best to let things rip. Now you're on the spot, you +just keep your hair on, and don't believe anything you read or hear; +then you'll be all right."</p> + +<p>"My hair doesn't come off, dearest," objected Mrs. Dalziel mildly, which +made us laugh; and that did everybody good.</p> + +<p>"I bet Lady Peggy isn't afraid worth a cent," Tony remarked.</p> + +<p>"Rather not!" said I. "I wouldn't go away—no, not if you set <i>mice</i> at +me! Even if Mrs. Dalziel and Milly went, I'd stay on and volunteer as a +nurse. I can do first aid, and I don't mind the sight of blood if there +isn't too much; though, of course, it would be better if it were a +peaceful green or blue instead of that terrifying red."</p> + +<p>Tony took us in a taxi to the Paso del Norte, a big hotel good enough +for New York or London; and even in that short spin through the streets, +we saw the newspaper "extras" being hawked about by yelling boys who +waved the papers to show off their huge scarlet headlines. The marble +entrance hall of the hotel was crowded with people who had just bought +these extras, and were reading aloud tit-bits of "scare" news to each +other, or discussing the situation in groups. Some looked very Spanish, +and Tony said they were refugees, from the heart of Mexico; but the +women seemed to have had plenty of time to sort out and pack their +prettiest clothes before they fled.</p> + +<p>That night Eagle March was asked to dine with us at the hotel. He sat +between Mrs. Dalziel and Milly, and more than once I caught his eyes +resting on me thoughtfully, almost wistfully. I wondered if there were +something that he was particularly anxious to say, but Milly kept him +occupied even after dinner was over and we were having coffee in the +hall. I was resigning myself to the idea that we shouldn't be given time +for a word together, when out of the crowd appeared Major Vandyke. He +was with friends, but escaped, and crossed the hall to shake hands with +us. I noticed what stiff, grudging nods he and Eagle gave each other, +just enough of a nod not to be a cut. Something disagreeable had +evidently happened between them since they left us at Fort Alvarado; for +in those days, no matter how they felt, they always kept up the pretence +of being good enough friends.</p> + +<p>When Major Vandyke had been civil to me and asked after my "people," he +began telling Mrs. Dalziel and Milly things about the state of affairs +in El Paso. "You may have come in for a small adventure, after all," +said he. "We've had to warn the occupants of some of the tallest +buildings in town that they may be called on to clear out at five +minutes' notice, if we have trouble, for their houses would be in range +of gunfire from both sides. But you'll be all right here at the hotel, +whatever happens. We're strong enough to protect you."</p> + +<p>He laughed, and I saw that he enjoyed teasing timid little Mrs. Dalziel. +I thought that haughty "we," constantly coming in, was characteristic of +the man, and judging by the odd expression which just flickered lightly +across Eagle's face, he was thinking the same thing. Tony joined +boyishly in the conversation, to reassure his mother and Milly, and +Eagle promptly seized the moment for a word with me.</p> + +<p>"Any message?" he asked in a low voice. I shook my head.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," he said, "I'm mighty glad to see you, anyhow, little girl. +Lucky Tony! I'm rather jealous of him, you know. I'd got sort of in the +habit of thinking I had the only claim."</p> + +<p>I felt myself go scarlet. What a good thing one doesn't blush all +colours of the rainbow!—for I had the sensation of a prism. "Tony +Dalziel may be lucky," I stammered. "I hope he is. But his luck has +nothing to do with me. Neither has he—except as a friend. That's quite +understood between us."</p> + +<p>"Oh, is it?" smiled Eagle. "I'm a selfish beast to be glad, but I am. I +was feeling quite low in my mind and 'out of it' at dinner."</p> + +<p>So the wistful looks had been for me! It seemed too good to be true, +even to have so much place in Eagle's heart that he didn't want to lose +me.</p> + +<p>When Milly turned to him, as she did almost instantly, for consolation +after Major Vandyke's teasing, Eagle told her, while I listened, how +very little, in his opinion, there was for any one to fear. It was true, +of course, that the troops had come to El Paso for a purpose. Every one +thought it had been served by frightening out of a certain faction of +Mexicans such vague, secret hopes as they might foolishly have +cherished. Now to be sure, the "scare act" was being read again, but the +big field guns pointing across the river were in any case powerful +enough to keep the peace. Captain March wanted to know if we would care +to visit the camps next day. If so, he would help Dalziel arrange the +visit. This suggestion saved Milly the trouble of hinting for it, and +she was happy; but her happiness was destined to be short-lived. It was +destroyed in the night by a band of vicious microbes with which she had +been fighting a silent battle during the long journey to El Paso. They +won, and kept her in bed with a pink nose and eyes overflowing with +grief and influenza.</p> + +<p>I nobly offered to stay with her, but Mrs. Dalziel had a son as well as +a daughter. She said we must go and take a look at Tony's tent, if we +did nothing else; and perhaps it would have ended in our doing not much +more if it hadn't been for Eagle.</p> + +<p>El Paso was one of the most deliciously exciting places in America just +then, and there were many things which I wanted far more to see than +Tony Dalziel's tent. There was the town itself, with its broad streets +and tall buildings (which made me shiver with the wildly absurd thought +of their being smashed by silly rebel guns from across the river); its +shady avenues of alluring bungalows, and its parks—all so gay and +peaceful in the warm spring sunshine that the very suggestion of war +within a thousand miles seemed fantastic melodrama, despite the shouting +newspaper boys with a fearsome "extra" coming out every fifteen minutes. +There was new Fort Bliss, the cavalry post, and old Fort Bliss, famous, +they told me, as long ago as the days of Indian warfare. There was the +concentration camp where five thousand Mexicans were guarded by +soldiers, and there were the camps of the reinforcing troops, artillery, +cavalry, and infantry. I wanted to miss nothing, but when we had motored +to old Fort Bliss down by the river and the smelting works, and seen the +faded houses in temporary occupation of visiting officers; when we had +spun out to new Fort Bliss to admire the smart quarters and barracks, +and when we had trailed about a little in "Tony's camp," Mrs. Dalziel +was tired. The sun was very hot, and she thought she ought to go home to +poor Milly. Captain March, however, was certain that what I ought to do +was to see his tent before deserting camp. He had something there which +he particularly wished to show me. Tony volunteered to take his mother +back to our hired automobile, waiting near the Zoo, and to return for +me. I hoped that he might be away a long time, and looked forward to my +few minutes alone with Eagle as to a taste of paradise, having no idea +that those moments would be long enough to decide the fate of two men.</p> + +<p>The camp was a neat, khaki-coloured town of canvas houses, big and +little, seemingly countless rows of them, set in rough grass, and sandy +earth of the same yellow brown as the tents. How the officers and men +knew their narrow lanes and low-browed dwellings apart, I could not +imagine, for they all bore the most remarkable family resemblance to one +another in shape and feature, except those which boasted mosquito-net +draperies to keep out the flies.</p> + +<p>Among these more luxurious soldier houses was Eagle's. His tent, +prepared for the day, consisted of a canvas wall with a wide-open space +all around, between it and the roof; and the whole internal economy was +ingenuously open to public gaze. Not that it mattered, for everything +was as neat as a model doll's house: the narrow bed, the pathetically +meagre toilet arrangements, the one chair, the small trunk which was the +sole wardrobe, and the ridiculous shaving mirror stuck up on a pole, +above a miniature arsenal.</p> + +<p>"I should think you'd cut yourself to pieces," said I, giggling +impolitely as I stood on tiptoe, and peered into my own eyes in the tiny +looking-glass. "There isn't room to see more than half a feature at a +time. I've always been glad I wasn't a man, for two reasons: because I'd +hate to have to shave, or to marry a woman. Both are horrid +necessities."</p> + +<p>"That depends on the razor—and the woman," laughed Eagle. "But as a +matter of fact, I value that six-inch square of glass more than any of +my other possessions. It's the thing I expressly wanted to show you. +Stand back a minute, Lady Vanity, and you'll see why."</p> + +<p>I stood back. Eagle did something to the plain dark frame of the mirror, +which had a gold rim inside. Then he pulled out the glass from the +bottom, and there instead, framed in black and gold, was a photograph of +Diana—a lovely photograph: just a head, lips faintly smiling, eyes +gazing straight at you and saying in plain eye language, "I love you +dearly."</p> + +<p>I had never seen the photograph before, and seeing it now gave me a +strange frightened feeling, as if I had found out something about Diana +which I wasn't supposed to know. It was such an <i>intimate</i> portrait, +intended to be revealing, yet really concealing! I felt it was wicked of +those beautiful eyes to say what they did not mean, or, perhaps, did not +know how to mean; and for my critical stare, behind that "I love you," +calculation hid, like the cold glint deep down in the jewel eyes of a +Persian cat, when she doesn't want a mouse to guess that she knows it is +there.</p> + +<p>"Now you can understand why I'm glad to be a man," said Eagle, "in spite +of—no, <i>because</i> of—well, anyway one of the two 'necessities' you +think so 'horrid,' my child. What glory to be chosen out of all the rest +who love her by such a woman! And I hope she <i>is</i> going to choose me. I +don't believe she's the kind of girl to have a photograph like that +taken expressly for a man, if she didn't feel a little of what the +picture seems to say she feels, do you?"</p> + +<p>I suppose men's ignorance of what she is at heart is a Providence-given +suit of chain armour for every woman. But I wasn't myself sure enough +yet of what Di might decide to do, to try and disturb Eagle's happy +confidence in her. So, instead of answering his questions, I asked him +one: "<i>Did</i> she have that photograph taken expressly for you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," Eagle answered triumphantly. "I don't think she'd mind my +repeating to her own sister that she told me so, or that there's only +this one copy, and she gave orders to have the negative destroyed."</p> + +<p>He had hardly got these words out of his mouth when we heard footsteps, +and Major Vandyke stopped suddenly in front of the doorway. In an +instant, Eagle had unhooked the frame from the pole, and holding the +face of the portrait toward his breast, quietly slipped the mirror into +its place again, as, with <i>sang-froid</i> apparently unruffled, he called +out: "Hullo, Vandyke! Have you come to see Lady Peggy or me?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't know Lady Peggy was here. I was only passing by, on my way to +the colonel's," explained Vandyke. "But seeing her, I thought I might be +allowed to stop and say 'how do you do?'"</p> + +<p>He spoke rather brusquely, but it was impossible to tell from his tone +whether it covered anger or expressed only the coolness which had grown +up between him and Captain March. As I shook hands with Major Vandyke, I +was asking myself anxiously if he could have seen the photograph in +passing? If not—and it did seem as if Eagle's head and mine ought to +have hidden it from him—our tell-tale words would have meant nothing to +his intelligence, even if he had overheard them as he came. If, however, +he had snatched a glimpse of Diana's face, and at the same time caught +what Eagle said, I was afraid there might be trouble. Provided it were +only for Di, I didn't much care, because she thoroughly deserved to have +trouble, and it would give her a lesson; but something warned my +instinct that the consequences might spread and spread until others +suffered, as a ring forever widens in smooth water when the tiniest +pebble is thrown.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + + +<p>We were still skirmishing on the outskirts of conversation—What did I +think of a soldier's out-of-door quarters? Why hadn't any one yet shown +me the great sight, the concentration camp? when Tony Dalziel came +hurrying up, to take me back to his mother and the motor. His arrival +seemed to bring relief from strain. It was like a brisk breeze blowing +away the brooding clouds that stifle the atmosphere before a +thunderstorm. I dreaded to go and leave those two men together; but when +Major Vandyke suggested walking with us to the car, and asking Mrs. +Dalziel about Milly, my heart felt lighter. We stopped only long enough +with Eagle to arrange a visit to the concentration camp for next +morning, if Milly were better, and then Vandyke, Tony, and I started +off.</p> + +<p>For the first two or three minutes the major walked along in silence; +but when we were well out of sight of Eagle March's tent he interrupted +some sentence of Tony's ruthlessly. I don't think he was even aware that +the other was speaking.</p> + +<p>"See here, Tony, old man, will you do me a favour?" he asked in his +nicest manner. "There's a book in my tent I promised to give Lady Peggy, +to read aloud to Miss Dalziel—a jolly good story! I forgot to bring it +out when I came, and I don't want to go back now if I can help it, +because a party of bores are being shown round in that direction, awful +people I've escaped from. You don't know them, so they can't hurt you. +Will you, like a dear chap, cut off and grab the book? It's on the +table; you can't miss it; purple cover."</p> + +<p>Tony obligingly "cut," and I waited, breathless, for what was to come, +knowing now without being told that Sidney Vandyke had seen the +photograph. He had not promised me a book, nor mentioned one.</p> + +<p>I had only a few seconds to wait. "Is it true that your sister gave +March the picture he has in his tent?" he demanded, rather than asked.</p> + +<p>I gasped, doubtful whether it would be wise to bring things to a crisis, +or better to try and keep them simmering. But an instant's reflection +told me that to shilly-shally with the man in this mood would make what +was already bad far worse. "Yes, she gave it to him, of course," I +replied. "I think you must have overheard him say so."</p> + +<p>I really didn't mean to put emphasis on the offending word, but Major +Vandyke suspected it. Perhaps the cap fitted!</p> + +<p>"I wasn't eavesdropping," he said. "I happened to hear. That's a very +different thing from overhearing. And I have a right to ask you as +Diana's sister, Diana herself not being on the spot, to give me an +explanation, as I'm sure she would if she were here. Because I have the +duplicate of that photo. She told me she'd had it taken for me, and the +negative destroyed. I considered it sacred. I would have shown it to +nobody."</p> + +<p>"I am nobody," said I, "nobody except Captain March's friend, to whom he +tells things he wouldn't tell to others. He had the best of reasons to +believe I was in Diana's confidence, as well as his. And as for the +photograph, it's as sacred to him as it could be to you, Major Vandyke. +You might realize that from the clever way he has thought of to hide it; +and no person who wasn't absolutely <i>prying</i> could have recognized it in +passing by his tent. He knew that very well, or he wouldn't have +uncovered the picture for even a second."</p> + +<p>"If you were a man, you wouldn't dare say such a thing as that to me, +Lady Peggy."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I would," I retorted, "if I were nearly as big as you. I'm +Captain March's friend, not yours; and I'm not a bit afraid to be your +enemy if you are his."</p> + +<p>"You are more loyal to your friend than to your own flesh and blood," he +flung at me. "If you say your sister did give that photograph to March, +you make her out a liar. But I won't believe it of her. I prefer to +believe it of March instead."</p> + +<p>"'Liar' is a strong word," I temporized. "I was always taught that it +was very rude, too. You're a flirt, Major Vandyke! Every one says that +of you, and I believe you're proud of it. So you ought to have some +sympathy with a fellow flirt, like Di. If any one must be blamed, of +course it's she, not Captain March. He has as much right to accept a +photograph from a girl as you have. But you needn't be too angry with +Di, if she made you believe that you were the only one, when she was +doing the same thing with Captain March. Probably she didn't 'lie' to +either of you in so many words."</p> + +<p>"It's not necessary for you to defend Lady Diana to me, I assure you," +returned Major Vandyke. "Whatever she may have done, I'm ready to +forgive her, if she's willing to stand by me. But I won't have March +swaggering around and boasting that she gives him special favours."</p> + +<p>"If I were a man <i>you</i> wouldn't dare say <i>that</i>!" I burst out. "When you +talk about 'boasting,' or 'swaggering,' you must be judging him by +yourself, for you are always doing both, he never. I believe Di likes +him better than she does you, because he's a sort of popular hero with +his flying, and you have nothing except your flirting and your fortune +to recommend you to a girl."</p> + +<p>If only I hadn't lost my head and thrown that taunt at him! I suppose I +shall never know how much difference, or how little, this mistake of +mine made. The instant the words were out I would have given anything to +recall them. But it was too late. To apologize, or try to explain, would +only do more harm. I ventured one sidelong glance at Major Vandyke's +face after I had shot that bolt; and I quivered all over as I saw how +the blood streamed darkly up to his forehead and swelled the veins at +his temples. If I hadn't been afraid of him for Eagle, whose superior +officer he was, I might have pitied him for the pain I had inflicted, +under which he could keep silence only by biting his lip. I knew he was +hating me violently, but I didn't care a rap. All I cared for just then +was that he was hating Eagle March, and counting on paying him out in +some way—I couldn't guess what.</p> + +<p>"I must warn Eagle," I said to myself; and I could almost have kissed +Tony, I was so glad to see him when he came back with the purple-covered +book which nobody wanted.</p> + +<p>Major Vandyke walked on with us to the motor, as if nothing had +happened, but he was very silent, letting Tony and me talk undisturbed. +It was only after he had spoken in a dry, mechanical way to Mrs. +Dalziel, and the car was about to start, that I caught his eyes. There +was a look in them as cold and deadly—or I imagined it—as deliberate +murder.</p> + +<p>I couldn't wait until next day to see Eagle and tell him—I hardly knew +what, but <i>something</i>, to put him on his guard. He had said that he was +engaged to lunch with a man named Donaldson at the Hotel Weldon, and it +occurred to me that I might reach him there by telephone. At a little +before one o'clock, I called up the hotel, and inquired if Captain March +had arrived, to keep an appointment with Mr. Donaldson. The answer was +"yes"; and when I had given my name, I was asked to hold the line for a +few minutes, until Captain March should come to the telephone.</p> + +<p>As I sat with the receiver at my ear, waiting, somebody began to talk in +weird Spanish—or "Mex," as I'd heard it nicknamed in El Paso. The +telephone and I had never been intimate friends at home, and I'd +practically made its acquaintance since coming to America, so I scarcely +realized why or how I was hearing that voice. "Is it some one trying to +call to me?" I wondered stupidly. "Who knows here, except Eagle, that I +speak Spanish?" Then, gradually, it dawned on me that I had "tapped" a +conversation going on between persons with whom I had nothing to do. +Their chatter could have no interest for me, even if it were excusable +to listen, but I didn't drop the receiver lest I should miss Captain +March, having been instructed to hold the line till he came. I couldn't +help being vaguely pleased, too, that I had picked up enough Spanish in +my home studies to understand what was being said. But suddenly my silly +conceit was turned into horror. I was overhearing (that word which Major +Vandyke had resented!) a plot between a pair of Mexican servants to +poison the American families who employed them.</p> + +<p>Two women were talking to each other, rapidly, earnestly, in tones of +such agitation as they hurried on, that only for the first instant could +I fancy a practical joke was being played. "You got the stuff safely? +Yes? Then it has gone round among those who will do the work. Only a few +have refused to come in. Those who eat will not die, but all will be +sick. Then the men cannot fight our men if they come across the river. +It is a very good plan to let us women help in our way. Yet, above +everything, there must be no mistake! It is for the noon meal on +Thursday, but only if we are sure of an attack for that night. We should +be lost if we acted too soon. I am the one to pass the word. I am +telling one after another to wait until it comes from me, by telephone +or in some other way."</p> + +<p>The words were rattled off so fast that I could catch no more than half, +but I had seized enough to fill up the spaces for myself when the voices +were cut off into silence, and Eagle March called, "Hello! Is that you, +Peggy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said. "I had something important to say to you, but I've heard +the most horrid talk going on over the telephone. I'm afraid it may mean +a real danger for El Paso. I daren't tell you about it on the wire. Do +let me see you! I must! Can you possibly take a taxi and rush over here +now, or shall I go to you? I'll do that if you can't come to me."</p> + +<p>"I'll come to you, of course," answered Eagle. "I'll excuse myself to +Donaldson, and be with you in five minutes."</p> + +<p>"Good; in the hall," I said. "I'll run down now and wait for you."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dalziel and I were to lunch in Milly's room, to keep her company +and tell her all the news; but the meal wasn't due yet for half an hour, +so there was plenty of time before my hostess should come knocking at +the door. I had just found a quiet place in the corner of the big marble +hall, and annexed a sofa for two, when I saw Eagle walk in. He was +looking for me. I beckoned, and he came to me with long strides. It +would be hard to tell why, but never had I loved him so well as at that +moment. I did not see how I was going to bear a whole, long life without +having him in it.</p> + +<p>When he had sat down by my side, I told him quickly what I had +overheard, and how. The moment he had got the pith of the story he +jumped up, looking preoccupied and anxious. "I must go at once," he +said, "before the girls at the telephone exchange have time to forget +the numbers of those who've called and been called up in the last twenty +minutes or so. We may be able to catch the ringleader in that way, and +get from her the names of every one in the plot—if it's a genuine plot; +and I agree with you that it looks rather like it. Peggy, your fad for +studying languages and your quick wits may have saved El Paso from +something at the least unpleasant."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I hope so!" I cried. "And the women talked about some 'attack!' +Don't forget that."</p> + +<p>"No fear!" he almost laughed. "Now I must go. You may be asked some +questions later on. I hope you won't much mind."</p> + +<p>I shook my head. "What does it matter? But, oh, Eagle! I cannot let you +go until I've told you what I rang you up for. Major Vandyke saw Di's +picture, and heard what we said. And he's furious, because it seems she +gave him a photograph—something like yours. I don't quite know what he +thinks, but he's more angry with you than with her, and I believe he'll +try to get even with you in someway. Look out for him!"</p> + +<p>"I will!" This time he laughed outright. "And I don't think he will be +able to frighten me into giving up Diana—if she'll have me. Good-bye, +dear, and thank you for everything, with all my heart. You're my good +angel!"</p> + +<p>"How I wish I could be!" I sighed. But he heard neither sigh nor words. +He had hurried away and into his waiting taxi.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + + +<p>Unluckily, nothing could be proved through the telephone people, though +there was certain circumstantial evidence against one or two Mexican +women, as I heard through Eagle March. But American families who +employed Mexicans were privately informed of the existence of a possible +plot against them, and consequently a number of Mexican servants in El +Paso were thrown out of employment at an hour's notice. The authorities +did all they could to keep any report out of the papers, but, of course, +did not succeed, and the "extras" had choice tit-bits of sensation for +that afternoon. The mysterious threat of an impending raid was enlarged +upon, too, and to calm the public, as well as impress "the other side of +the river," it was decided to have a great parade of troops through the +town. A day was settled upon to be called "Army Day"; but meanwhile, +precautions were taken to guard against any "surprise coup," such as had +been carried out across the Rio Grande at Juarez by a few +Constitutionalists against Federals, one night some months before.</p> + +<p>The crowds who had been out to stare at the concentration camp, peopled +with dark-faced thousands of men, women, and children, trailed in +procession as near as they were allowed to approach the field guns +placed on a bare, brown eminence whence their long noses pointed grimly +across the river. There were six of these guns the day I saw them, all +guns of Captain March's battery; but owing to their alignment, and the +position of El Paso's few skyscrapers between this hill and the river, +only four of the guns would threaten destruction to any buildings in the +town, in case the artillery had to be brought into action.</p> + +<p>The other two could be fired in the unlikely event of a disturbance, it +was believed, without danger to American property. I heard this, with +lots of other exciting details of the preparations going on, from Tony +Dalziel, who thought—whether rightly or wrongly—that he could chat to +me on the one great subject of interest without indiscretion. He told me +among other things, that if fire had to be opened on Juarez, just across +the river, he understood from talk he heard that these two comparatively +innocuous guns would alone be used at first. If the damage they did on +the opposite side were enough to force the enemy to capitulate in haste, +the other four guns would remain silent, and El Paso intact. But, said +Tony (and his fellow officers said the same), in spite of the persistent +rumour of a raid, it was almost certain now that there would be no +trouble. It was whispered that because Americans had given sanctuary to +Federal troops in flight, and for other reasons not so widely known, +General Carranza had wanted to organize an attack on the United States +frontier across the Rio Grande, temptingly shrunken by a long drought; +but it was reported at the same time that General Villa had forcibly +opposed the suggestion, and it was very improbable that any serious +attempt would be made to carry it out.</p> + +<p>It was Tuesday when I gave the alarm of the poison plot, and Thursday +was the day gossip suggested for a raid. Nevertheless, the people were +no longer nervous. They felt a joyful confidence in the troops who had +been sent to reinforce the garrison at Fort Bliss, and even the most +bloodcurdling newspaper headlines had at length lost much of their +gruesomeness.</p> + +<p>By this time Milly Dalziel was as well as ever once more, and using her +regained health to make a "dead set" at Eagle March. (I shouldn't tell +this of her, if what she did later hadn't influenced events in a +strange, dramatic way.) She couldn't let Eagle alone; and she showed her +feelings so plainly—as a very rich girl sometimes thinks she may do +with a comparatively poor man—that even Eagle himself, despite his lack +of self-conceit and his preoccupation with thoughts of Di, couldn't help +understanding. He kept out of Milly's way as often as he could, but she +attributed this retirement to the calls of duty; and at last began to +behave so foolishly that for her own sake he gently snubbed her.</p> + +<p>Poor Milly Dalziel had not her pretty, bright red hair for nothing. Her +impulsive emotions, which she concealed badly, and her fiery temper were +its natural accompaniments. When it burst upon her that Eagle March did +not admire her as she admired him, and thought it best she should +realize this once for all, she suffered a wild reaction of feeling. From +being slavishly, ridiculously in love, she flew to the other extreme; +and after an embarrassing little scene, in which Eagle firmly avoided +her, she broke out to me in hysterical abuse of him. He was rude; he was +"no gentleman"; and she didn't see how I could make a friend of such an +ungracious brute. The one thing he could do was to fly, and she only +wished he <i>would</i> fly—far away, and never be seen again.</p> + +<p>I was too sorry for the girl to resent as I ought to have resented her +childish but mean abuse. I knew, only too well, how much it hurt to be +in love with Eagle March, and not to have him care an American red cent +in return. I let Milly talk for a while, and then tried to soothe her +down, saying that she would feel differently about everything next day. +This was the signal for the girl to turn on me, which she did so +ferociously that I began to fear I must find an excuse to cut my visit +short. I wanted to stay; I had very little money for travelling, and I +was sure Father would send funds with reluctance, especially as he no +doubt hoped that Tony and I would after all come together. With Di and +me both safely disposed of to rich husbands, he would be free to marry +Kitty Main, or do anything he pleased. With this thought in my mind, the +situation looked rather desperate, and that night—Thursday night—I was +lying awake to wonder what I could do, when suddenly the night silence +which falls on lively El Paso after twelve was broken with the noise of +a tremendous explosion.</p> + +<p>The huge bulk of the hotel quivered, as if struck with a Titan's hammer, +and it must have been the same with every other building in town. I +jumped out of bed mechanically, not knowing what I did. Only my body +acted. For an instant my brain was dazed—connection cut off. The first +thing I really knew, I found myself standing at the open window clinging +to the curtains. "What is it? What is it?" I was stammering out aloud. +And before I could get any answer from within, again came the same +appalling sound. With that, as if a second shock could restore the +senses stolen by the one preceding, I guessed that what I had heard must +be gunfiring on the hill.</p> + +<p>"The raid has come, then, after all!" I thought, with awe rather than +fear; and thousands of other people must have been thinking the same +thought at the same moment.</p> + +<p>It was a clear, starry night, the sky glittering like a blue, spangled +robe that scintillates with the motion of a dancer, and the electric +lamps of the city below lighting the streets as brightly as if the moon +were up. When I first reached the high window and stared down from it, I +had the impression that those streets were empty, but immediately after +the second shot and its reverberating echo, dark figures began swarming +out. Heads appeared in every visible window of the hotel. Electricity +was switched on in darkened rooms, and women showed themselves in their +nightgowns, with hair streaming over their shoulders, or hair lamentably +absent, careless whether they were seen or not. I heard screaming and +shouting, and then all such small sounds were swallowed up in another +roar—the third.</p> + +<p>My thoughts flew to Eagle. If there were a raid he would be in danger. +He might be killed, and I should never see him again. I didn't think at +the minute what might happen to the rest of us. Nothing and no one +seemed to matter except Eagle. Still only half conscious of what I did, +unable to decide what might be best to do, I dropped on my knees to pray +that Eagle might be safe. But I had only just begun to stammer out my +appeal when there came a sharp tapping at the door. "Let us in—let us +in!" Milly's voice cried, and Mrs. Dalziel quaveringly repeated the same +words.</p> + +<p>I shot back the bolt, and the two in their nightgowns almost fell into +the room. Milly, crying, seized me in her arms and begged me to forgive +her for all her unkindness to me. We should probably be dead in a few +minutes or hours, and she wanted to die at peace. As she faltered on, +Mrs. Dalziel sobbed that Tony would be killed, and their fears made me +brave. I was suddenly convinced that there had been no raid and said so. +"I'm sure there's nothing to be afraid of," I insisted stoically. +"Remember, we've heard only three cannon shots, or sounds like shots. +There'd be constant firing if there had been a Mexican surprise. And +there <i>couldn't</i> have been a 'surprise' after all the warnings we had. +Anyhow, a handful of Mexicans wouldn't dare, with all those troops and +guns on the spot."</p> + +<p>"But what can have happened if it isn't an attack?" wailed Mrs. Dalziel. +"If only my son were here!"</p> + +<p>"Did the shots come from our side of the river, or the other?" Milly +asked, speaking more to herself than to me, for one was as ignorant on +the subject as the other. "<i>I</i> couldn't tell for sure, could you?"</p> + +<p>"No," I said. "I hadn't thought of the other side. I just took it for +granted it was our own guns firing for some reason or other."</p> + +<p>"But <i>what</i> reason?" persisted Milly. "Why should they fire three shots +in the dead of the night, and then stop?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it's maneuvers, or a firing drill, or something," I hazarded +weakly, feeling all the time that it was nothing of the sort.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," Mrs. Dalziel and Milly both agreed, looking a little relieved +by my silly supposition.</p> + +<p>"Shall we hurry up and dress ourselves and go downstairs?" I suggested. +"See what a lot of people are in the streets. The whole town's surprised +out of its wits, and wild to know what's happened. Why shouldn't we +know, too?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, let's go down," cried Milly. "By this time Thérèse is certain +to be in mother's room, in hysterics and nothing else! We'll make her +stop and drape herself in a blanket and dress us."</p> + +<p>"Thank goodness I can dress myself, and in five minutes," I said. They +went hesitatingly out, forgetting to close my door, and before I could +do so myself I heard Thérèse's voice across the hall.</p> + +<p>I didn't stop to put up my hair, but let it hang down my back; I didn't +even tie my shoes, or fasten more than three hooks of my easiest blouse: +one at the top, one in the middle, and one at the waist. Consequently, I +was ready before the Dalziels, but waited for them outside the door of +their suite, almost dazedly watching people—men and women, half +clothed—dashing out of their rooms toward the stairs and elevators. +Some of these were jabbering to each other, but nobody seemed to know +what had happened. They were merely wondering, as we were; and in the +big hall, where some of the lights had been switched on, we could glean +no further details. Several of the hotel employés had arrived on the +scene, more or less dressed, and they did what they could to calm their +guests. Presently one of the managers appeared, and he strongly advised +every one to remain in the hotel. If any trouble were afoot, it would be +safer indoors than out, and news might be expected soon. He had already +sent a trustworthy messenger, he explained, to inquire of the police and +the answer would be more reliable than mere wild gossip picked up in the +street, among the crowd.</p> + +<p>Some of the older men, and all the women, took the manager's advice, +though a good many young men disregarded it, and went off foraging for +news. Those of us who remained in the house, however, didn't think of +meekly returning to our rooms. We herded together in the hall of the +hotel, in a fever of expectation, strangers hobnobbing like old +acquaintances and exchanging opinions on the mysterious alarm. The time +of waiting seemed long; but we three had not been below more than twenty +minutes, perhaps, when people who had been out began to stream back with +tidings of a sort for their families. No two men had quite the same +story to tell. One had heard that a band of <i>Apaches</i> from a low quarter +of the town had organized a scare to stir up the military. Another had +been told on good authority that the Mexicans had fired guns from across +the river and injured one of the tall buildings in El Paso, nobody knew +which. A third assured everybody that our guns had been fired, but +charged only with blank, to frighten the Mexicans, at the moment when +they hoped to give us a surprise. By and by, the messenger dispatched by +the manager came back; but he had little new light to throw on the +situation, except to assure every one on the authority of the police +that there had been no raid, and there was no danger of any kind for the +town. Accordingly, the best thing for its inhabitants to do would be to +go to bed again.</p> + +<p>Very few, however, seemed inclined to take this advice. Mrs. Dalziel +might have done so had Milly and I consented; but I had an idea that +Tony would come to the hotel, if possible, sooner or later, expecting us +to be anxious. I was right, for in an hour, or not much more, while we +all sat munching sandwiches, hastily provided, the familiar plump figure +in khaki stalked into the hall. Milly and I both sprang up, and Tony +directed himself toward us; but before he came near enough to speak, I +knew that something really terrible had happened. Whether he meant to +tell us the truth or not was another question. The jolly, round-faced +boy seemed to have lost the characteristics I associated most closely +with him; and when a a youth with comical features of the Billiken type +is suddenly fitted with a tragic mask, the effect is somehow more +alarming than any look of distress on a serious face.</p> + +<p>He tried to grin, as his mother greeted him like one returning from the +dead. "Why, mater," he said, "any one'd think to see and hear you that +I'd been blown to smithereens, and this was my ghost. You'll laugh, I +guess, when I tell you what really happened. I got leave to make a dash +and put you out of your misery." When he had gone so far, he stopped, +and swallowed. He looked sick, and all the more so because of the +Billiken grin which he was afraid to let drop. His eyes wandered from +his mother to me, and I saw pain in them. I felt for the first time that +little Tony was a grown-up man.</p> + +<p>"Well—well?" Milly urged him sharply. "Why don't you tell us?"</p> + +<p>"I'm a bit out of breath," her brother excused himself. "I hiked over +here pretty fast—borrowed a bicycle. Give me a second to get my wind +back, sis."</p> + +<p>But this was more than Milly could do. "Weren't you with the guns +to-night?" she asked. "You said you were going to be."</p> + +<p>"Did I say that? Well, I was. But—but the row you all heard had nothing +to do with the <i>guns</i>, you know. At least, nothing directly. It was—the +ammunition; an accident, you see. One of our chaps dropped a lighted +match, and it set fire to part of our train of ammunition. Three shells +burst, but—but nobody was hurt—except——"</p> + +<p>"Except who?" Milly had to break in before Tony could go on. I said +nothing at all. I only looked at him. But after that first glance he +kept his eyes away from me, I believed purposely.</p> + +<p>"Except an orderly of—one of the officers, and—oh, very slightly +indeed—March. He's hardly hurt at all, but—you mustn't be surprised if +you don't see him around for the next few days."</p> + +<p>The blood rushed up to Milly's pale face, but she pressed her lips +together almost viciously, and forced herself not to speak. Her +green-gray eyes flashed out one distress signal, then seemed to shut it +off deliberately and coldly.</p> + +<p>"Captain March!" exclaimed kind Mrs. Dalziel, with real distress. "Oh, +I'm so sorry that he should be hurt!"</p> + +<p>"So are we all," Tony responded; and voice and face would have told me, +if I hadn't guessed before, that he was either keeping back something of +grave importance, or else carefully lying.</p> + +<p>"Will he really be all right again in a few days?" the dear little lady +went on.</p> + +<p>"Er—perhaps not all right, but—nothing to worry about," said Tony, +with lumbering cheerfulness. "He's in no danger of death, anyhow, that's +one good thing."</p> + +<p>"What about Major Vandyke?" I heard myself say; and even as the question +came, I wondered why I should have thought of it in that connection. But +somehow it would out, and only my subconscious self, far down in +mysterious depths, knew the reason.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Major Vandyke! Why, as it happens, he went over to the other side +of the river in his motor car—on business."</p> + +<p>A flame of suspicion in me was lit by that match.</p> + +<p>"To <i>Mexico</i>!" I exclaimed. "But I was told only this very day, by +Captain March, that no officer or soldier was allowed to cross the river +on any pretext whatever."</p> + +<p>"That was—is—so, in an ordinary way," Tony admitted, swallowing +heavily again. "But you see that fearful row on the hill where the guns +are might—must have set a hornet's nest buzzing over there. The chaps +were likely to think we were potting at <i>them</i>—out of a clear sky, +and—er—they might have begun potting back at us in a minute or two, in +their excitement. So, to save the situation, Vandyke scooted across with +only his orderly—who's his chauffeur, too—in his own car with some +sort of white flag rigged up in a jiffy. I expect he'll get a lot of +credit for that dash when the story—I mean the facts, are out."</p> + +<p>"It <i>was</i> a brave thing to do!" cried Mrs. Dalziel, always delighted to +praise any one. "He must have risked his life."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Tony, "no doubt of that. The Mexican bridge sentries might +have fired on him in spite of the white flag. They—they did fire, I +believe. But Vandyke's all right, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"You speak as if some one wasn't." I heard myself talking, though I +seemed not to have spoken the words deliberately.</p> + +<p>"Only the orderly, poor chap. He was driving the car. I guess the +sentries saw him before they saw the white flag."</p> + +<p>"They shot him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, unfortunately they did." Tony's voice broke a little, and that +struck me as odd; for he could not have had any personal interest, it +seemed, in Major Vandyke's chauffeur-orderly.</p> + +<p>"I hope they didn't kill the poor fellow?" purred Mrs. Dalziel.</p> + +<p>"I don't think he's dead yet, mater, but I'm afraid he's past speaking. +They got him in the lungs."</p> + +<p>"Major Vandyke's come back, then," I said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, he was back in less than an hour, after a parley over there, +explaining everything and making the Constitutionalists understand we +weren't meaning them any harm. I didn't get leave to see you till just +after he had brought his car and his wounded orderly over to this side +again. And now, if your minds are calmed down, I'll be off. I've told +you no secrets. Everything I've said the papers will repeat to-morrow. +But all the same, please don't talk to any one about this business. +Promise, mater, and Milly. And I guess I don't need to ask you, Lady +Peggy. Now, good-bye. I'll see you as early as I can in the morning."</p> + +<p>He kissed his mother, patted Milly on the arm, and gave my hand such a +shake that I should have writhed if I had worn any rings. For once, +instead of lingering, he had the air of being glad to escape from us, +but on an impulse I followed him to the door and called him back just as +he had reached the threshold.</p> + +<p>"Tony!" I began. He turned with a start, and stopped. I had often been +invited, but had never before consented, to call him Tony.</p> + +<p>"I want to ask you something before you go," I said.</p> + +<p>He gave me a queer, apprehensive look. "Please don't!"</p> + +<p>"Then I'll tell you something, instead. There isn't one word of truth in +your story about what happened. You've been making it all up."</p> + +<p>"That's where you're mistaken," he contradicted me. "I haven't made it +up."</p> + +<p>"If not, somebody made it up for you, and you've been ordered to put the +story round. This is what people are to believe, the version that the +papers will be given. But it's no use giving it to me. I don't believe +it. So there!"</p> + +<p>"It's all I've got to say, and even you won't get a different word out +of me," he said despairingly. "You always did have a wonderful +imagination, Lady Peggy, but whatever you may think, for God's sake +don't blab to any one else, unless to me; and I'd rather you wouldn't +even to me. I tell you, I'm pretty near all in."</p> + +<p>I let him go, but I made up my mind that I would not be put off with the +story which papers and public were to get. I would know the truth, and +exactly what had happened to Eagle March.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + + +<p>It was just as Tony had said it would be: the newspapers next day +repeated his story. Very few clear details were given. The articles with +their spread-eagle headlines concerned themselves more—for a +wonder—with effect than cause. They told at length and dramatically how +El Paso had been aroused in the dead of night by bomblike explosions +which, many had taken for granted, came from the guns on the hill, +repelling or revenging a raid from the other side. They told how the +public had behaved, and described the relief felt when it had been +definitely learned on good authority that the alarm was due to an +accident with some ammunition. But about the accident itself there was +what struck me as a singular reticence, considering the wild conjectures +newspapers did not hesitate to print on other subjects. Their <i>pièce de +résistance</i> was the magnificent courage and presence of mind displayed +by Major Sidney Vandyke of the —th Artillery, whose battery had been +concerned in the incident.</p> + +<p>I sent for all the El Paso papers, which were brought to me before I was +up, very early in the morning; and I sat in bed studying, in one after +the other of them, the version of last night's strange affair. Somehow, +the general praise of Sidney Vandyke's exploit annoyed me intensely, as +one is annoyed when an undeserving person is ignorantly lauded to the +skies. I know that on the face of things I had no right to say that he +was "undeserving," in this case; but that instinctive rebellion in me +against Tony's story last night cried out against it now. "There's +something queer under it all," I kept telling myself. "I must find out +what it is, and I <i>must</i> know about Eagle."</p> + +<p>Concerning Captain March, the papers had very little to say. They +understood that he had been on the spot when the explosion had occurred, +and that he had received slight injuries which would prevent him from +carrying on his military duties for some time to come. All their +attention was bestowed upon Major Vandyke, who had made himself the hero +of what was called "El Paso's Big Night." Owing to the indisposition of +the colonel, who had been struck down in the morning by a touch of the +sun, Major Vandyke was temporarily in command. His private automobile, +which had followed him from Alvarado to El Paso, had brought him from +new Fort Bliss to old Fort Bliss on official business: and he was on his +way back when, hearing sounds which resembled gunfire, he had stopped +his chauffeur on the instant, and dashed on fast up the artillery hill, +near which he happened to be. Fearing that the Mexicans—already +restless, owing to the attitude of the United States at Vera Cruz and +other places, and to the arrival of reinforcements along the Rio +Grande—might misunderstand, and work some mad, irreparable mischief, +Major Vandyke and his orderly had made a dash across the river. In spite +of the white flag used to protect the car and its occupants, the +sentinels on guard upon the Mexican side had fired at the sight of men +in uniform, and the orderly had been shot. Otherwise, the errand so +bravely undertaken had been crowned with success. The Mexicans, thinking +they had been fired at, were about to discharge their own field guns, +placed in a position of offence, in answer to the menace of the United +States. Had Major Vandyke been five minutes later with his diplomatic +intervention the word would have been given to fire, and one or more of +El Paso's finest buildings might have been destroyed, perhaps with loss +of life terrible to think of even now when the danger was past.</p> + +<p>The next thing I did, having absorbed all the news I could get from the +papers, was to write a letter to Eagle. I told him that I heard he had +been hurt, and begged him to send me a line—or a word if he couldn't +write—to say how he really was. I inquired if he were in hospital, and +if it would be possible for me to see him. When I had finished, I rang +and asked for a trustworthy messenger. By and by, a servant of the hotel +arrived to do my errand, and I told him as clearly as I could what I +wanted. He must go to the big camp near Fort Bliss and inquire for +Captain March. I couldn't say whether the officer would be in his own +tent or elsewhere, but, anyhow, he must be found. If he were too ill to +answer even by word of mouth, the messenger mustn't come back until at +least he had learned something about Captain March's condition.</p> + +<p>"I'll pay you very well," I said, trying to give the effect of a budding +female millionaire.</p> + +<p>As soon as the man had gone, I bathed and dressed quickly, in order to +be ready if he brought back word that I might be allowed to see Eagle. I +didn't care whether I had breakfast or not; but time dragged on, and +nothing happened. For the sake of making dull moments pass, I rang for +coffee and a roll. It was early still, and Mrs. Dalziel and Milly were +doubtless trying to make up for their disturbed night by taking an extra +rest.</p> + +<p>The tray appeared, and I ate and drank what the choking in my throat +would let me swallow, but there was no sign yet of the messenger. I +calculated how long it ought to take him to reach the camp on the +bicycle he had mentioned; how long to do the errand; how long to return; +and still there was nearly an hour unaccounted for. I was so restless +and miserable that I could have shrieked. I walked up and down the +little white-and-green room as if it were a cage, but soon all my +strength had gone from me. I sat on the window seat, staring out as I +had stared in the night, hoping now to catch sight of a man on a +bicycle.</p> + +<p>At last, when I had begun to feel shut in, and only half alive, like the +Lady of Shalott, as though nothing could ever happen in my life again, I +jumped up at the sound of a knock on the door. It was the messenger. My +heart bounded when he took from his pocket a letter, but only to fall at +seeing a hotel envelope with my own handwriting on it.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry, miss," the man said, "but I couldn't get to Captain March. I +went everywhere and tried asking a lot of folks, but couldn't find out +nothing. They wouldn't let me into the camp, even, much less to the +gentleman's tent, so I can't tell you whether he's there or not. I did +my best, but the army's different from civil life. When they say 'no' +they mean 'no' and there ain't no goin' around it, or they prods you +with one of them bayonets."</p> + +<p>"Surely you haven't come back without any news?" I cried. "You must have +heard <i>something</i>!"</p> + +<p>"Not a thing at the camp, except what I've just told you, miss," the +messenger persisted. "I hung around, and whenever I seen some chap going +in, if I could get him to speak I asked questions till they begun to +take me for one of them newspaper guys. It was only when I seen the +stunt was no good I chucked it and come back with your letter. There's +just one thing I did hear, but not in camp. 'Twas outside the hotel, as +I stopped my wheel. I met an old soldier from the Fort I'd been +acquainted with a good long time—fact is, he's engaged to my sister. I +asked him if he'd heard about Captain March being wounded. And he +said—only I don't know as I ought to tell you what he said——"</p> + +<p>"Tell me—every word," I panted.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, if it's <i>every</i> word you want, miss, he said it was all +damn nonsense about March being wounded, that something big was up, and +he's under arrest."</p> + +<p>Under arrest! The words struck like bullets. Just for a second +everything swam before my eyes, and I was afraid that I was going to do +the most idiotic thing a woman can do—faint. You see, I had had no +sleep and wasn't quite at my best. But I pulled myself together, and in +my ears my voice sounded only a little sharp, as I asked the messenger +if his soldier friend had given him any further information.</p> + +<p>"Not he! Shut up tight as a clam," was the answer. "I don't believe he +knowed anything else."</p> + +<p>There was nothing more to be got from that quarter, so I paid the man +and let him go. Then I tried to think how I could hope to probe to the +bottom of the mystery, since mystery there certainly was. It seemed to +me that, since I wasn't able to reach Eagle by letter, my one chance lay +in Tony. His manner, and the admissions he had inadvertently dropped +last night, had told me that he had some knowledge of the truth, which +was to be hidden from the public. He had refused to be pumped, and I +respected him for his refusal; but I wasn't the public. Whatever the +secret might be, I would keep it. All I wanted to do was to help Captain +March if he could be helped; for I was sure all through to my soul that, +if he had been arrested, it was through some terrible mistake or cruel +injustice. It was wicked of me, perhaps, deliberately to make a tool of +poor Tony's love for me, but I tried to justify myself in deciding to do +so by saying that no harm could come to him through it, or evil to any +one.</p> + +<p>"I'll wheedle the truth out of Tony," I thought again.</p> + +<p>I dared not write and beg him to come and see me, for after our parting +last night he would suspect what I wanted and have time to steel himself +against me before we met. Nor could I go to the camp and try to find him +there, for I—a young girl—wouldn't be admitted alone even if I were +desperate enough to think of attempting such a wild adventure. If I +persuaded Mrs. Dalziel to take me, and we had the luck to see Tony, I +shouldn't have a moment with him alone, whereas the process of +"wheedling" might take many minutes.</p> + +<p>The only thing to do was to wait, and that was the hardest task ever +given me. I shall not forget that day even if I live to be an old woman; +and looking back on it now over the months which have passed +since—months which seem longer than all the rest of my life put +together—I believe that my very character took on some change in those +hours, as metal is changed if you throw it on to the fire. I felt for +the first time that I was a woman, with all the childishness burnt out +of me; and I was glad, for I might have to do battle with those who were +older and wiser than I.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dalziel and Milly didn't appear till noon; but meanwhile I went +down and talked to a great many people in the hotel, people whom I +didn't know. After the excitement of the night, everybody chattered and +exchanged impressions with everybody else, without stopping to think or +care whether they had been introduced to each other. A few of the men +had a vague idea that something was being "hushed up," but none could +guess what it was, and nobody knew anything about Captain March. +Naturally I didn't tell what I had been told: that he was under arrest. +I trusted with all my heart that no one else had heard, or would hear, +the story. And I prayed that it might not be true. To Milly I would not +speak of him at all; for though she had apologized for yesterday, and +"made friends" with me again, I knew that there was a cruel streak in +her which would rejoice revengefully now, in any trouble that fell on +Eagle. She would feel that it was a direct punishment sent by Fate for +his indifference to her, and the way in which (for her own good) she had +forced him to show it.</p> + +<p>We had been engaged for a short motor run with Tony in the afternoon, +but I was more disappointed than surprised when he sent a hurried note +to his mother saying that there was so much business to do he couldn't +get off. He might not even be able to dine. We were not to wait, but he +would turn up in time for dinner at seven-thirty if he could. In any +case, he would come in for a while later.</p> + +<p>I had an evening dress Di had given me after she had tired of it, which +I had altered for myself, and Tony particularly liked it. I put it on +for dinner that night. Tony did manage to come, bearing an +offering—flowers for all three of us. I saw that he noticed the frock, +and with a little meaning smile at him, I tucked one of his roses down +into the neck. He flushed up at that, poor boy, all over his nice +Billiken face, and I felt like every cat in Christendom rolled into one. +But it was the first move in my game. I hoped that after so much +encouragement, he would make some excuse after dinner to get me to +himself.</p> + +<p>Scarcely a word was said during the meal concerning Captain March. Mrs. +Dalziel inquired about him; Tony with his mouth full answered +indistinctly and hurriedly that he was "getting along all right"—as +well as anybody could expect; and Milly viperishly turned the subject to +Major Vandyke's exploit.</p> + +<p>"He'll be a greater popular hero now than Captain March ever was," she +remarked with an elaborately impersonal air. "The first thing we know, +Peggy, we shall hear that Lady Di is engaged to him; don't you think? +She adores heroes. She once told me so."</p> + +<p>"What a romance that would be!" beamed nice Mrs. Dalziel, who never saw +under the surface of anything. But I was grateful to her for breaking +in, and saving me the necessity of an answer to Milly's questions. If I +had replied truthfully, I should have had to say that it was exactly +what I <i>did</i> think. Whatever the secret of the night might turn out to +be, I felt sure that Sidney Vandyke had made a desperate bid to win +Diana away from Eagle March. And with pangs of sharp remorse I +remembered those angry words of mine which had perhaps spurred him to +the effort.</p> + +<p>Neither Mrs. Dalziel nor Milly appeared to have any suspicions that the +origin of the night alarm was not precisely what the newspapers +reported; that simplified things for Tony, as far as they were +concerned; and I was careful not to fling at him a single embarrassing +question. As dinner went on he lost the worried look he had brought with +him, a look that was a misfit for his merry personality. He glanced +often with a rather pathetic wistfulness at me, which I read very easily +and shamefacedly; and at last he broke out with information concerning a +torchlight procession that would set forth from one of the parks of El +Paso. Of course I knew what this remark was leading up to! He'd heard +people say, he went on, that there was going to be quite a good +impromptu show, celebrating the end of the "scare"; for it was generally +felt that Major Vandyke's diplomatic dash had cleared the air of danger; +and if there had ever been any real peril it was past now, once and for +all. Would we like to go out and see the sight?</p> + +<p>Promptly Milly answered for her mother and herself. They would not like +to go out and see the sight. If there was anything worth the trouble of +looking at, probably it could be seen from the hotel windows.</p> + +<p>"But what about <i>you</i>, Lady Peggy?" Tony asked.</p> + +<p>"I'd love to go with you," I answered.</p> + +<p>I put on a long cloak, the one I had worn to see "our" battery off at +Fort Alvarado railway station, and Tony and I sallied forth together. It +was not till we were safely in the street that he told me we were early +for the procession. "Never mind," said I. "It's lovely to be out in the +blue night. We'll just stroll through quiet streets, where there won't +be a crowd to bother us, until it's time to go and gaze at the torches."</p> + +<p>"There's a nice little sort of park," he suggested, "not too far away. +How would you like to walk there?"</p> + +<p>I said I would like it, and as our "little sort of" park wasn't the park +whence the procession would start, we had it practically to ourselves. +We found an empty seat and sat down side by side like a Tommy Atkins and +his "girl" in Kensington Gardens.</p> + +<p>The first thing that Tony did when we were anchored together there was +to propose again, after an apology. I let him get it over, and then +played the next pawn in my game.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + + +<p>"Tony dear," I said softly, when he had finished, "I like you better +than any man I know, except one; and that one thinks of me as his good +little sister, so you needn't be afraid of <i>his</i> interference. +But—there's something that <i>does</i> interfere!"</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he eagerly wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"It is—that you don't really love me."</p> + +<p>He stared at me through the deepening dusk. "Don't love you? Good Lord, +Lady Peggy, I'm a fool about you! Any dough-head can see that."</p> + +<p>"Ah, but I'm not a dough-head. I know you don't love me. You proved that +last night."</p> + +<p>"For the life of me, I can't think what you mean. I I told you I'd try +to be your friend, but you knew what that meant! Don't keep me in +suspense."</p> + +<p>"You've hurt my feelings dreadfully. I've been brooding over it all +day."</p> + +<p>"I—hurt your feelings? Why, you ought to know I wouldn't for the +world——"</p> + +<p>"But you did. You refused to trust me. There can be no love without +trust."</p> + +<p>"I'd trust you with my life. I can't to save myself guess what you're +driving at——" He stopped suddenly. My meaning had dawned on him in +that instant.</p> + +<p>"Now you've guessed, haven't you?" I asked, when for a few seconds, +which I counted with heartbeats, he had sat tensely silent.</p> + +<p>"Maybe I have. But see here, Peggy, you aren't holding that against me, +are you? It wouldn't be fair. I'd trust you with anything of my own; but +when it comes to other people's business—official business——"</p> + +<p>"Did you ever hear the lines, 'Trust me not at all, or all in all?'" I +continued to torture him. "It was Tennyson who made Vivien say those +words to Merlin. She was deceiving him, and meant to ruin him when she'd +wormed out his secret; for that reason, it isn't a very appropriate +quotation. But, otherwise, it's particularly so. If you trusted me for +yourself, you'd trust me for others, too. It's the same thing—or else +it's nothing. I'm not like Vivien. I don't mean to deceive you, or ruin +you, or anything horrid. And I couldn't if I would!"</p> + +<p>"You don't need to tell me that," said Tony, very miserable, and making +me miserable as well. "I know you're true blue—the truest and +bluest—but there are some things I've got no right to do, even for you, +Peggy. I'd cut my tongue out to please you, I do believe I would, but to +use it in a dishonourable way for your sake is dif——"</p> + +<p>"There! I <i>told</i> you you didn't love me!" I reproached him. "You accuse +me now of wanting you to do something dishonourable. I don't want you +to! I can't see that it would be dishonourable to put me out of suspense +about a dear friend like Captain March, a man who's in love with my +sister, and wants to marry her, as you surely know. But that settles +everything between us, of course. To be perfectly honest with you, Tony, +I must say that I'm not certain, even if you did what I have asked, that +I'd be able to do what <i>you</i> ask—love you, except as a friend. I've +said before that I couldn't. But I might have changed my mind in future, +for all I know, if——"</p> + +<p>"If!" echoed Tony. "That's a darned cruel way to put it!" And he looked +so much like the nicest Billiken ever seen on earth that I really did +love him, though not quite in the way he wanted.</p> + +<p>"No doubt I am cruel as well as dishonourable," I replied frigidly. "So +now you can easily stop loving me, can't you?"</p> + +<p>"No, I can't," he said. "See here, Peggy, what can I say or do to make +things right? I think you're the kindest and dearest and most honourable +girl whoever lived, and I——"</p> + +<p>"Prove it then!" I cried. And I laid my hands on his.</p> + +<p>"How? What can I do?"</p> + +<p>"Tell me the whole truth about what happened last night. Oh—I'm not +trying to bribe you! I don't promise if you do tell, that I'll love you, +or marry you, or anything important of that sort. All I promise is to be +so grateful, so glad, that—who knows how I may feel to you afterward? +And anyhow, I'll let you kiss me, this very night—on my cheek."</p> + +<p>"You will? Yet—you say you're not bribing me! You couldn't offer me a +much bigger bribe. Why, Peggy, I'd be happy just to die—after getting a +kiss from you—even on your cheek!" and he laughed at himself forlornly.</p> + +<p>"You're a dear boy, Tony," I said, crushed with remorse. "The kiss won't +be a bribe, either. It will be a token of—of—I hardly know what. But +partly of gratitude, the deepest gratitude, if you can trust me enough +to believe I'll be true."</p> + +<p>"I do believe that, indeed I do believe it, forever. And—and—by Jove! +I <i>will</i> tell you," he broke out, with a kind of breathless gasp. +"You're too strong for me, Peggy. You've <i>got</i> me! But after all, +there's no such great harm in telling, now. It's different from last +night. Then I didn't know—nobody knew, I suppose—what the upshot of +certain things might be. As it's turned out, some of the story will have +to be known. Not all—but the part you want to know most."</p> + +<p>"Tell me that," I pleaded.</p> + +<p>"You swear you'll never breathe anything I say to you?"</p> + +<p>"I swear I never will, until you give me leave."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, those three explosions you heard last night weren't +explosions at all. <i>They were shots from our field guns.</i> But I'll tell +you what happened exactly—both sides of the story."</p> + +<p>"Both sides? How is it there are two?"</p> + +<p>"Well, there's March's side, and——"</p> + +<p>"And—what other one?"</p> + +<p>"And Major Vandyke's side."</p> + +<p>"I knew it!" I cried out sharply. "I knew that man would try to ruin +Eagle. I should like to shoot him with one of those very guns."</p> + +<p>"Peggy, you mustn't talk like that," Tony warned me. "If you do, I can't +go on."</p> + +<p>"Forgive me," I said, and let him hold my hand, happy for a moment in +the belief that he was soothing me.</p> + +<p>"You know—you've heard, I guess, that Vandyke was in command last +night, because the colonel had a touch of the sun? But that isn't the +right way to begin my story. I'm hanged if I know how to begin it! We +were up there on the hill with the guns, on guard; I mean I was, and the +men. And March came along, and strolled off again a little way with his +field glasses. Maybe thirty or forty yards distant, he was. I wasn't +noticing anything—felt rather sleepy, and was trying all I knew to keep +awake. I was in charge of the guns, you see. I guess I was thinking +about you. I generally am. Anyhow, the first thing I knew, March hurried +back. He seemed queer and excited, and stood still a minute as if he was +struck all of a heap. Then to my amazement he rapped out an order to +load and fire number one and number two guns, aiming at a spot just +beyond the bridge. But before we'd had time to do more than gasp—I and +the gunners—he changed his order, and commanded us to fire blank. Lord, +that was a relief—though even blank would be bad enough for the lot of +us if it turned out that March had gone suddenly mad. You fire blank for +a salute, you know: but Mexico wasn't likely to take it as a compliment! +Luckily we'd some rounds of blank, served out to us in case we might +need to send a scare and not a peppering across the river. There was +nothing for it but to obey orders, though I couldn't help thinking about +'The Charge of the Light Brigade,' when every one knew that some one had +blundered. March shouted out, 'Go slow!' And you bet we did go slow! It +seemed as if he must be off his head—or somebody else was—for so far +as we could tell—and it was a fairly clear night—there wasn't a sign +of trouble on the other side of the river.</p> + +<p>"We'd only fired the three shots, when Major Vandyke pounced on us, +ordered us to stop, and wanted to know what the devil and all his angels +March was up to. 'Carrying out <i>your</i> orders,' said March. 'That's a +da——' but what's the use of repeating to you, Peggy, what they said to +each other? The principal thing is, Vandyke denied having given any +order to fire, and cursed March for all he was worth. Said he might be +the cause of bringing us and Mexico to grips over the incident. Then he +dashed off in his automobile, which was waiting for him under the hill +(he'd been in it, you know, or he couldn't have got to the spot so +soon); you must have read that in the papers; and so much of their story +was true. Whatever you may think of Vandyke, Peggy, that was <i>man's</i> +size work! He took his life in his hands, the way the Mexicans must have +been buzzing in their wasp's nest over there, after the hot water we'd +thrown on it."</p> + +<p>"It was the sort of thing he'd love to do," I said implacably. "The +theatrical thing. He must have known, too, that the man driving the car +was the one in greater danger. But <i>he</i> didn't drive!"</p> + +<p>"He never does drive. He didn't just funk it at that one time; it's his +habit. I've always heard him say he hated to drive a car. Too lazy! +Anyhow, there was the very dickens to pay. Before leaving the hill for +his dash across the river he'd told March to consider himself under +arrest——"</p> + +<p>"How dared he?" I fiercely wanted to know. "That wasn't his business."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes it was! He's March's superior officer. Besides any officer has +the right, if—but I won't worry your head with military rules and +regulations! What you want to know is, how this affects Captain March, +don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's the great thing to me," I admitted. "Tony, will it ruin +him?"</p> + +<p>"It's early days to say as much as that, yet. It all depends on the +result of the court-martial."</p> + +<p>"Will he be court-martialled?"</p> + +<p>"Of course. There's nothing else for it. It's a question which of those +two men can establish his case, and a court-martial will have to decide +between them. But, I'm afraid, Peggy, it will go against March. The +circumstances were so very queer, and Vandyke's denial of giving any +order at all is so strong. Besides, it would be such a mad, improbable +thing for him to give such an order, as there was no danger of attack. +He'd have no motive."</p> + +<p>"He would have a motive," I broke in. "I can prove that. Will they let a +woman bear witness for a prisoner in a military court-martial?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose your evidence could be taken, if they were certain it had an +important bearing on the case. But I don't see how that could have, +Peggy. This isn't women's business, it's men's."</p> + +<p>"And devils'," I finished for him. "We won't argue now whether my +evidence could be important or not. Tell me both sides of the story you +were speaking of, first Captain March's, then Major Vandyke's."</p> + +<p>"Well, March says that while he was strolling about, at a short distance +from the guns, looking through his field glasses at a fire he could see +on the other side of the river, he saw a chap in khaki hurry up the +hill, wheeling a bicycle. As soon as the fellow came near enough to make +out his features, March says he recognized Vandyke's orderly, a man +who's been the major's soldier servant for a good length of time. This +orderly, according to March, brought a verbal order from Vandyke as +acting colonel, to begin firing number one and number two guns, and keep +them in action until further notice, aiming at a spot just beyond one of +the bridges on the Mexican side. March said he was so astounded at +getting such an order, he thought there must be some awful mistake, and +before obeying he wanted to have it on paper. So he took the risk of any +danger from delay in case the order was really all right, and scribbled +a few lines to Vandyke on a leaf torn out of his notebook——"</p> + +<p>"A leaf torn out of his notebook!" I couldn't help echoing. "Perhaps it +was the one I gave him."</p> + +<p>"Shouldn't wonder!" Tony went on, stolidly. "He says he repeated in +writing the command he'd just received, and begged Vandyke, if it was +correct, to confirm him in the same way. The messenger dashed off, +leaving March wondering like thunder what it all meant: whether there +was some fearful mistake, or whether there was a big crisis, and no time +for written orders. He could see, of course, that it might be possible, +and that Vandyke had ordered only those two guns to be fired just to +scare the Mexicans off from playing any trick they were at. The spot he +was to aim at suggested that explanation, for not much harm ought to be +done with a few shots directed that way. Not much of what you might call +'<i>material</i> harm' I mean. But there was no end to the harm such an +incident could do, if there'd been nothing to provoke it. You see the +situation as March says he saw it, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I see. But what happened after that?"</p> + +<p>"According to March, the orderly was back again in next to no time. +March had stopped where he was, waiting for him, as he didn't want to +give the snap away to me and the men till the last minute. And he was +hoping against hope, till he got the return message. It was verbal +again, in spite of his written request, and mighty peremptory, ordering +him to obey without any more nonsense. That's March's story. Not seeing +a way to get out of it, yet realizing the awful consequences should +there be anything wrong, March was going to pass on the order to load +and fire when he suddenly thought he'd compromise by firing blank only. +You see he was in an awful fix anyway, had to make an instant decision, +and did what he thought best at the moment, though in giving that order +to fire blank he was already disobeying the orders of his superior +officer. Vandyke's version is that he never sent any orders whatever. +That his orderly was with him in his car, and had never left it for a +minute. That March must have been deceived by some trick of +resemblance—a sort of 'Captain of Kopenick' (if you know that story); +getting off a hoax on him, a deadly hoax, meant to upset the whole +situation between the United States and Mexico. He says March ought to +have known better than to obey a verbal order when the thing was so +serious, and that he was something worse than an ass to mistake a +stranger for Johnson, the orderly, whose face March knew almost as well +as his own. There's where Vandyke scores an extra point against March. +It would be very unusual to send a verbal order."</p> + +<p>"That's why Eagle doubted it," I argued breathlessly. "<i>Could</i> he have +refused to obey the acting colonel, when the order was repeated?"</p> + +<p>"That's the question. It's too big for me," Tony said with a sigh. "It's +for the court-martial to settle. There are no witnesses who can be of +much use on either side, so far as I can see. Johnson was wounded in the +lungs last night, you know, crossing the bridge in Vandyke's car, and +never so much as squeaked again. He's dead now, so Vandyke has to depend +on his own word alone; but everybody who knows about the business seems +to think that probabilities are with him. His story is that he knew +nothing of what was going on till he heard the guns at work. Luckily he +was near by in his car, as you've heard a dozen times, and dashed up to +the rescue."</p> + +<p>"What about the message Eagle wrote in his notebook?"</p> + +<p>"There's only his own word to prove it was ever written. Naturally +there's no trace of it."</p> + +<p>"But you," I persisted, "you and your men who were in charge of the +guns; can't any of you bear witness for Captain March—that you saw +Major Vandyke's orderly?"</p> + +<p>"Unfortunately for March, no, not a man Jack of us," said Tony. "If he'd +been close to us at the time, we must have seen and recognized anybody +who came and spoke to him. But I told you he'd strolled off. It wasn't +our business to watch him, and nobody was watching. A man on foot +wheeling a bicycle doesn't make much noise; and a khaki uniform is just +about the colour of the ground, on that yellow hill. There was no moon, +only stars, which means no black shadow. I shall be called on as a +witness for the defence, of course, worse luck—but I'm afraid I can't +say anything to help March. I wish to the Lord I could! I'm dashed if it +isn't the other way round. If I'm not mighty careful, I may do him harm +instead of good."</p> + +<p>"You'd <i>like</i> to do him good, wouldn't you?" I pleaded.</p> + +<p>"You bet your life I would, Peggy. March is just about the finest chap I +ever met, and most people think the same of him. But what can I do?"</p> + +<p>"I can't see," I said, "but I may, when things grow clearer. They <i>must</i> +grow clearer! You for one believe Eagle's word, don't you, Tony? You +believe it was Major Vandyke's orderly who came to him?"</p> + +<p>As I asked this question, I stared through the twilight into Tony's +face, trying to read it even as he tried not to let it be read. He +looked wretchedly uneasy, and rather obstinate. "I can't say I'm sure of +that," he replied. "I'm sure some one came to him, and I'm sure March +<i>thought</i> it was Vandyke's orderly. That's as far as I can go."</p> + +<p>"Even when I've told you that I know there's a motive for Major +Vandyke's wanting to injure him, ruin him in his career if he can?"</p> + +<p>"You seem to think Vandyke's a regular sort of villain out of +melodrama," said Tony, with an uncomfortable laugh. "I guess you don't +know men very well yet, Peggy—except in novels and plays—when it comes +down to bedrock. They're not much like that in real life, as far as I've +ever seen. They never go round plotting to ruin other chaps' careers, +even when they don't happen to get along very well with 'em."</p> + +<p>"<i>You're</i> not so very old. You haven't had much more experience of life +than I have," I taunted him.</p> + +<p>Tony laughed. "Haven't I? That's all you know. You're a child, a little +baby-child, compared to me. I may be young, but anyhow, I'm a man, and +I've lived among men since I left West Point two years ago—even if you +don't count cadets as men. Vandyke's no angel, and he and March have +been doing a bit of the cat-and-dog act in a quiet way lately. But it's +pretty far-fetched to accuse Vandyke of hatching up a plot to wipe March +off the map, especially when it meant risking his own life and +sacrificing his orderly, who was devoted to him—a fellow he valued a +whole lot——"</p> + +<p>"Ah!" I broke in. "So the orderly was 'devoted to him!' I wonder if the +court-martial will remember that fact for what it's worth?"</p> + +<p>"For what it's worth, yes. I guess it can be trusted to do just that. +But what there is will be likely to tell in Vandyke's favour, I guess, +not against him. Johnson had good reasons for being devoted to the +major. The chap got consumption, and was in a bad way—would have had to +say good-bye to an army life—if Vandyke hadn't paid for his cure in one +of the best sanatoria in America, and used influence to keep his job +open for him, too. Nothing very black in that record, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Major Vandyke's the kind of person to pay high for anything he really +wants himself," I said. "He must have badly wanted this Johnson man for +something or other."</p> + +<p>"Johnson was born a sort of gentleman, but hadn't the art of getting +along in life, although he was pretty near being a genius at mathematics +as well as mechanics, and could do stunts in several languages, like +you. No shame to Vandyke to make use of the man's gifts. He must have +been jolly useful—too useful to waste."</p> + +<p>"It won't make me love you better, Tony," I remarked with deliberate +injustice (for there are moods when any girl must feel a horrid +satisfaction in being unjust), "if you go on praising Major Vandyke to +the skies. Does it matter why the orderly was devoted to him, or he to +the orderly? The thing of importance is the tie between them. The more +devoted the man was, the more willing he would be to go to any lengths +for Major Vandyke."</p> + +<p>"Oh, if you want to put it that way," Tony hedged. "But it's a girl's +notion, like the motive you attribute to Vandyke."</p> + +<p>"How do you know what motive I mean?" I shot at him. "I haven't told +you!"</p> + +<p>"'I may be an ass, but I'm not a <i>silly</i> ass,'" quoted Tony. "I've +guessed."</p> + +<p>"What have you guessed?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, about Vandyke and March both being in love with Lady Diana. All the +owliest owls are on to that. First time Vandyke was ever caught for +keeps, the fellows say. But it would only do harm to March to bring +anything of that sort up in this business, to say nothing of the bad +taste, and how mad he'd be, and the unpleasantness for Lady Diana +and—and all your family."</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't be agreeable, I know," I admitted. "But anything to save +Eagle, no matter how we sacrifice ourselves."</p> + +<p>"I don't somehow hear Lady Di echoing that, though I agree with you. +Only there's more in the thing than you seem to see, because you keep +your eyes fixed on one spot. If Lady Diana's engaged to Major Vandyke, +then he'd have no incentive to strike at another man who was gone on +her. It would be the other way round. The chap who had lost her would be +the one, if any, to be up to melodramatic stunts. It might be said about +March that he risked trouble for himself, for the pleasure of having a +smack at Vandyke; putting the blame on him for a mad order to fire off +guns at the good little Mexicans, for instance, do you see?"</p> + +<p>I did see, and seeing, suffered a sharp stab of disappointment. Tony had +taken my one weapon out of my hands. He was right. I had been wrong, +while thinking myself cleverer than he. "There must be some other way of +clearing Eagle," I said desperately.</p> + +<p>"I hope so, with my whole heart; although I've always had a sneaking +admiration for Vandyke, too. He's such a dashed fine-looking chap, a +credit to the army, and all that. To clear March—really clear him, +without leaving a stain of carelessness even—means to ruin Vandyke. For +March can't be made white as snow without Vandyke being proved a liar, +and—by Jove, yes, a traitor to his country!"</p> + +<p>"That's what he must be proved," I said.</p> + +<p>"It'll be a tough proposition. As I see it, there's no proof."</p> + +<p>"It must be found."</p> + +<p>"That's easy to say. But if there's any, it ought to be found by the +court."</p> + +<p>"When will the trial come on?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"In a few days. I don't know yet just when."</p> + +<p>"In the meantime, Eagle is under arrest?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. It's sickening."</p> + +<p>"Aren't his friends—I mean among the officers—indignant?"</p> + +<p>"They're mighty sorry, all broken up, and don't know what to think. But, +of course, Major Vandyke's got a good many friends, too. As for the Fort +Bliss officers, they're so wild about the whole business that I'm afraid +they're a bit prejudiced against March—those of them who don't know him +personally. You see, there was an awful row on the hill after the +firing—but I didn't mean to tell you about that——"</p> + +<p>"Why not, as I know the rest? I suppose some of them arrived——"</p> + +<p>"I should say they did arrive! That's too slow a word. The noise shot +'em out of their blessed beds—those of 'em who had gone to bed—and +brought the others out of any old place they happened to be in: club, +hotel, friends' houses. The first thing we knew, we had the General +Commanding on us. They know <i>some</i> language, those grand old Johnnies! +Poor March! He was up against it, I can tell you. His worst enemy would +have been sorry for him."</p> + +<p>"Fiends! What did they do?" I gasped.</p> + +<p>"It wasn't so much what they did as what they said. But I shan't +give you details, Peggy, so don't try and worm 'em out of me. +It'll only waste our valuable time. March was under arrest—that's +enough. I suppose he ought to be grateful that it's been 'judged +expedient'—that's the phrase—never to let the story in its full +enormity leak out. Vandyke was so smart at apologies and explanations in +that Mexican dash of his last night, and the part he played appealed +such a lot to the chaps over there, who're nothing if they're not +sensational, that it's hoped the incident won't have any serious +international results at all. The great thing is to keep the business +forever from the public on both sides of the Rio Grande. Luckily most +people had the willies so badly after the first shot that they couldn't +swear what sort of noise they <i>had</i> heard. It's a hard job, too, for an +amateur to tell what direction a sound comes from, when his eyes haven't +helped his ears. If Vandyke hadn't put a stop to any danger of return +shots, the fat would have been in the fire for us. Thanks to him, that +story of an explosion among the ammunition could pass muster. As for +March's alleged 'wound,' that tale's to get him out of his social +engagements, without stirring up talk. But it won't be believed in for +long. The court-martial findings can be kept secret, but not the fact of +its taking place. It's to be put round that March was accused of gross +carelessness, and causing the 'accident' that occurred. So now you see, +Peggy, your keeping dark about what I've told you to-night is all for +March's good. If he's found guilty——"</p> + +<p>"What then?" I breathed. "What will be the sentence?"</p> + +<p>"Why, as the affair has to be hushed up forever he can't be 'chucked.' +He'll probably be 'given permission to resign.' And then he will resign. +And nobody outside will ever know why. Those inside will think he's +jolly well in luck to be let down so easy considering all ... what?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't speak," I whispered.</p> + +<p>"Why, Peggy, you're crying!"</p> + +<p>I couldn't answer. I only bent down my head lest he should see my face.</p> + +<p>"I felt from the first I oughtn't to have told you," growled Tony. "Now +I'm sure. Don't take it so hard, dear. Something may turn up we can't +think of, and March get off scot free. Who knows? Anyhow, he's nothing +but your friend. And your sister isn't likely to marry him now. I +shouldn't be surprised if she's engaged to Vandyke already."</p> + +<p>"It wasn't settled between them," I said, swallowing my tears. "Only I +thought she liked Eagle better, and that if he'd plenty of money—but +it's all over. No hope since this thing has happened!"</p> + +<p>"Would you like to have her marry March?" Tony wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"I'm—not sure! But it will be too dreadful if she marries Major Vandyke +after what he has done. Why do you say you 'shouldn't wonder' if they're +engaged already? And a little while ago, too, you said 'if Lady Di is +engaged to Vandyke.' Di can't have heard yet that there's any reason +why—why the most disloyal coward should drop Eagle March."</p> + +<p>"There are such things as telegrams. And the big California papers must +have got hold of the story printed in El Paso this morning. They're sure +to have correspondents here. I bet Lady Di had Vandyke as a hero served +up to her with her coffee at breakfast to-day. Wouldn't she wire and +congratulate him? Wouldn't he wire back to her, and strike while the +iron was hot, to get her promise? That's what I'd do if I were in his +place."</p> + +<p>"I never thought——" I began; but no more words would come. I felt +broken. It seemed to me that I could look ahead and see the whole +future.</p> + +<p>I let my hand lie in Tony's, and he stroked it gently, not speaking or +trying to make me speak. Silence was the only balm just then, if balm +there was, and a loud burst of music not far off struck on my brain like +the blow of a hammer.</p> + +<p>We had forgotten all about the torchlight procession which we had come +out to see. But—by and by—Tony did not forget his kiss.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + + +<p>If I could, without betraying Tony, I should have written to Eagle that +night, telling him just a hundredth part of what I thought and felt. But +I was bound by my word to "keep dark" what I had heard, even from Eagle +himself, unless some day Tony set me free to speak. I must seem to know +and believe what the public knew and believed, no more. But I did write +cautiously, saying how grieved I was if he suffered, how I should think +of him every hour, and how I wished that some way might be arranged for +me to see him by and by. Could it be managed? I asked. And I posted the +letter before I went to bed, tired to the heart and more miserable than +I had ever been in my life.</p> + +<p>The next morning, before I was out of my room, a telegram was brought to +the door. It was from Di, and said, "Am engaged to Major Vandyke. He +will probably call and tell you the news himself, but thought I should +like you to know first from me. Please be nice to him for my sake. I am +very happy. What a hero he is! Write me all about what happened."</p> + +<p>This was a long, expensive message to lavish on me; but Diana's days of +economy were over, and this was the first sign of the change.</p> + +<p>I boiled with anger against her, and should have liked to send some of +my emotions over the telegraph wire, but that would have been a childish +way to strike. Besides, I knew in my heart that I was a little unjust. +Di had treated Eagle shamefully, there was no doubt of that. But there +was one thing in her favour: she was not conscious of betraying Eagle +March in the hour of danger, for she knew about him only what the papers +said: that he had been wounded in an accident. It was Major Vandyke's +great exploit which had weighed down the scales in his favour, or +influenced Diana, anyhow, to throw Eagle over definitely, and announce +her engagement to the "hero." I telegraphed back, "Don't make it public +till you've heard from me. You may change your mind." I followed the +wire with a letter, in which I assured Di that Major Vandyke had +committed a crime against Eagle March. Perhaps it would be found out, +and then she would be very sorry that she had promised to marry such a +man. I dared not hope much from my protest, however; so, two days later, +I wasn't surprised to hear that Di was disgusted as well as hurt by my +"wicked prejudice against Sidney." "You never liked him," she said, "but +I didn't think you would go so far as to accuse him of crimes. If it +weren't so silly, it would be horrible. As it is, I can't help laughing; +but all the same, be careful what you say to other people. If you speak +against Sidney to strangers, you can't do him any harm, but you will do +yourself a great deal, and Captain March, too. Sidney has written me a +long letter telling me the whole history of that Thursday night. It has +just come. Of course, I can repeat to <i>nobody</i> what he wrote. It was +strictly confidential, though I suppose the truth is bound to leak out, +more or less, in future. Judging from your hints, I suppose you, too, +have heard something—probably from Tony Dalziel (whom I hope, by the +way, you are treating better than you did, as you're never likely to get +another such chance). Naturally you believe the other side. But after +the court-martial there won't be any 'other side.'"</p> + +<p>There was just one consolation in the next few days: a letter that came +to me from Eagle. He said not a word that any one mightn't have read, +and told me nothing about himself, except that he was "getting along +very well" and I mustn't spend a sad minute over him. But he added: +"Your thought of me, and your unfailing friendship, are more to me than +I can express. I feel that nothing can rob me of them, and now and +always they will be for me like a comforting fire, at which I can warm +myself when days are cold and dark. I count on you, my little Peggy +girl, and I know I shan't count in vain, even though I have to say that +it's impossible for us to meet now, or for some time to come. Write to +me when you feel like it. I shall be more than glad of your letters."</p> + +<p>If I had written when I felt like it, I should seldom have had a pen out +of my hand; yet it was hard to write. There was so little I dared, so +much I wished, to say. And I couldn't mention Diana. I wondered whether +she had broken to him in a letter the news of her engagement, or whether +she had left it for him to discover by accident. I felt that he ought to +be told, but I couldn't bear to be the one to deal the blow, so I hedged +when I wrote to him next, asking, "Have you heard from D... lately?"</p> + +<p>He answered the question briefly by the next post "Yes, I heard from her +on Saturday." That was all. No comment, no word as to his feelings. But +he had let me see how he loved her. He could not help knowing that I +would understand what losing her meant to him—and losing her to Major +Vandyke, at such a time and in such a way. Looking back at events, I +calculated that the blow had fallen on Eagle before he answered my +letter, and this gave a more pathetic meaning to the lines which I +intended always to keep.</p> + +<p>Except for the knowledge that, powerless as I was, he valued me, there +was no brightness in my days. Major Vandyke did have the effrontery to +come and see me, as Di had thought he would, and I had thought he +wouldn't. He took me at a disadvantage by walking up to me in the hall +of the hotel, where I stood reading a note from Tony. Warned by a flash +of my eyes as I looked up at the sound of his voice, saying, "How do you +do?" he went on hastily: "Don't let's have a scene, please, for Diana's +sake, if not for your own. I know how you feel, so you needn't go to the +length of telling me, or even cutting me, before people. If I hadn't +been sure you were too much of a little lady to make yourself +conspicuous in public, in spite of your feelings, I shouldn't have +risked surprising you like this. I was pretty sure if I didn't catch you +unawares you would refuse to see me. So I had to take some risk, for I +particularly want to speak to you."</p> + +<p>"I don't share your desire," I said stiffly. "You were perfectly right +in thinking I shouldn't have seen you if you had given me the chance to +refuse. It's like you, not to have given it. But you're right, too, when +you take it for granted that I won't make a scene. If it could do the +the slightest good, though, to any one concerned, I would!"</p> + +<p>He smiled, a pale, unpleasant smile. "No doubt. You'd be capable of +anything. Here's the situation: I'm going to marry your sister, and +though you've tried your best to stop me, you can't."</p> + +<p>"I wonder any man, even you, should want Diana after the way she's +behaved," I said sullenly.</p> + +<p>"Thanks for that expressive 'even.' Your weapons are pretty sharp, +little lady! But you're a child, and you're Diana's sister, so I bear no +malice. I'm the sort of man, it happens, who doesn't stop to bother much +about the way a very beautiful girl 'behaves' to another fellow. I love +Diana, and I'd take her across that other fellow's dead body if she'd +just stabbed him."</p> + +<p>"She has stabbed Captain March, though not mortally, I hope," said I. +"But she has behaved as badly to you as to him, in a way."</p> + +<p>"You mean the affair of the photograph, I suppose," Major Vandyke +remarked calmly. "She has explained that. Not that I asked her to. All I +did was to put into a letter the story of that little scene in which you +were mixed up in March's tent. She answered voluntarily that March must +have bribed the photographer to sell him a copy, though the man had been +given strict instructions to print only one—for me. March had begged +her for a picture, when he heard from Mrs. Main that she'd been sitting +for that fellow, who's supposed to be a great artist; and Di put him off +in some laughing way. I was pretty certain, when I noticed there was no +signature on the portrait March had, that he'd not got the photograph +from Diana herself. No doubt he thought all fair in love or war."</p> + +<p>"You judge him by yourself," I said. "But never mind! I shan't ask you +not to believe Di, but to believe your own common sense. Think—or +pretend to think what you like."</p> + +<p>"I shall," he assured me; "that's a great principle of mine! As a +general rule it makes for happiness and success. But we're getting away +from my object in speaking to you, when I know you're wishing me in +kingdom come."</p> + +<p>"Not there," said I. He laughed out aloud, and anybody looking at us +might have imagined us the best of friends.</p> + +<p>"What a little devil you are! Where did you inherit it from?"</p> + +<p>"From French chocolate, perhaps," said I. "What is it you want with me, +Major Vandyke? Tell me, and get it over."</p> + +<p>"I want to know exactly what it is in me that you dislike so much?"</p> + +<p>"Only everything."</p> + +<p>"That's a large order, and not very explicit. Would you have disliked me +if I hadn't interfered with—a—er—a person more to your taste; in +other words, with Captain Eagleston March?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course, if you hadn't been jealous of him, I might have thought +better of your <i>character</i>. But then, you wouldn't have been you."</p> + +<p>"D'you know," drawled Major Vandyke, "I've a sort of idea that it was +Captain March who was jealous of me!"</p> + +<p>"It isn't <i>in</i> him to be jealous, in the way you mean. But you've asked +why I dislike you, and you interrupted me before I could finish. +'Dislike' is a very small word for what I feel. I loathe you, because +you've done your best to ruin him. There are some things I <i>know</i>. +Partly, I blame myself because of what I said to you about Di in camp. +Perhaps—just perhaps—you mightn't have done what you have done if I'd +held my tongue. That's why, if I've had a hand in pulling Eagle March +down, I'd cut it off, and the other one, too, if I could have a hand in +lifting him up."</p> + +<p>"Sounds complicated—and Irish!" sneered Vandyke. "In your country a man +is presumed to be innocent until he's proved guilty; yet you accuse me +of guilt on no proof whatever. Evidently you've wormed things out of +Tony Dalziel, and drawn your own conclusions to suit yourself. So like a +woman! But my conscience is clear as crystal. Personal feeling has had +nothing to do with my actions. Every man will give me credit for that. +I'm sorry for March. He's either insane with jealousy, or he's allowed +himself to be tricked. Privately, not publicly, of course, I'm inclined +to believe in the former theory; and I think most people would agree +with me if they knew all the circumstances——"</p> + +<p>"As you put them!"</p> + +<p>"Let's go back to my object in inflicting myself upon you to-night, Lady +Peggy. Eagleston March is the god of your idolatry. Let's take that for +granted. He's bound to suffer. He brought it on himself, whatever you—a +child—may think to the contrary. Do you want to make him suffer more or +less?"</p> + +<p>"Is it necessary to answer?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Hardly. But I have to impress upon you that it's partly in those hands +of yours, which you would 'cut off' for him. The full immensity of his +guilt need never come out. It's not intended that it should come out. +Still, if you are going to treat me like the dirt under your feet—the +man who will soon be your sister's husband—and kick up a scandal, I +shan't lie still. I'm not a saint. If you mean to fight against me with +Diana, or anybody else, or even set people talking by your behaviour, by +Jove! I'll hit back. I shan't take much trouble to do my part in keeping +the secret."</p> + +<p>"You're bound to keep it, aren't you?" I suggested. "Government doesn't +want it to come out."</p> + +<p>"That's the attitude at present. But when relations have been definitely +and permanently smoothed over between the United States and Mexico, it +won't so much matter except for March himself. In any case, <i>I</i> shan't +let the cat out of the bag. I'm not such a blunderer! But I tell you +frankly, I can influence others to keep the secret after the time +limit's up—or I can refrain from using influence. Which shall it be? Is +it peace or war between us?"</p> + +<p>I stopped to think for a moment, and then I answered, "It's an armed +truce."</p> + +<p>We have all heard quite a lot about the mouse who saved a lion. But it +was only one mouse out of a world crammed full of mice. I never heard, +in the whole history of mice, since those which Cain and Abel maybe had +for pets, of another mouse capable of saving any animal whatever, even +itself. Still, there remains that one heroic and intelligent mouse. When +Sidney Vandyke had left me to "think things over," I envied it with +passion, feeling that I was not even of the mouse tribe. I felt more +like a fly, if you can imagine a fly cursed with a human heart, who +loves an eagle that has been shot in the wing and caged, and the cage +set down on the seashore when the night tide is coming in. What could +such a fly do but cling sadly to the cage and buzz and let the great +rush of water drown it with the eagle? Even that fly seemed more +fortunate than I was, as I pictured it to myself. For it was privileged +to rest on the eagle's cage. I could not be near my wounded eagle!</p> + +<p>Five days after that awful Thursday night a letter from Di told me that +her engagement had "changed all her plans." "Sidney" was very impatient, +and wanted to be married soon. The moment his work was over at El Paso +he would get long leave, and possibly he might make up his mind to +resign from the army. That was what she wanted him to do; and when she +had him with her, she knew that she could persuade him, for he wasn't +really "very keen" on soldiering, and she <i>must</i> live in England, at +least half the year round. This part was for the future to decide; but +in any case there would be the long leave. It would give time for the +wedding and the honeymoon. She had set her heart on being married at St. +George's, for it was the "historic" thing to do. And there was the +trousseau. Kitty Main <i>insisted</i> on giving it to her for a wedding +present; which was rather a weight off one's mind, as America had cost +something in spite of everybody's being so hospitable and good. Kitty +would go to Paris with her, and help to choose the things, which would +be nicer than having just a sum down, and going alone. So they—Di and +Kitty and Father—had all decided to cut out the rest of the visits +arranged and "make for home." California had been great fun, and Di +wished she might stop longer, but one couldn't have one's cake and eat +it, too. Being married was her cake. This was her mistake. As I have +said before, she had always had both.</p> + +<p>Major Vandyke's "work in El Paso" was to bear witness against Eagle +March in the court-martial which would come on almost at once. And I was +to go away without hearing the verdict or seeing Eagle after all was +over.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Di had written to Mrs. Dalziel, too, it appeared, and Milly was only too +glad of an excuse to escape from the the place where Captain March's +society had been the first and only attraction for her.</p> + +<p>"Now that Tony's time is so dreadfully taken up," she said to her +mother, "he can't give us any fun, or have any fun with us himself, so +we might as well go away. <i>Let's</i>, dear! Let's clear out to-morrow, and +take Peggy to meet Lady Di and the others at Albuquerque, where we can +get into the 'Limited' and join them."</p> + +<p>"I don't know what Tony will say!" wavered Mrs. Dalziel, who was finding +El Paso rather hot in those days, for plump people. She looked at me. So +did Milly. Then Milly laughed. "No good pretending we've got cotton wool +over our eyes," she exclaimed. "Can't you make up your mind to take my +poor, dear little brother, Peggy, and put him out of his misery?"</p> + +<p>"Tony and I understand each other already," I said.</p> + +<p>"Do you? Oh, I'm <i>so</i> glad, so pleased," they both cried together. And I +had to explain in a violent hurry, before I had been caressed under +false pretences, that there are understandings <i>and</i> understandings. +Tony's and mine was the kind of understanding which left us both +perfectly free; the kind of understanding where you didn't make up your +mind, but just waited to see whether it made itself up.</p> + +<p>"Isn't there anything between you and the poor boy, then?" implored the +boy's mother.</p> + +<p>"Only—a kiss," I said. "One—on a cheek. My cheek."</p> + +<p>"Well, that's something," she sighed. "At least, it was when I was a +girl."</p> + +<p>It was not much to me, though it might have been to a better regulated +flapper. I couldn't dwell on such trifles as kisses. I thought only of +the coming court-martial.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + + +<p>The "understanding" remained <i>in statu quo</i> (whatever that means; the +expression was his) between Tony and me, when Mrs. Dalziel and Milly and +I turned our backs on El Paso. We had a night at Albuquerque, which made +me homesick for past days, because the hotel where we stopped had the +name of Alvarado. I hadn't known that I was happy at the Springs, but in +looking back it seemed as though I must have been without a care.</p> + +<p>Milly and her mother bought wonderful Indian curios and gorgeous Mexican +opals and silver spoons set with turquoises at Albuquerque, and Milly +was almost feverishly gay; but I guessed that at heart, if she had an +organ worth the name, she was nearly as wretched as I. For she had +failed; and she had let the venom of her spite poison her nature, trying +to tell herself that she rejoiced because of Eagle's misfortunes, and +that it was very good, as things turned out, to be free of him and his +fate. No one can really be happy with such poison in the veins, and +there can't possibly be deep-down, soul-satisfying enjoyment from +revelling in another's misfortunes. Underneath my fury, when Milly said +little veiled, spiteful things about Captain March, was pity for her, +the kind of pity you have for an irritable invalid who snaps.</p> + +<p>When Father and Mrs. Main and Diana (Di in great beauty) came to +Albuquerque on the "Limited," and we three took up our quarters in +staterooms on board, Milly Dalziel and Di struck up a great friendship, +almost as if they were new acquaintances who had just been introduced +and fallen in love with each other's unexpectedly charming qualities. +This was quite funny, because Milly had found it hard work to be civil +to Di at Alvarado Springs, and Di had been rather contemptuously amused +at Milly's badly disguised jealousy. Now, with Eagle March eliminated +from the scheme of life for both of them, each discovered that the other +was a delightful creature.</p> + +<p>Milly accounted to me for her change of mind by exclaiming: "I do think +Lady Di has got heaps prettier since she went to California, don't you? +And she's just as sweet as she's pretty. Perhaps it's being engaged to +the man she loves that has made the difference. And no wonder, with such +a gorgeous lover as Major Vandyke! He's something to be proud of—even +for a beauty and a 'swell' like your sister."</p> + +<p>Di accounted for the change in <i>her</i> mind by saying to me: "I don't know +what you've done to that Dalziel girl, Peggy, but you seem to have made +her all over. She used to be a thorough-paced cat. Now she's quite a +darling, and if you're ever sensible enough to marry Tony, I shall love +to have such a fascinating sister-in-law. I've asked her to be one of my +bridesmaids."</p> + +<p>I suppose changing your mind often is a good, clean thing for your soul, +just as changing your clothes is for your body.</p> + +<p>We had a few hours to flash round Chicago in a motor car, seeing pretty, +young-looking parks, and a great lake like the sea with wonderful +buildings along its shore, and a sky like a painting by Turner. I was +bitterly disappointed not to get the telegram Tony had promised to send, +addressed to the Blackstone Hotel, where it had been arranged beforehand +that we should lunch and dine. The court-martial was to have been held +on the eighth day after Eagle March's arrest, the day before our arrival +in Chicago, and meanwhile I had lived only for the telegram. My +impatience to know the worst—or best—had been like a flame in my blood +and brain. When it was time to take the fast train to New York in the +evening, and no telegram had come, it seemed as if that flame gave a +devouring leap, and then went out, leaving my body a burnt-up shell.</p> + +<p>The next morning we were in New York, where Mr. Dalziel met his wife and +Milly. I hoped that he might have read some news of El Paso in the +morning papers, and that he would spring it upon us in the railway +station where we paused, being charming and affectionate to each other, +and making plans to meet again before our party sailed. I couldn't have +questioned him to save my life, any more than I could have cried out in +fearful nightmares which I remembered, when the earth was about to +swallow me up, or a mountain fall on to my head. Surely, I thought, if +there were news about the court-martial it would be interesting enough +to the Dalziel family for the man to mention it, if only because Tony +was to be a witness in the case! But the affair might have been more +remote from us all than a destructive tidal wave in China, judging by +Mr. Dalziel's oblivion of it. He and Father talked about our luck in +grabbing cabins at short notice on the <i>Mauretania</i>; his wife and Mrs. +Main discussed getting seats for that night at D'Annunzio's great +moving-picture play, which had come on at a theatre in New York; his +daughter and Diana chatted about the earliest date when Milly could +persuade her mother to sail for England. I longed to scream at them, +"Oh, you hard, unfeeling <i>wretches</i>!" But instead I stood outwardly +patient, a good, well-behaved young girl with a little mincing smile on +my face. Only the smile was frozen so hard you could have knocked it off +with a hammer.</p> + +<p>We were going to Kitty Main's flat, which she called her "apartment," +and the Dalziels were going to their house, but it was not to be a +regular parting. We were to dine with them (somehow the idea was borne +in upon me that dear Mrs. Dalziel wanted naughty, shilly-shallying Peggy +to see what lovely surroundings might be hers as Tony's wife); all of us +were to lunch next day at Delmonico's, as Kitty's guests; the Dalziels +were to motor us over to Long Island for a glimpse of their country +place there; and they were to see us off on the <i>Mauretania</i>. But that +would not be until five days had passed. Meanwhile, there would be time +for telegrams and even letters from El Paso.</p> + +<p>At last, after all the noisy planning of things to do, the two parties +contrived to tear themselves from one another, and we got away from the +wonderful station in Mrs. Main's motor car, which had come to meet us—a +most impressive motor car which needed only a coronet or at worst a +crest, on its door. Perhaps, however, judging from present signs, that +lack might be supplied later.</p> + +<p>Her "apartment" was in a marvellously ornate sky-scraper; a huge brown +block like a plum cake for a Titan tea party, which would have made +Buckingham Palace or any other royal residence in Europe look a toy. It +was in the highest story, according to Kitty the most desirable, because +you had all the air there and none of the noise; just like living on a +mountain, with a lift to the top. I wondered what she would think of +poor old Ballyconal, when she came to see it!</p> + +<p>The first thing I did was to wire my temporary address to Tony, and hate +myself because I hadn't done it before. Until I met Father and Di I +didn't know where we were to stay in New York, for everything had been +settled through letters and telegrams, with as little useful information +as possible. If I had remembered in Chicago that Tony had no idea where +I would be in New York, there need have been no more delay in my getting +the news. But something seemed to be strangely wrong at his end of the +line, for even when there had been time for him to get my telegram and +send another, no answer came. Nothing arrived for Di, either; but +apparently she was expecting no wire. She must have had some human +curiosity, if not anxiety, to know the fate of a man who had been as +much to her as Eagle March had been; but she was thinking of his trial, +I suppose, entirely from Sidney Vandyke's point of view, and she had no +uneasiness as to the result for Sidney. As for the papers, though I +quite cleverly managed to find other things than football news, I could +discover nothing about the court-martial on Captain March. I had to tell +myself that perhaps they didn't put such affairs in newspapers, for I +was too ignorant to think of trying to hunt up the army and navy +official journals.</p> + +<p>We had been three days in New York in great heat, which Kitty took pains +to tell us was most unseasonable, when one morning a thunderstorm +accompanied by terrific wind came up, preventing us from going out as we +had intended. Kitty's floor at the top of the building, with its steel +supports, actually gave the effect of swaying in the blast like an +overgrown spear of wheat, a phenomenon Kitty took as a matter of course. +So we Britishers had to do the same, no matter how we felt, to show that +we were as brave as Americans. In the midst of the storm the postman's +ring sounded reassuringly, as if to say that we were not cut off from +earth; and a calm maid, used to hanging on insectlike by her antennæ to +the top grain on the wheat stalk, quietly presented a silver tray with +letters to her mistress.</p> + +<p>"One for dear Diana," Kitty announced, picking up a large purple-sealed +and monogrammed envelope, such as Sidney Vandyke had made peculiarly his +own. And I had only time for a heartbeat before she added, "Two for +little Peggy!"</p> + +<p>I never much relished being patronized as "little Peggy" by my would-be +stepmother, but she might safely have called me anything from a +pterodactyl to a hippopotamus just then. I had caught a glimpse of the +uppermost envelope of the two as she doled the letters out. In a flash I +knew that Eagle March had written to me.</p> + +<p>Just to save the scarlet flag my cheeks flung out from Father's stare, I +pretended great interest in the other envelope. It had been addressed to +me by Tony.</p> + +<p>"My letter is from Sidney. I thought I should have one from him to-day," +said Di, with the brazen boldness of the legitimately engaged girl who +has a right to expose her feelings. "Now he'll tell me, perhaps, when he +will be able to get leave and follow us."</p> + +<p>She proceeded to tear open the envelope in the ruthless violating way of +which I could never be guilty except with a soulless circular. A letter +from a lover, or a friend, full of thoughts and touched by a dear hand, +is too sacred for such usage. Fearing from Di's expression that she +would be capable of reading aloud choice selections from Major Vandyke's +version of events, I simply couldn't stay to risk hearing them. I jumped +up and fled with my two prizes.</p> + +<p>Locked safely in my room, delicately I cut the edge of Eagle's envelope. +I was on the point of drawing out the letter, which appeared to be +meagrely thin, when something within me seemed to faint. Reading what he +had to say, I should know in a very few words, I was sure, the fate to +which he looked forward. There would be no working up, no preamble, to +prepare my mind. I wasn't strong enough to bear it. I should have to +take Tony's letter first, like a dose of sal volatile.</p> + +<p>"Dear, dear Peggy," my benevolent Billiken addressed me, and as I read, +the thunder rolled like the far-away drums of Fort Alvarado or El Paso. +"This is my first real letter to you, for I don't count notes; and I +wish it could be a better one. I'm afraid you must be pretty mad about +not getting a telegram at Chicago, or anyhow at Mrs. Main's, when you'd +taken all the trouble to wire me your address. But it was intimated to +all of us concerned that we weren't to telegraph news about <i>you know +what</i> to our families or friends, and that we were even to be discreet +about our letters. I've been so indiscreet with you on that subject +already, on a never-to-be-forgotten night, however, that the latter bit +of fatherly instruction doesn't hold good in my case. Only, before +telling you what I have to tell, I'll just take the liberty of reminding +you once again of your promise to keep mum till Gabriel's trumpet +sounds—or till I take off the embargo (is that the way to spell it, I +wonder, and what exactly does it mean?). As matters look at present, one +thing is liable to happen about the same time as the other. Well, now +I'm going to tell you news of the court-martial as best I can. I'm no +great shakes at telling things, you know. Vandyke was 'seedy' (as you +say in your truly British fashion) the day appointed for the trial, and +as he was the principal witness it had to be put off for twenty-four +hours. You'd have thought it would be March, if anybody, who was on the +sick list, wouldn't you? But he was all right in health. I don't know +what was the matter with Vandyke, except that I happened to hear our old +Doc say he had a temperature way up in C. Maybe it was stage fright. I +felt like that myself—queer all over when the time came, as a fellow +does when he's just going to be seasick.</p> + +<p>"The court-martial was what you call a 'field-general court-martial,' +which can be convened when forces are on active service, as of course we +are now (though we've had nothing very active to do, except on a certain +night none of us will forget, and on Army Day when we all marched and +sweated to give the populace an impressive show). A field general +court-martial can try cases just as grave as a general court-martial +can, and its proceedings are conducted with more secrecy. It consists of +not less than three officers, none of them under the rank of captain, +but the president of the court may be a general officer, a colonel, or +lieutenant-colonel. In this case, which was considered very important, +both on account of March's fine record and the necessary secrecy that +had to be maintained, we had the general commanding the Fort for +president, and the other two officers of the court were a colonel and a +major. I don't think you met either of them when you were here, so their +names wouldn't interest you.</p> + +<p>"The courtroom was just a plain ordinary room in the barracks at Fort +Bliss; but there wasn't a map or copy of 'rules and regulations' hanging +on the yellowish white walls that I can't see now, whenever I shut my +eyes. I guess they were all photographed on my 'mental retina,' as the +writing folks say. The three officers were in full uniform, to do honour +to the case, and of course there wasn't a man present dressed in 'cits.' +All were army chaps, even to the headquarters clerk who took notes of +the proceedings, the orderly who kept the door, and the witnesses. There +weren't many of those. I was one of the principal witnesses and you've +heard from me before how little I had to say.</p> + +<p>"March, who as prisoner had to be formally conducted in by an officer, +had a seat on the left of the judges' table, and his friend, Major Dell, +sat beside him. If you could have been a fly on that beastly wall, +looking down at your hero, I guess you'd have been proud of the way he +held himself. If he'd been brought there to receive a medal of honour +instead of to be tried for a big, insane sort of offence calculated to +bring about international complications he couldn't have had a prouder +bearing. And he wasn't even pale. He looked just brown and calm and +natural. I had to confess to when you asked me a point-blank question +that night in the park, that I was all muddled up in my mind about his +conduct in ordering the gunfire. I didn't know whether he'd gone off his +chump, or been fooled, or what. But I can tell you one thing: I felt +proud of him as a man and as my superior officer when I saw the way he +bore himself for his trial. I don't know now the rights of the matter +any more than I did then, in spite of the court's findings; but +something tells me—as girls say—that March <i>wasn't to blame</i>. There's +a black mystery in this, and I don't see how it's ever going to be +cleared up, as things are. But to go back to the court-martial.</p> + +<p>"March was accused by the prosecutor of having fired without orders +three charges from field guns into a country living at peace with the +United States, to the detriment of its inhabitants and property, and to +the imminent peril of disturbing international relations. He could have +objected legally to any of the judges and stated his objections. But he +didn't object to them, nor to the shorthand-writer, whom he had a right +to throw out if he could show reasons for thinking that the man was +likely to be partial in his notes of the proceedings.</p> + +<p>"Of course, I as a mere witness wasn't present all the time; but I know +what took place, because I've heard some of it from different quarters. +I know that when 'the court had been duly sworn, the accused was +arraigned,' which means that the president read out the charges against +March, and asked him whether he pleaded guilty or not guilty. Can't you +just hear March answering steadily in that pleasant, quiet voice of his: +'Not guilty!' The next thing to follow was the prosecutor's address, +outlining the case against the prisoner, and mentioning the witnesses he +meant to summon. Then he called the evidence for the prosecution, and +that's where, as I've heard from other witnesses, those present got +their first big surprise.</p> + +<p>"Naturally there'd been no end of whispering among those in the know +before the court met; and it was discussed whether or not March would +bring into his defence the state of feeling between Vandyke and himself. +Some thought he would be justified in doing so, and quixotic not to, as +the bad blood between them, and the cause of it (I hope you don't mind +my saying this?) was already a sort of open secret. Others argued that +if the ill-feeling were once lugged in, the name of the lady concerned +and other details would certainly be dragged into the case through +inquiries which would have to be made; and that March wasn't the man to +run such a risk even if it were likely to do him any good. The surprise +of the court came when Vandyke accused March of giving the order for +firing the guns without authority, but deliberately putting the +responsibility on him—Vandyke—with the object of ruining him. Did you +ever know the like of that?</p> + +<p>"From one way of looking at the thing, it was a jolly smart way for +Vandyke to turn the tables, because it would take all the wind out of +March's sails, in case he meant to accuse Vandyke of the same intention +toward him. I don't suppose there ever was such a queer case between +officers as this one; both men highly placed and popular in the service +and society.</p> + +<p>"I believe March brought out his notebook in evidence (the +khaki-coloured one with his monogram on it in silver, which I'd often +seen, and which you say you gave him) to show the newly torn-out leaf; +and his friend, Major Dell, who was his classmate at West Point (you've +seen him here; fine-looking cavalry chap), suggested that the page +underneath should be examined with a magnifying glass for the impression +of writing on the missing page with a blunt pencil which had borne +heavily on the paper. No words could be definitely made out, even with +the magnifier, and even if they could have been, I'm afraid that +wouldn't have made much difference in the case. March had had the +notebook in his possession after the gunfiring, you see, and could +easily have written what he liked and then torn out the leaf.</p> + +<p>"Vandyke's orderly being dead, there was no evidence as to the part he +had played for either side; but I suppose he would have been a witness +for the prosecution, so his disappearance off the scene was perhaps a +good thing for March. I was called for the defence, but nothing I had to +say was of any good. I felt that; and being keen to serve March's +interest if I could with truth, put such a strain on me to be careful of +each word that you could have knocked me down with a feather after I was +released. When my evidence was read over (they always do that to every +witness before he leaves the court) it seemed to me I'd given the most +rotten answers every time; but I couldn't have made them any better if +I'd tried to explain them away, or amend them as I should have had the +right to do; so I let them go as they were.</p> + +<p>"March cross-examined me himself, about the distance he was from the +guns when the orderly was supposed to come up; and the darkness of the +night; and the nature of the ground for muffling the sound of footsteps. +He didn't seem a bit disgusted or hurt with me because I could not do +better for his case. He had a real friendly look in his eyes whenever +they met mine; and I tell you, Peggy, I could have blubbed like a kid +when I thought of it later, after I knew what the verdict was.</p> + +<p>"Once I saw him cross glances with Vandyke, and if you won't think I'm +getting sentimental on top of all the rest, I'll tell you I thought +March's look was like a sword. Vandyke was yellow and bloodshot as if +he'd had a bilious attack, and perhaps bile had been the trouble when he +went on sick report and the case had to be delayed for him.</p> + +<p>"The findings were considered in closed court. And now you must take +this one bit of comfort to yourself, Peggy, in your trouble about your +friend Captain March: things might have gone a lot harder for him than +they did in such a serious case. Vandyke's accusation against him was +mighty bad, and there was some evidence to support it. March didn't seem +to use such weapons as he had to hit back with, quite as smartly as he +might have done, though that was, no doubt, in his determination to keep +your sister's name from coming into the affair. He did defend himself to +the extent of saying he'd tried to save the situation by firing blank +instead of shell; but that didn't help him much, for the whole point of +the accusation against him was that he had had no right to fire at all. +None of his witnesses could help him any more than I could, whereas +Vandyke had several who took their oath to seeing him in the auto with +his orderly, leaving old Fort Bliss at much about the time when March +said Johnson came to him with the second verbal order. March could have +been sentenced to imprisonment or chucked out of the army if the court +had believed in his giving the order to fire the guns on his own +responsibility out of sheer madness, or spite against Vandyke. As it +was, they accepted the theory that he had been hoaxed by some one +unknown, purporting to be the orderly of Major Vandyke, then acting as +colonel. Owing to the comparative darkness of the night (luckily there +wasn't a moon, only stars) it would have been possible for a nervous, +jumpy man to mistake the identity of a person masquerading as another +person. Now <i>you</i> know, and <i>I</i> know, and everybody who knows him knows +March is the last fellow in the world to get nerves or jumps in any +circumstances whatever. All the same, giving him credit for them on a +night when a Mexican raid on the town had been predicted offered the +court an excuse to let the accused down lightly. He was sentenced merely +to 'severe censure for rashness and carelessness,' etc., etc. In +sequence to this our Old Man—the colonel, I mean—has had to advise +March to resign. That's part of the programme. And equally it is part of +the programme that March should take the advice.</p> + +<p>"Now, dear, I've told you the story as well or as badly as I can. +Anyhow, you know as much as I do, and that is a good deal more than you +ought to know, or others are likely to know. If you hear anything +further, it will be from March himself.</p> + +<p>"When the Mexican bees have settled down in their hive again, and we're +back at Fort Alvarado, I'm going to have a good try for a month's leave +or longer, so as to cross the blue with the mater and sis. Of course, +entirely with the object of looking after them, and perhaps getting an +invitation to Lady Di's wedding, and not a bit for the sake of seeing +you or jogging your memory about a certain decision! Yours till the end +of beyond, Billiken."</p> + +<p>For a while, after I had read this long letter through, to the +accompaniment of thunder, lightning, and rain, I sat with the four +closely written sheets of paper in my hand, not thinking, only feeling. +I could not console myself with "the one bit of comfort" which Tony +waved under my eyes. Eagle March was a born soldier. He cared more for +his career than for his life, and it had been taken from him. Though the +world was not to know what he was accused of doing, all the world would +know that he had left the army because his country no longer needed his +services. And he owed this to his love for my sister! This was what +Diana and I had brought upon the bravest and best man we should ever +meet.</p> + +<p>"What will he do? What will become of him?" I asked myself miserably; +and the rain beating on the window seemed to give a desolating answer. +But there was still the letter I had waited to read until I learned the +best or worst from Tony. Perhaps that would tell me what I wished to +know!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + + +<p>Eagle March's letter was characteristic. Though he must have felt as if +he stood alone, at the jumping-off place of the world, he had more to +say about me than of himself.</p> + +<p>He had read in the El Paso papers that I was going to sail for England, +and all the first part of his letter was concerned with "bon voyage." It +was only in the last paragraph that he mentioned his own affairs. +"You'll have heard already," he said, "of what has happened to me. I've +had a blow, but I'm not going to lie down under it. There must be work +for me somewhere, and when I've found it you'll hear from me again. Not +until then though, for I'm rather hard hit, and might be inclined to +grumble. But I shall think of you constantly, and I don't believe if I +wrote a volume I could make you understand how much the thought will +help. I shall wear it like armour."</p> + +<p>Not a word of Diana. But I read between the lines. He was "rather hard +hit." Just when he was facing an attack from the front she had stabbed +him in the back. In one way, the letter was a bitter disappointment, for +I had longed to be told Eagle's plans; yet in the hint that I should +hear again when he had "found work," there was a thrill like that which +comes with martial music. I was far from guessing then what that work +would be, and how quickly and surprisingly he would find it; but vaguely +I felt that there was only one kind of work worth Eagle March's while: +soldier work.</p> + +<p>Because I mustn't expect to hear, that did not prevent my writing from +the ship. "This isn't 'good-bye,'" I said. "Always I'll be looking +forward to great things for you. And (you may laugh, but I'm in earnest) +I shall live in the hope of 'righting' you in the world's eyes. The day +may come. I believe it will—the best day of my life."</p> + +<p>When the <i>Mauretania</i> passed "Liberty" I sent back a last message by the +statue to Eagle. "Till the day!" I said. But it was a pang to see the +last of her. I went down to my stateroom and cried—oh! how I cried!</p> + +<p>As if to flaunt the glorious difference between this summer and last, +Father took a furnished house in Norfolk Street, Hyde Park, which was to +let with the owner's servants. It was very rich looking, though the +elaborate decorations reminded me of houses in moving-picture plays. +Father was able to splurge, on Di's prospects; and probably Kitty Main +contributed to the expense, for she and her maid came to stay with us. +We began to be expensively gay; and I believe if any duke or earl who +tangoed with Diana had offered himself for the dance of life, she would +have thrown over Sidney Vandyke at the eleventh hour. But no one +exciting showed signs of entangling himself permanently, and so, when +Major Vandyke wired that the situation in Mexico permitted him to ask +for leave, Di's engagement was announced in the <i>Morning Post</i>.</p> + +<p>Soon after this, Sidney arrived with cartloads of luggage, which seemed +to detach him from America forever. He had got long leave and intended +to resign from the army at the end of it. He took up his quarters at the +Savoy Hotel, but he was at our house morning, noon, and night; and +though everybody who saw him for the first time said how handsome he +was, it struck me from the minute we met that he had changed for the +worse. He looked older and stouter, and black and white would no longer +express him in a picture. A suffusion of red for the face, as well as +for the lips under the black moustache, would have been needed. I +wondered if he were drinking; and though, when he lunched or dined with +us he was always careful (except with champagne, which he loved as a +child loves sweets), he might be less cautious when out of Diana's +sight.</p> + +<p>At first I could hardly bear to sit down at the same table with Sidney +Vandyke; but as time went on, I found an impish pleasure in watching +him, in staring openly, as a baby stares. I had the satisfaction of +feeling that he was disturbed by my gaze, and that he knew, even when +not looking, that my eyes were on him. Sometimes in the midst of talk he +would break down and forget what he had meant to say next. I affected +him with a kind of aphasia, erasing the words he wanted from his brain. +But otherwise my tactics were changed. I was no longer rude to my future +brother-in-law. I wished to study him, and I didn't object to his +knowing that I studied him.</p> + +<p>A silent battle was being fought between us under a smooth surface of +civility, and Sidney might easily have complained to Diana that my owl +stare was "getting on his nerves," even though he could have brought no +other complaint. If he had spoken to her she would have made some excuse +to scratch me off her list of bridesmaids. I hoped she would, and save +me trouble! But perhaps Sidney felt that I was yearning for him to +"squeal," and resolved not to please me. In any case, nobody not in the +secret of our hearts could have guessed that anything was wrong. And I +had to play at spraining my ankle in order to escape being one of the +eight.</p> + +<p>It was well to be civil in word and deed, and "bide my time," but to be +in at the death, and marry my sister to a man who'd stolen her from +Eagle March and ruined him, was a different thing. I drew the line at +that.</p> + +<p>It's quite simple for a girl vowed to the conscientious life and no fibs +to wrench her ankle, if she'll wear high heels. All she has to do when +walking in the street is to look out for banana peel; or an apple paring +may do at a pinch. She launches herself upon it, with a skating +movement. Her foot turns, and the deed is done. She can in this way +produce a "strain," if not a "sprain"; and only doctors know the +difference. The difficult part comes in remembering to limp. I was so +fearful of forgetting in some moment of excitement, that I took to +wearing shoes which were not mates. They were actually incompatible. One +had a Louis Quinze heel and the other had none at all; but my dresses by +this time were so "grown up" and long that nobody noticed. Besides, +though refusing to see a doctor, I stopped in bed for days, and +hypnotically impressed the idea of a sprain on every one.</p> + +<p>Those who didn't know why I wouldn't for the world be bridesmaid to +Diana sat by my bedside and sympathized, among others Mrs. Dalziel and +Milly, who had followed us in time to have all the season's fun in +London before the wedding. Tony hoped to get leave and arrive for "the +great day." Afterward he and his mother and sister planned a motor tour +through Belgium, and Luxemburg, and France, before the time when Tony +must rejoin his regiment. I had a sneaking idea that they meant me to +go, too; but at that moment—before other things had happened—I told +myself that I would do nothing of the kind. I was homesick for Ireland +and Ballyconal.</p> + +<p>The date of Di's wedding wasn't definitely settled until after Sidney +came. Then it was fixed for the ninth of July, and the bride and +bridegroom were to have four weeks' motoring in the north of England. +When the honeymoon was officially over they were to make country-house +visits in Scotland for the shooting season. Sidney Vandyke boasted of +being a crack shot, and Diana hoped to be proud of her American husband +among British sportsmen.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile they had some time before the wedding in which to find a town +house, and choose furniture and things so that they might be "at home" +in the autumn. I think Di really loved Sidney the day he consented to +buy a house—a very expensive though small house—in Park Lane. She had +set her heart upon Park Lane; for, you see, there was always something +rootedly Victorian about Di; such as being convinced that Park Lane was +the Mount Olympus of London, and that you couldn't be properly married +except at St. George's. She was, and is, up-to-date only on the surface, +in such details as clothes and hats, and tango, and the latest slang. +Probably Di had never been so happy as in gathering together materials +for her future frame; and if Sidney was chagrined because Father didn't +offer to lend for the honeymoon our ancestral castle (to which he and Di +had frequently alluded in America) he kept his feelings to himself. He +would have been twice as much chagrined by the castle could he have seen +it before Kitty Main got in her deadly work. The Trowbridges of Chicago +would have rejoiced to tell him what it was really like.</p> + +<p>I don't quite know why it is the fashion for brides to shut themselves +up and not "go out" for days before the wedding; but perhaps they are +supposed to pass their close time in prayer and maiden meditation, +thanking heaven for what it has provided, and dwelling on the +responsibilities of the future. Di spent her days in being fitted for +frocks (goodness knew who would pay for them, unless Sidney, on ceasing +to be a bridegroom and turning into a husband), receiving wedding +presents, having photographs taken, and giving discreet interviews to +journalists. She told the male ones what a heroic person Major Vandyke +was; and to the female ones she showed her dresses. There wasn't an +illustrated daily or weekly paper in London that didn't produce a +picture of Sidney in uniform, looking dashing, and Di looking down, all +modesty and eyelashes.</p> + +<p>The last night she went out to anything big before the wedding was to a +dinner at the Russian embassy; and though nothing which seemed to us +sensationally interesting happened that night, something was led up to +later. It came through Milly Dalziel, for whom Father and Di had +contrived to get an invitation. She met Captain Count Stefan +Stefanovitch, the military attaché of the Russian Embassy.</p> + +<p>There is something irresistible to some natures about a Russian count; +and to Russian counts about American heiresses, particularly those with +red hair. When the two had seen each other three times they were +engaged, subject to the consent of the count's father. Everybody in that +family was a count or countess, a delicious prospect for Milly when she +wished to talk of her Russian relatives. Stefan was to stay and see +Milly in her bridesmaid's dress; then he was going to make a dash for +Petrograd (we called it St. Petersburg then!) armed with her photograph +and substantial accounts of her father's bank balance, returning as soon +as the consent was insured. There seemed to be something almost feudally +old-fashioned about Russians, Milly thought, for a mere wire to <i>her</i> +father had been considered adequate. But then, Tony Senior wasn't a +count or a "vitch," or anything exciting like that.</p> + +<p>It was after this dinner that I began to prowl for banana peel. I hadn't +wanted to be premature; still, it was necessary to give some other girl +time to get a bridesmaid's dress. Just then the only thing in London +that anybody cared about was the Russian opera and ballet, and it +occurred to Di that it would be original to clothe her eight attendant +maidens in Léon Bakst designs. Most of the girls were pale blondes, whom +she had chosen because they would form an effective contrast to herself; +but they were very brave about the Bakst effects. The measure of their +fingers had been taken, and they were expecting presents of rings +beautiful enough to console them for worse disasters. Besides, Sidney +had brought over from America a Captain Beatty to be his best man. He +was rather rich and very good-looking.</p> + +<p>During all this time of our new popularity I had heard nothing of Eagle +March, except that he had turned his back on his native land after +resigning from the army, and that various "ugly stories" were in +circulation. It was even said that he had been bribed by Mexico with +immense sums of money to betray his country. It was Tony who wrote me +this, in answer to a question. But he knew no more than this gossip, not +even when he arrived in London the day before Diana's wedding.</p> + +<p>"For all I can tell," he said, when he had congratulated me on my limp, +"March may have offered himself and his aeroplane to the Viceroy of +India or the Sultan of Turkey or even the Emperor of Japan. There's only +one thing certain about him: he'll have to be a soldier +somewhere—somehow!"</p> + +<p>"Blessed is the bride the sun shines on," they say, but the sun did not +shine on Diana. The ninth of July dawned gray and blustering, with a +queer rasping chill in the air like an autumn day slipped back in the +calendar. I hated the thought of seeing Di married to Sidney Vandyke. It +seemed like aiding and abetting the enemy, but unless I had another +accident at the last minute, such as falling downstairs, I could see no +way of stopping at home without a row.</p> + +<p>What would Eagle want me to do? I asked myself. It was almost as if I +could hear his voice saying, "Don't hurt Diana on such a day by stopping +away from her wedding."</p> + +<p>I decided to be there; and it was arranged for me to sit with Kitty +Main, Mrs. Dalziel, and Tony. I didn't mind this, because Tony couldn't +very well propose in church with "The voice that breathed o'er Eden" +resounding to the roof.</p> + +<p>The wedding was fixed for two o'clock at St. George's, Hanover Square; +and if any were left in London who didn't know the hour and all other +details, it must have been because they didn't read the halfpenny +papers. It had even been announced that one of the bridegroom's many +magnificent presents to the bride would be a high-powered Grayles-Grice +car, in which Lady Diana Vandyke would drive from the church with her +husband to the house of her father, for the wedding reception, and go on +for the honeymoon tour afterward. This paragraph was truer than some of +the others, but the day before the wedding the car hadn't yet been +delivered by the makers. A frantic telegram from Sidney brought the +assurance that he might count without fail on its arriving by ten +o'clock next day at latest. The firm regretted deeply the unforeseen +delay which had occurred owing to a strike, but the automobile had been +shipped. Still Sidney and Diana were anxious.</p> + +<p>Kitty and Mrs. Dalziel and Tony and I started rather late, for Kitty had +superintended the bride's dressing. The other two came for us in a motor +car, but Mrs. Dalziel had to stop for a look at Di. As for me, I'm not +sure how I felt about my sister. She was so lovely in her lace and +silver brocade gown, and her cap-veil, that my eyes clung to her, yet it +was hateful that her beauty should be for Sidney Vandyke. My thoughts +flew to Eagle, wherever he might be—at the other end of the world, +perhaps—and I wondered if he knew what was happening in London.</p> + +<p>Our places at church were at the front, in one of the pews reserved for +the bride's relatives and intimate friends, so our being late didn't +matter. But already the back part of the church was full, and the air +heavy with the perfumes women wore, and the fragrance of roses and +lilies which made the decorations. As we went in, a sense of suffocation +gripped me. I felt as if I could easily faint, and I realized that the +long strain on my nerves had begun to tell. I had a queer impression +that I was only a body, and that my soul was far away looking for some +one it could not find. I was glad when we were settled in our seats, but +still the odour of the flowers oppressed me. I fancied that the brooding +gloom of the day would end in a thunderstorm.</p> + +<p>People were whispering and rustling in their seats, wondering if it were +not almost the time for the bride music to begin. I had a jumpy +sensation that somebody behind me must be staring, and strongly willing +me to look round. Always I have been sensitive to that kind of +influence, and often, too, I've tried to make others feel it. I kept +turning my head, but could see no one who seemed to be taking an undue +interest in me. Presently, however, I caught Tony's eyes, which fixed +themselves on mine in an owlish stare.</p> + +<p>"What makes you keep on twisting round like that?" he inquired in a +stage whisper. "Are you looking for any one in particular?"</p> + +<p>"No—o," I said, "but I have a funny sort of feeling as if some one were +looking for me!"</p> + +<p>"By Jove!" exclaimed Tony, and repressed himself at a glare from his +mother. "I wonder if it's possible——" He stopped, and began carefully +to smooth his silk hat which was poised on his knee.</p> + +<p>"If what's possible?" I wanted to know, bending my head near to his, +regardless of somebody's plume which grazed my eye.</p> + +<p>"Oh—er, nothing much. Only just a silly idea of mine."</p> + +<p>"Tell me, and let me judge whether it's silly or not. You're rousing my +curiosity." And all the while I tingled with that almost irresistible +desire to turn my head again. It was as if I were missing something very +important.</p> + +<p>"I'd rather not now," said Tony. "I'll tell you afterward."</p> + +<p>Before I had time to wheedle the mystery out of him (as I felt confident +I could) the "Wedding March" from Lohengrin struck up. Of course, Diana +<i>would</i> have that! It went with St. George's and the rest of it: the +"historic" thing.</p> + +<p>She came up the aisle, her hand on Father's arm.</p> + +<p>"Oh, doesn't he look <i>handsome</i>?" murmured Kitty Main.</p> + +<p>"He?" I murmured back.</p> + +<p>"Lord Ballyconal. But dear Diana is wonderful, of course."</p> + +<p>Her wondrousness was largely a tribute to Kitty, who had given the bride +everything she had on, everything that was packed away in her trunks at +home, or laid out ready to go away in.</p> + +<p>It all passed off exactly like any other wedding on a grand scale, +except that Tony, sitting by my side, drew a long breath when the bishop +who was marrying Diana to Sidney Vandyke finished the conventional pause +following "or else forever after hold his peace." I flashed another +glance at Tony but he was looking more like an imperturbable Billiken +than he had ever looked.</p> + +<p>And so Di was married, and people whispered what a beautiful bride, and +how good-looking the American bridegroom was, while she and Sidney were +in the vestry signing their names in the book. Then, down the aisle they +came, Di radiant, Major Vandyke flushed and brilliant eyed. "He looks as +if he had just fought a successful engagement," I heard an American man +in the pew behind say to his wife. Well, that was exactly what he had +done. But whether according to the rules of war or not was another +question. We let the crowd pour out of the church before us, and +followed at leisure, I feeling more depressed than I should at a +funeral. Automobiles and carriages were dashing up to the pavement to +take people away, and dashing off again after an instant's pause, while +throngs of the uninvited and curious pressed close on either side of the +red carpet. Rain was falling, but the lookers-on appeared to care +little. The people seemed more excited than usual at a wedding, we +thought, especially after the passing of the bride; and Tony and I +looked at each other questioningly with raised eyebrows as we caught a +word here and there.</p> + +<p>"Might 'ave been a tragedy!" "Pretty close call, that was." "If it +hadn't been for that feller they'd both have been dead corpses now!" +remarked the uninvited.</p> + +<p>"What can have happened?" we asked each other, and I made Tony speak to +the policeman who had shut us into our car.</p> + +<p>"Bride's carriage, sir; but it was soon all right in the end," was the +only answer we got, as the signal was given for our motor to move off +and the next to come up.</p> + +<p>"The bride's carriage!" Then the new automobile hadn't come, and there +had been an accident at the church door.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + + +<p>We dashed home to get news of Diana, and it was a relief to find +everything decorous and apparently serene at the house. We were informed +by a band of footmen, hired with powder and pomatum inclusive, for the +occasion, that the bride had arrived safely. There was no stare of +consternation or half-hidden horror on any face. But in the +flower-decked drawing-room, with its effective marble pillars (Di and +Father had taken the house on the strength of that drawing-room, so well +designed for a wedding reception), the bride and bridegroom had not yet +stationed themselves to smile and be congratulated, although guests had +begun to arrive. Father, however, was there, at his best and reassuring +everybody. Diana had been a "little upset by the fright, don't you know, +and Vandyke was looking after her"; but it was nothing—nothing at all. +She would be down presently.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Father? What did happen?" I found a chance to whisper; but +to my surprise he gave me for answer only a frown which seemed +inexplicably to say, "Whatever it is, <i>you'd</i> better not ask! Don't +pretend innocence, it doesn't suit you."</p> + +<p>"Do find out something from somebody," I said hastily to Tony, and ran +upstairs in search of Kitty Main, who, having deserted us to return home +with Father, was nevertheless not to be found in the drawing-room. She +was sure to know everything, I thought, and delighted to talk. But the +first person I met was Sidney Vandyke in the act of closing Diana's door +and coming out into the hall. Seeing me, a set and gloomy expression, +most unsuitable to a bridegroom, changed to a look of actual fury. If I +had been a small tame dog which had unexpectedly sprung up to bite him, +he could not have glared more venomously.</p> + +<p>Since he had come to London we had met almost every day, and when +necessary I had been as dully polite as a book on etiquette. But only +when necessary. At other times I had effaced myself; now, though I was +keen for news of Di, I didn't care to get it from him, especially after +that look. Never since the episode of the photograph in camp at El Paso +had I of my own free will begun a conversation with Major Vandyke, and +it was now my intention to wait until he was out of the way before going +to Kitty or Diana. But when I would quietly have slid past the +bridegroom in the corridor, he stopped me.</p> + +<p>"You've always been the enemy," he said in a tone of repressed rage, +subdued to reach my ears only, "but I did think you fought fair. I +didn't expect you to hit me in the back—and strike your sister, too, on +her wedding day. You're a cruel and cowardly little enemy, after all. +And let me tell you this: neither of us will forgive you as long as we +live."</p> + +<p>I stared at him in amazement. "I don't know what you mean!"</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't lie on top of the rest, if I were you," he sneered. "I +forbid you to go to Di. She's borne enough. A little more, and she'd not +be able to face those people downstairs."</p> + +<p>"I tell you again, and I don't lie, because Eagle March himself taught +me to speak the truth," I said, "that I've no idea what you're driving +at. I have done nothing, except live. I don't know what's happened. I +want to know."</p> + +<p>"You shan't have the satisfaction of hearing anything from me!" Sidney +flung the words at my head. Then he turned on his heel, and opened +Diana's door again without knocking. I think he would have shut it in my +face; but Kitty Main was ready to come out, and must have had her hand +on the knob when it was snatched from her fingers.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Major!" she exclaimed. "I was hurrying to call you back. Di thinks +she's strong enough to go down now."</p> + +<p>The door remained open, and I saw Di sitting on a sofa just opposite, +with an empty champagne glass in her hand. Her white face and white +figure in her wedding dress stood out like a wonderfully painted +portrait against the fashionable black chintz wall-covering of the +bedroom. Seeing her husband, she stood up and came forward, setting the +wineglass on the table as she passed. "I'm all right now," she said, and +then caught sight of me.</p> + +<p>"Oh, cruel!" she reproached me. "Was it <i>he</i> who asked you not to tell, +or was it your own thought?"</p> + +<p>"He?" I echoed. "You all talk in riddles. You accuse me of something, +and won't explain what it is."</p> + +<p>"You <i>must</i> know!" Di exclaimed. "But I can't talk about it now, or I +shall break down again. Thanks for the champagne, Sid. You were right; +it did me good. Now we'll go."</p> + +<p>She brushed past me in the corridor, her head turned away; and as I +stared stupidly after her and Major Vandyke, suddenly my eyes fell on a +small but conspicuous spot of red that marred the lustre of Di's silver +train. It looked like a drop of blood.</p> + +<p>When the two had gone, I pounced upon Mrs. Main. "For pity's sake, +explain the mystery!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it was dreadful for a few minutes," she said. "There was nearly the +most <i>awful</i> accident. Of course you came out too late to see. But—you +<i>do know who was in the church</i>?—at least, I suppose he must have been +there."</p> + +<p>I started as if she had boxed my ears, for without telling, I knew all +she meant. I remembered the odd feeling I had had of some one trying to +call me, as if in a dream; and how I had looked behind me in vain. Tony, +too, had been very strange. He had begun to say something and had +stopped in haste. He had promised to explain later, but coming home I +had forgotten to ask him. There had been the excitement about the +supposed accident to Diana, and my thoughts had clung to that.</p> + +<p>Now I realized that there was only <i>one person</i> who might have been at +St. George's with my secret connivance, whose presence there Sidney +Vandyke would furiously resent: Eagle March.</p> + +<p>Kitty was looking at me curiously, almost appealingly, and I was vexed +with myself for blushing. "I do not know," I answered steadily. "I might +guess—but almost surely I should guess wrong. Tell me who, in all that +crowd, it was worth Sidney's while to make this fuss about."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Kitty, who being far from brave is easily abashed, "I'm not +sure he <i>was</i> inside the church, but anyhow he was <i>outside</i>, because I +saw him the instant before he seized the horses' heads. And then——"</p> + +<p>"Seized the horses' heads? But who—who?"</p> + +<p>"Captain March. Of course it was he who saved Diana and Major Vandyke. +At least I think he deserves so much credit, and Di would think it, too, +if she were left to herself. But Major Vandyke says the whole thing was +arranged; that it was Captain March who planned—to—to——"</p> + +<p>"He's sure to say something horrible. But begin at the beginning!"</p> + +<p>"I can't now, dear," said Kitty nervously. "Di and Sidney will be so +cross if I stay up here talking to you. I really must go down; but +you're sure to hear everything."</p> + +<p>I didn't insist, for I could not keep her against her will; and besides, +it would be better to have the story from some one who could tell things +more clearly. Down I flew to find Tony, whom I could trust to have +commandeered some news for me by this time. Already the drawing-room was +crammed with perfumed people and too fragrant flowers, and a babel of +chatter. I should have had to knock fat old ladies and thin old +gentlemen about like ninepins to sort out from among bonneted and bald +pates the inconspicuous brown head I sought, and my search was checked +constantly by well-meaning creatures who pined to tell me how pretty the +wedding had been, or how much I had grown since they saw me last. Now +and then, however, I picked up a wisp of information.</p> + +<p>"What a close shave there was of a tragedy! But all's well that ends +well," said Lady O'Harrel, a distant cousin of ours who had ignored the +connection until it advertised itself in Norfolk Street and Park Lane. +"Who was the man who seized the horses' heads when they bolted? I didn't +see him myself, but I heard some one say he looked like a gentleman."</p> + +<p>I answered as if I had the whole affair at my fingers' ends: "It was +Captain March of the American army, the flying man who used to be so +popular here last summer."</p> + +<p>"Dear me!" breathed Lady O'Harrel, who had two sons of her own in the +British army. "<i>Fancy!</i> Why, I heard Gerald speaking of him only the +other day. He heard that Captain March had been cashiered for something +or other so <i>dreadful</i> it couldn't be spoken of. The story's going the +rounds of London now. I'm not sure Gerald didn't get it from your +brother-in-law the night he asked Major Vandyke to dine at the Rag. How +strange Captain March should have been the one to save them!"</p> + +<p>"He was not cashiered," I passionately protested. "He did nothing +dreadful. It was——" I stopped myself on the verge of saying that it +was Sidney Vandyke himself who deserved to bear the shame he would +thrust on another. But there are some things you cannot do! One of these +is to inform a guest at your sister's wedding that the bridegroom is a +villain. I had to choke back my rage against Sidney at its hottest, like +Vesuvius swallowing its own lava, and resolve to fight the battle of +Eagle March only on the lines of <i>noblesse oblige</i>—the lines on which +he would choose to fight, no matter what the provocative.</p> + +<p>At last I unearthed Tony, talking to the prettiest bridesmaid. But +because she was the prettiest, and other men were glad to snap her up, I +disentangled Tony with ease. "I've been dying for you!" I said.</p> + +<p>"I don't flatter myself too much on that," he replied. "It's my story +you want. Well, I've been busy putting things together, and I guess it's +only the two ends of the jig-saw that are missing now. I warn you, +Peggy, I don't know how Eagle March got into church, or where from, or +what became of him at the end."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I shall hear from him," I said; yet I spoke mechanically and +with little hope. I felt that the time Eagle had fixed for our meeting +was not yet.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you will," echoed Tony. "He may want to explain, when he knows +<i>you</i> know he was there, why he turned up at Lady Di's wedding: that it +wasn't just vulgar curiosity, or the wish to give her a start that made +him do it."</p> + +<p>"He wouldn't need to explain to you, or me, or any one who knew him," I +answered. "That goes without saying. Whatever his reason was, it was +good. But are you sure he was in the church?"</p> + +<p>"Well, you remember when I asked why you kept turning your head, and you +told me it was because you felt some one 'looking for you?'"</p> + +<p>"Yes! And you said 'By Jove! I wonder if it's possible——' Then you +shut up like an oyster."</p> + +<p>"I thought it wouldn't do to go further, then, and excite you for +nothing, maybe. I did promise to tell you afterward, but coming here we +had the accident to talk about, and you forgot——"</p> + +<p>"Never mind excuses. Tell me now. Had you seen him?"</p> + +<p>"I wasn't quite sure—thought I might have made a mistake. Away back +near the door as we came in I caught sight of a chap who reminded me of +March. But I never saw him before in London togs, you know, and it was +dark in the church, with all that rain coming down outside. I couldn't +tell for certain, it seemed so dashed improbable that he should be +there. Even if he was in London, he wouldn't have been likely to get a +card——"</p> + +<p>"A card, indeed! Do you think any one with eyes in his head would ask +Eagle March to show a <i>card</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Well, anyhow," Tony defended himself, "why should he want to poke his +nose in there? I judged him by the way <i>I</i> should feel, supposing it was +you being spliced to some other fellow. I'd sooner be at the North or +South Pole than have to watch it done, unless I could bounce out with an +impediment why you shouldn't lawfully be joined together."</p> + +<p>"I can think of reasons why a man might—might steel himself to see a +woman he'd loved married to another man," I said; though in truth, I +couldn't see distinctly, and I wondered if the day would come when the +mystery of Eagle's presence at Diana's wedding would clear itself up. +There was just one thing I could count on, though! It would never be +from my trying to find out, but only when, and if, Eagle wished me to +know. Meanwhile, I trusted him as always, and hardly needed to be told +that the man in the back seat at St. George's hadn't flaunted himself in +a conspicuous position.</p> + +<p>"He was wedged in between two women's hats," Tony went on. "I'd never +have spotted him, if I hadn't been rubber-necking at the crowd, sort of +counting scalps. That's not done by brides and grooms in our class of +life, so March might have felt as safe as a hermit crab, as far as +giving the willies to Lady Di or Vandyke was concerned. But just when I +was rubbering, he happened to shove his head forward between hats to +squint at you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Tony!" I couldn't help breaking in. "He was looking at <i>me</i>?"</p> + +<p>"That's the way it struck me. But the ladies with the hats were after +the same thing, so they closed their ranks in front of March's nose, and +swamped him. That's why I didn't get the chance to make sure whether it +was he or his double. I rubbered some more, to see, but there was only a +massed formation of hats where the face had been. There's nothing like +hatpins to drive a man to the wall."</p> + +<p>I shivered a little with the same electric thrill which had passed +through me in church. What a soulless thing I had been not to know, +despite a barrier of a hundred hats, by instinct whose eyes had called +mine. But Tony was going mildly on.</p> + +<p>"That's all, about the church," he said. "March must have been one of +the first to get out, or he wouldn't have been on the stage in time for +the next act. Sounds like a kind of melodrama now, doesn't it? Act one, +scene one, inside St. George's, Hanover Square; the wedding. Scene two, +outside the church door. Only, in a melodrama, the bridegroom would be +the hero, and the other fellow the villain. There's no villain in this +play."</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>isn't</i> there?" I sneered. "We won't argue the question, though. I +suppose the new motor car didn't come after all, as I hear things about +runaway horses."</p> + +<p>"Then you have heard already? What's the good of my repeating——"</p> + +<p>"No—no! I've heard scarcely anything. I depended on you. I was sure you +wouldn't fail me."</p> + +<p>That encouraged Tony, and soon I knew what he knew. He had been pumping +Captain Beatty, and had learned from him how, before leaving the Savoy +for St. George's, Sidney had received a wire from his chauffeur. It said +that the Grayles-Grice had safely arrived by a later train than +promised, but that something was wrong with the motor. Better not depend +on the car for church, though it would be pretty sure to be all right to +go away in after the reception. This was a blow to Sidney, because he +had grown quite superstitious on the subject of reaching the house from +St. George's. He had told Captain Beatty about repeated dreams of a bomb +startling a pair of horses. And a Bond Street clairvoyant had seen in +her crystal a picture of him and a woman in white driving away from a +church in a black-draped hearse. Captain Beatty had mentioned casually +to Tony that Vandyke used to have as good nerves as the next man, but +that he'd got "jumpy" lately, and Beatty wondered whether it was like +that with all fellows who were going to be married.</p> + +<p>The only thing to do had been to order a motor or carriage to come to +St. George's for the bride and bridegroom. Di, appealed to by telephone, +preferred a carriage. A smart-looking one had been sent accordingly, but +the horses were fresh and had begun to dance impatiently even before +Diana and Sidney came out of the church. The thin little coachman had +difficulty in holding them in when it thundered. By the time Di and her +husband appeared, the pair were prancing on their hind legs, and the +crowd on the pavement waiting for the bridal couple were pushing +nervously back, out of the way of threatening hoofs. Di had hesitated +for an instant, but the coachman had assured Major Vandyke that the +horses were only "playing a bit," and were as gentle as lambs. They'd +come down to business the minute they were allowed to start. So Sidney +had put Diana into the carriage and was in the act of getting in +himself, when a man on a motor cycle suddenly tore round the corner into +Hanover Square with the noise of ten thousand demons. That was the +"limit" for the horses, said Tony. They bolted, with Di shrieking and +trying to pull her husband into the brougham, Sidney clinging +ignominiously to the door, and to a strap inside.</p> + +<p>The policeman and another man or two ran forward, but the screaming of +Diana and dozens of women on the pavement frightened the creatures more +and more. The coachman lost control; the policeman was kicked, and +stumbled back; the others couldn't get to the horses, which were bolting +across the street; and in another minute the bridegroom would certainly +have been flung down, if a man just out of church hadn't made a dash to +the rescue. The next thing any one knew, he was hanging on to the +animals' heads like grim death, and bringing them down from their hind +feet on to all fours again. He was dragged a few yards before a couple +of policemen could get to his side; but meanwhile, as he clung to the +horses, like a brake on their speed, the brougham steadied itself, +Sidney contrived to crawl inside and bang the door shut, for his own +protection and Di's. It all happened in a minute; and as the hatless man +held on to the horses' heads, Captain Beatty in great astonishment +recognized him as Captain March. It was Eagle who stopped the horses; +but as the two policemen sprang to his aid, and staggering back he let +go his hold, he must have been kicked by one of the beasts. What Captain +Beatty did see was Eagle's forehead streaming with blood, and when the +rescuer had hurried away, insisting that the wound was of no importance, +the bride was helped out of the carriage by the bridegroom and into a +closed motor car which some one hastily offered. In the street where it +had all happened was a stain of blood, Captain March's no doubt; but in +the excitement of changing the bride from one vehicle to the other he +had time to vanish as completely as if he'd wrapped himself in an +invisible cloak.</p> + +<p>"Just as well, too, considering who he was, and who he's saved," Tony +finished ungrammatically. "It would have been mighty awkward for all +parties if he'd fallen down in a faint, and Lord Ballyconal out of +gratitude had had to put him up here, where the wedding party's going +on. Or even if he'd been all right, but coralled by the crowd, the bride +would have been called upon to address him as 'my preserver'—what? +Can't you see Vandyke obliged to shower blessings on March for saving +both their lives?"</p> + +<p>"And yet, how awful that he should go without a word of thanks—go +wounded and bleeding!" The thought made me choke.</p> + +<p>"I guess March is a bit like a sick cat that way," said Tony dryly. +"He'd rather crawl off and get well alone than be bothered by sympathy, +even yours, my child. That's like him. And like him to save the very man +who's spoilt his life. But blest if I can see that being there in church +was like him, no matter what you say! Anyhow, it was a blamed good thing +for every one concerned that he just dropped from heaven like manna in +the nick of time, and then was absorbed back into clouds again, blood +and all."</p> + +<p>"Diana's dress must have been baptized in that blood," I muttered, for +my own benefit, but Tony caught me up. "Gee <i>whiz</i>! did she get her gown +spattered with it?"</p> + +<p>"A drop or two on her silver train. Poetic justice! The blood had been +spilt for her."</p> + +<p>"Dashed bad luck to get it on her wedding dress, though, I've heard +superstitious folks say—but what rotten nonsense to talk like this to +you! Of course, there's nothing in it."</p> + +<p>"I'm not sure how Di would feel if she knew. But <i>I</i> feel as if a drop +of Eagle March's blood would be like the blood of the prince in a fairy +story I used to love. Just the faintest smear of it brought fortune for +the heroine and all her family," I said. "Di doesn't know. I didn't tell +what I saw. And would you believe this, Tony? My noble brother-in-law +pretends to believe that Eagle got up the whole scene, like a plot in +that melodrama you were talking about. I suppose he'd like Di to think +that Eagle bribed the livery people to send nervous horses and a weak +coachman, and that he hired a motor cyclist to swing round the corner on +a cue at the right instant, in order that he himself might play the +gallant hero. Rather elaborate! But that shows how a man judges another +by what he would do in his place! Isn't it a proof that the El Paso +affair was a plot—a plot Sidney accuses Eagle of revenging in this wild +way?"</p> + +<p>"That's quite a neat suggestion," said Tony, smiling an +"indulge-the-poor-child" smile which made me want to box his +ears—though not hard. "I don't think you need be afraid, though," he +hurried on, to calm me. "Vandyke won't openly accuse March of anything +more, I guess, unless in the bosom of his family where it won't do much +harm. If he dealt out any 'plot' talk of that sort, he'd make himself a +laughing-stock, and he wouldn't stand for that. He'll just try to forget +the whole business, and help other folks to forget—cut it out."</p> + +<p>"It will be better for him!" I said, as fiercely as a small dog growling +in the kennel of a big one. "But Di and Sidney, too, both accuse <i>me</i> of +being in the 'plot.' They say I knew Eagle was in England, and secretly +invited him to the wedding. I haven't even heard from him since we came +back from America."</p> + +<p>"Haven't you?" Tony's face brightened. "Well, I shall never cease +wondering what brought March to the church, till I know—which may be +never. Unless you tell me when you hear."</p> + +<p>"<i>If</i> I hear!"</p> + +<p>"I guess you're sure to sooner or later. He must know now that he was +recognized. No use hiding his head in the sand! He'll want to explain +why he—er—well, sort of intruded."</p> + +<p>"No, he wouldn't need to explain," I reiterated. "What's the use of +friendship, if it doesn't understand and take things for granted? +And—if Eagle never writes, I shall know he doesn't want me to seek him. +So I won't do that, even though he has been hurt for us, and maybe is +suffering."</p> + +<p>"You're a soldier," Tony complimented me. "March would be just the man +to appreciate that if he could hear you now."</p> + +<p>"I believe he would understand me as I understand him," I said. "Still +it is hard not to know if he's badly hurt."</p> + +<p>"By the way he shot through the crowd like a streak of greased +lightning, I should say it wasn't fatal," Tony cheered me. "But if you'd +like to have me do a bit of secret service work and 'phone to a few +hotels or hospitals——"</p> + +<p>I shook my head decidedly. "I know the hotel where he goes," I said. "I +shan't send. I think if he were very badly wounded, he <i>would</i> let me +know. He'd trust me to stand between him and—the others. Now—let's go +and see Di cut her wedding cake. You can have a piece to dream on if you +like."</p> + +<p>"No good!" said Tony. "I always dream of you anyhow, when I dream at +all—except when I eat welsh rabbit: then I dream of the devil." But he +went with me like a lamb, and we spoke no more of Captain March.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + + +<p>I think if Sidney Vandyke had never taken the trouble actually to hate +me, he exerted himself to that extent on his wedding day.</p> + +<p>I kept my distance when the others gave the bride and bridegroom a +send-off of waving hands and showering rice as they skimmed away in the +Grayles-Grice car (ready at last); but I'd caught a wandering glance or +two meanwhile from my new brother-in-law, and thanked my stars that +Heaven hadn't made me some poor private soldier under his command. Di +turned her cheek with the look of a martyred saint when I was supposed +to kiss her good-bye; and altogether I fancied that I should not be +urged to visit in Park Lane when the happy pair came back in the autumn. +I intended to be at Ballyconal then; but a thousand things were fated to +change my scheme and the schemes of all the other unsuspecting mice in +England and Europe.</p> + +<p>The first thing—oh, such a small thing compared to those that were to +follow—which happened after Di's marriage was an announcement from +Father. He had proposed to Mrs. Main, and she had been "good enough to +accept him." That was his formal way of breaking the news to me, for we +had been on official terms only for some days following the wedding; +though to his darling Di he would probably have put it "Look here, girl, +she's jumped at me! Hurrah! The luck of Ballyconal's come right side up +again!" And Di would have congratulated dear old Bally, reminding him +that third times were always successful.</p> + +<p>Of course, whenever I stopped to think of it, I had told myself that +this announcement was bound to come, and to come soon. But my head had +been full as a hive of bees with other thoughts; and besides, I hadn't +realized how I should feel the blow when it fell.</p> + +<p>Vaguely, I'd taken it for granted that life would go on for me as +before. I liked Kitty, and she didn't dislike me, though, of course, Di +had been brilliantly her favourite. I had told myself that Kitty and +Father would trot off somewhere and leave me free at Ballyconal to +hibernate in some neglected corner, while the place was glorified into a +stately British home for an American millionairess. Then (I had gone on +dimly planning) they would return in state, and Kitty would be duly +honoured by a picturesque welcome from the hastily cleaned up tenants. +After that, nobody would take much notice of little Peggy. I should be +tacitly permitted to play among my books, and the peasants I loved the +best, for whose sake I had been trying to learn the art of nursing.</p> + +<p>Father's way of telling his news, however, showed me the truth about +myself. I didn't feel in the least related to him; and I decided to use +the month before their return from the wedding journey in finding some +other way of spending my life. I couldn't make a "crowd" in that +"company" of two!</p> + +<p>I was nice to Father and charming to Kitty, and all the time I was +polishing my brain as if it were the genie's lamp, and summoning the +genie to bring me inspiration. I couldn't be a governess on the strength +of languages alone. Not knowing the multiplication table, having to do +hasty sums on my fingers, and being ignorant of principal rivers, +boundaries, and all dates except that of Waterloo, was too big a +handicap; and in sheer poverty of invention I seemed to be driven back +to Billiken, that god of "things as they ought to be." Perhaps it was +fate that I had been invited by Mrs. Dalziel to a "boy and girl" theatre +party the very night when I had to congratulate Father, and wish wishes +for Kitty which short of a miracle couldn't come true.</p> + +<p>It was only two days after Di's wedding, but already that event seemed +long ago. No news had come from Eagle, and he was referred to in London +newspapers as "the modest stranger" who had disappeared after saving the +lives of the bride and bridegroom, "leaving no trace except a little +blood shed in their service." The dinner at the Savoy and the boy and +girl party at the theatre afterward were given, no doubt, more in honour +of "Milly's count" (who was starting for Petrograd next morning) than +for me; but I was made to feel myself a guest of importance; and at the +St. James I had Tony next to me. There had been no chance to pour out my +news at dinner, but now it came and I seized it instantly. Tony was +always nice and sympathetic to tell things to! He actually listened and +seemed interested, which I've noticed that few people do except in their +own affairs. But the next minute I was sorry I'd spoken, for he proposed +again immediately. I might have known he would! "You see, your whole +family's bound to marry Americans, so I might as well be the one for +you," he said. "If you don't take me, Mrs. Main will produce a nephew of +hers. I know him—poisonous blighter—and he'll be shoved down your +throat, sure as fate. He's <i>some</i> homelier than me, if possible."</p> + +<p>I laughed. "Dear Tony! You're much too good to be a refuge for the +destitute."</p> + +<p>"Depends on the destitute," said he. "I'd love to be a sort of asylum or +young ladies' home for you. Do take me this time, and have done with it +once and for all."</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't be done with," I reminded him. "That's the worst of it."</p> + +<p>"It might be the best of it, if I played my cards right. You know, +Peggy, not very long ago as the bird of time flies, you said you liked +me better than any other fellow. Has my stock gone down, or stands it +where it did?"</p> + +<p>"Where it did, or even a point or two higher," I assured him. "But, dear +Tony, I'm afraid even <i>that</i> isn't high enough for—for marriage, and +fearfully serious things like that, though lovely for a dance or the +theatre. Besides, I didn't say <i>exactly</i> what you think I said."</p> + +<p>"About liking me better than other men? Oh, I know you made one +exception. 'Tisn't jolly likely I'd forget! But you said the One +Exception didn't count. I haven't forgotten that either. He looked on +you as his sister or his maiden aunt."</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>not</i> his maiden aunt!" I moaned. "I could bear anything but that. +And—and I'm afraid, after all, he <i>does</i> count—just in my mind, you +know, not in any other way. But he's there and I can't—can't put him +out. I'm afraid I don't want to."</p> + +<p>"Gee! That's a bad prospect for me," said Tony with a big sigh, luckily +not audible over the orchestra which was loudly playing between acts +"You made me love you, I didn't want to do it!" with variations. "But +see here, Peggy, it's just the same with me about you. I can't put <i>you</i> +out of my mind, and I don't mean to. There you are! What are we going to +do about this? Your best man won't come and play in your backyard, and +my best girl won't put her nose in mine. You'll always be my best girl, +because you're the best girl there is. So here's an idea: suppose I +don't ask to be best with you, and don't whine to be on the ground floor +or anything conceited? Couldn't you spare me a third-story back bedroom +in your heart's house? Just sort of lend it to me, you know. I'd promise +to turn out if you couldn't get along with me as a boarder when you've +given me a fair trial. Of course, though, dear, I don't want to nag at +you if there's a grain of chance that the best man—the real tenant of +the house—will ever come to his right senses!"</p> + +<p>"His right senses!" I almost laughed. "Why, Tony, for him to like me—in +<i>that</i> way—would be to lose them. You don't know who he is."</p> + +<p>Tony was silent.</p> + +<p>"Or—<i>do</i> you? Have you been guessing?"</p> + +<p>"Mayn't have guessed right," grumbled Billiken evasively. And then I +knew that he knew the poor little secret I had thought to keep.</p> + +<p>"I think you have guessed right," I said. "Don't look as if you were +afraid you'd hurt me. You haven't. I don't much mind your knowing. And +that's the greatest compliment I could pay you. It's Eagle March, of +course."</p> + +<p>With that the orchestra stopped dead as if on purpose to eavesdrop, and +I had made a present of the name to the whole audience. But luckily that +was all I had given. Any girl may yell any man's name, just as any cat +may look at any king. All the same my cheeks were hot throughout the +next act, during which I pretended to be passionately absorbed in the +play. The minute it was over and forced silence at an end, Tony boldly +said, "I knew it must be March, all the time. Not that you showed it!" +he hurried to add. "You're too good plucked an infant for that! And I'm +sure he never twigged. Not he! He's not that kind. It was only because +you saw a lot of him, that I thought so; and a girl who wouldn't fall +head over ears in love with March, if he was always underfoot, wouldn't +have wit enough to know which side her bread was buttered. See?"</p> + +<p>I laughed again more than before, for Tony when he meant to be intensely +serious was generally funny. "Poor me!" I said. "There was no butter on +my bread, nor any jam. I'm a fool to go on eating it bare and stale! +Imagine a man who loved Di anticlimaxing over to me!"</p> + +<p>"I can't imagine any man not beginning and ending with you," said Tony +stoutly, and I shouldn't have been a human girl if his loyal admiration +hadn't pleased me. "But I suppose you're a better judge of March than I +am," he went on, "and so, if his name's not down on the programme, won't +you write mine there—to be figurative again? Scribble it in pencil if +you like, not in ink. Then you can easily rub it out if you get tired of +seeing it always under your eyes."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" I asked, really puzzled by his allegories.</p> + +<p>"Why, be engaged to me on the instalment plan. Stop payment whenever you +want to. Agreement to be drawn up that way. All these weeks you've been +trying, according to promise, haven't you, to like me enough to be +engaged? Now, instead, try <i>being</i> engaged, and see whether you can like +me enough to strike a fast bargain by and by. You might come along to +Belgium with mater and Milly and me—they're dying to have you. Milly +wants to bore you talking about her Russian—and we'll see such a lot of +each other, travelling, that you'll know your own mind by the time my +leave's up. Think, if I could take you back to God's own country with me +as my—no, I won't say the word. I see it shocks you."</p> + +<p>"It does," I said. "And even if I did what you ask, which would be nice +for me, but not fair to you, nothing would induce me to—to——"</p> + +<p>"Marry?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, so soon. I'm too—young. Unless I loved you perfectly. Then I'd +marry you if I were <i>eight</i> instead of eighteen."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't marry you! Must draw the line somewhere. But if you really +think it would be nice, why not do it? I think it's fair, and I'm the +judge. Say yes, quick, before that darned orchestra stops again. You +shan't be married till you like, even if I have to wait as long as Jacob +did for Rachel. Not that I know how long that was. Say yes——"</p> + +<p>"Yes, then!" I shouted over an appalling blast of instruments. And Tony +squeezed my hand.</p> + +<p>That is how I happened to start for Belgium with Mrs. Dalziel and Milly, +the day after Father's quiet wedding with Kitty Main, and the day before +Austria delivered her ultimatum to Servia.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + + +<p>Not being politicians or war prophets, but only tourists, we didn't +realize what a flame would sweep over Europe on the winds of fury from +this one far-off fiery spark. Tony read us out the news at breakfast in +a hotel at Bruges: "Austria's Ultimatum to Servia"; whereupon we went on +drinking our coffee and eating our crisp rolls as if nothing had +happened.</p> + +<p>"Dear me, what a pity!" sighed Mrs. Dalziel absently. She was thinking +of our sight-seeing expedition for which we were already late. Milly +remarked that somebody was always throwing an ultimatum at somebody +else's head, and asked for jam. Tony said intelligently that it was just +what he had expected, after the murder of the archduke and the duchess, +and looked at his watch. As for me, it did shoot through my mind that +Russia might have something to say if Servia were attacked; and I +thought that if I were Milly I should have a qualm of anxiety about my +captain-count. But I didn't wish to worry her with such a remote +suggestion, and our war conversation ended there. None of us bothered +seriously with the papers for the next day or two. Sight-seeing in +Belgium seemed to us the last thing on earth which could possibly +connect itself with an ultimatum, or even a declaration of war on +Servia. We went from Bruges to Ghent, from Ghent to Antwerp, from +Antwerp to Brussels, from Brussels to Namur, to Louvain, and Spa, and so +at last arrived at Liége. The next item on our programme was a run into +Luxemburg, which was to finish our trip; and in a few days more Tony was +to leave us to catch his ship for home, as his holiday was over. He had +been behaving so well that I minded being engaged less than I'd +expected; and it was nice to be petted by Milly and Mrs. Dalziel and +loaded with presents. It was the first time in my life that I had +experienced anything of the sort, for I had always been the one who +didn't matter, at home. Each place we visited seemed more beautiful than +the last, and I was trying hard to say to myself, "This is happiness, or +all you can expect to know. Make the most of it, and be a sensible +Peggy!"</p> + +<p>It was late on the night of Wednesday, July 29th, when we arrived at +quaint old Liége; and though we knew that Austria had declared war, and +that all the great powers were muttering thunderously, it didn't seem as +if anything devastating would really happen. That was much too bad to be +true, and everything seemed so peaceful and comfortable. Hotel keepers +smiled and said that the war scare was sure to blow over as it had blown +over time after time in the past. We met other people gayly touring like +ourselves. They all appeared to be easy in their minds and free from +care, so we followed their pleasant example; and the sun shone on us, +and Belgium seemed the prettiest and most pacific of all countries, +basking under a cloudless sky.</p> + +<p>"Telegram for you, dear," Mrs. Dalziel said to Milly as she sorted the +post handed to her by the man in the hotel bureau at Liége. Then she +dealt out envelopes to Tony and me, and we were rather sleepily busied +with them when Milly gave a gasp. "Oh, Mamma, he's got to <i>fight</i>!" she +squealed.</p> + +<p>"He—who?" questioned Mrs. Dalziel dazedly in the midst of deciphering a +closely written and crossed page of thin foreign paper.</p> + +<p>"Stefan!" Milly choked on the name. "Oh, it's awful! His father has +consented to his marrying me all right, but <i>of course</i> he'll go +and—and be <i>killed</i> now, and I shall never see him again! I'm the +unluckiest girl that ever lived. And just when I thought everything was +going to be so splendid."</p> + +<p>I heard her wailing as I finished my letter, which was from Di: the +first she had written me. It had gone to Brussels and been forwarded +from there to Liége. "Sidney and I are rushing back to London as fast as +the car will take us," she wrote. "This war news is terrible. Any minute +we may hear that England's mixed up in the business. There's no more fun +motoring about the country in this suspense; and if there's war, all the +house parties we were asked to in Scotland are sure to be given up. We +want to be where we can have news every minute, and will hurry up the +decorators so we can get into our house, even if things are at sixes and +sevens there. From what I hear, everybody will be congregating in London +to be in the heart of things. It makes me sick to think of all my +<i>lovely</i> clothes! If there's war, nobody will be wearing <i>anything</i>. All +the nicest men will be away at the front. Isn't it <i>sickening</i>? Luckily, +Sidney won't have to fight, as America's not involved. But I don't want +to go over there and have people at home calling me a <i>coward</i>, to sneak +away from under the Zeppelins and things the Germans will be sending +over. I want to do what everybody else does, though Heaven alone knows +yet what that will be. I expect Bally and Kitty will come back from +Harrogate, where poor dear Bally is celebrating his honeymoon by taking +a strict cure, and I hear Kitty is doing mud baths to reduce her flesh. +They wire that there isn't one waiter out of sixty left in their +hotel—all were <i>Germans</i>; so you see what that means. And Kitty's maid +had hysterics this morning because war's to be declared on her country, +and because the hotel chambermaids are all turned into waitresses, and +she had to make Bally's and Kitty's beds. One realizes that war will be +horrible for <i>all classes</i>. Your life won't be safe on the Continent, +you know, and you'd better persuade Mrs. D. to bring you back +immediately. Though you've been so horrid to Sidney, he'll overlook it +in this crisis, for my sake, when even Ulsterites and Nationalists are +forgiving each other. Father and Kitty will have to stay with us when +they arrive, as the Norfolk Street house is given up; and you must of +course come, too. You can be our guest till you and Tony are married, if +you don't want your engagement to last <i>too</i> long."</p> + +<p>I hardly knew whether I most wanted to laugh or cry over that letter. +All I did know was that nothing would induce me to stay with Diana and +Sidney Vandyke. I would even rather be married, if worst came to worst; +but though Tony and I were playing at being engaged, the thought of +actually marrying him was like jumping over a precipice. I wasn't ready +for the precipice yet, and must avoid it if I could.</p> + +<p>I folded up the letter and kept its news and its suggestions to myself. +I sympathized with Milly; and hoped that, after all, even if Russia and +Austria and Servia and Germany flew in each others' faces, it might be +possible for England and France and Italy to keep the peace. Di was +always inclined to exaggerate, and probably she was glad of any excuse +by this time to put an end to a motoring <i>tête-à-tête</i> with Sidney.</p> + +<p>I went to bed and tried to believe that I had had a bad dream, but next +morning I was still dreaming it. The papers told us how the Stock +Exchange in London had closed, which seemed like hearing that England +had suddenly gone under the sea. Belgrade was being bombarded. The +Germans as well as Russians were mobilizing furiously. King George had +telegraphed to the Czar, but before his message had time to reach +Petrograd, the Kaiser had declared war on Russia. Belgium had begun +mobilizing too, and only just in time. Trains were wanted for the +soldiers. Frightened tourists clamoured in vain to get away. Even those +who had automobiles could hardly move along the roads, and many +chauffeurs were called to their colours. Ours was French, and went off +at a moment's notice, with just time for a polite "<i>Adieu, peut-être +pour toujours.</i>" Tony hated everything mechanical except rifles and +revolvers, and had never learned to drive a car; Belgian chauffeurs had +something better to do than help travellers out of trouble; so there we +were!</p> + +<p>It seemed only another phase of the dream from which we could not wake, +when glittering hordes of German cavalry, the Kaiser's beloved uhlans, +were said to be clanking over the frontier to violate the neutrality of +Belgium, and we heard that Great Britain had declared war on Germany. I +would have given anything to be back in England then, not because I was +afraid of what might happen in Belgium, but because my blood was hot +with pride of my country, and I wanted to be there to see the spirit of +the people rise. There was little time to think, however, for Liége was +seething with excitement. Fugitives began to pour into the town, with +children and bundles in queer little carts drawn by dogs. Soldiers bade +their families good-bye in the streets, and marched or rode off in +clouds of dust. Wounded men were brought from the frontier, and an annex +of our old-fashioned, dormer-windowed hotel was hastily turned into a +hospital. Red Cross nurses appeared from somewhere, and several women +among the penned-up tourists volunteered to help. Mrs. Dalziel could do +nothing, because she had collapsed with fear, and was sure that she was +in for nervous prostration. Milly had her mother to care for; but I was +free, and thanks to my work in Ballyconal, I knew something about first +aid. Ever since I met Eagle and he had given me the old cadet chevron, +which I carried with me everywhere, I had grown more and more keen on +learning to do what I could for others, and war talk in Texas had +prompted me to buy books on nursing.</p> + +<p>I mentioned this as a personal recommendation; the real nurses smiled. +But they accepted my services as a probationer, strong and willing, and +glad to do what she was told, even to scrub floors with disinfectant +fluid.</p> + +<p>"You'll spoil you hands," said Milly.</p> + +<p>I laughed.</p> + +<p>Almost at once after this began the bombardment of the forts at Liége; +and all day long and most of the night we were deafened with the boom of +great guns across the river. It was a relief to be allowed to watch +through the dark hours beside soldiers whose wounds were not serious +enough to need expert care that I could not give. Even if I had been in +bed I should not have slept. I felt as if my brain were part of the +battlefield where armies marched and fought. My heartbeats were the +drums. We grew used to the firing of cannon. It seemed a part of +everyday life. It was hard to remember after the first that each "boom!" +meant lives ended in violence. Perhaps if we had remembered we should +have gone mad.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, on the third day, just at dawn, came a new sound, a great +whirring like a thousand racing automobiles, and then two loud +explosions, one after the other, different from the roar of cannon or +the shots from the field guns that night at El Paso. The whole building +shook as if it must fall, and wounded men who had slept restlessly +through the thunder from the forts waked with a wild start. My charge, a +Belgian boy of nineteen whose arms had been amputated, shivered and then +relapsed into stoical calm as the house ceased to shake. "Zeppelin," he +said, in a quiet voice. "They have dropped bombs."</p> + +<p>It seemed that two must have fallen and burst close by, the noise had +been so ear-shattering. Up from the street below our windows came a +clamour of voices, shrill and sharp, which cut through the constant +whirr of the giant motor. Near the head of the bed was an open window, +and mechanically, rather than of my own free will, I leaned far out, as +some of the professional nurses were leaning from other windows.</p> + +<p>"You might get a bomb on your head," said my soldier, in his tired +voice. But I did not draw back. I was surprised to find that I was not +afraid. It seemed just then ridiculous, puny, to care about one's self. +I was awe-struck rather than terrified, realizing with a solemnity I had +never known that the next minute might be the last on earth for all of +us in that dimly lit room of narrow beds.</p> + +<p>The sky was faintly gray with coming dawn. I looked up, up into the pale +dome, seeking with my eyes the great bird of evil that had laid its eggs +of death. There it was, immensely high above the black, shadowy roofs +and steeples of the hill and plain; a sinister shape, like all the +German sausages in the world rolled into one; and hanging from it cars +full of men reduced to the size of beetles by that great height.</p> + +<p>The thing was almost directly overhead as I looked up, and it seemed +that if it dropped a parting bomb as it sailed our poor little hospital +must be struck. Yet I continued to stare, fascinated. Life and death +were twin brother and sister, equally terrible and splendid.</p> + +<p>"I wish I could have seen Eagle just once again," I heard myself +thinking, as one hears the ticking of a watch under a pillow. But I felt +a strange, throbbing eagerness to know quickly the great secret of what +comes next after this world, with its seeming muddle of injustice and +disappointment, its joys and broken aspirations. "Why! it was like this +with me when we had our accident in the <i>Golden Eagle</i>!" I thought. And +even as the remembrance flitted ghostlike through my brain, I saw +tearing through the sky, far above the big bulk of the Zeppelin, a +monoplane etched in black against the light of dawn.</p> + +<p>I could hardly believe that it was really there. It must be an image +called up by memory of that long-past moment, some strange illusion of +an exalted mind: but the image persisted. Like a hawk it swept along the +sky, coming from a direction opposite to that of the Zeppelin, as if to +swoop upon it from above. I thought I heard shots. The great dirigible +turned and sailed faster. I felt as if I were all eyes and pounding +heart. Could the sight be real, this duel in the sky? Perhaps others +watched it with me—I do not know. It seemed that I was alone on earth +gazing at the incredible battle.</p> + +<p>The Zeppelin made off, away from the town toward the fortifications, but +the monoplane kept above it, despite the shots which spattered futilely. +Just as the dirigible passed over the bridge, which hadn't yet been +blown up, looking enormous, for it hung lower now, the monoplane—tiny +in comparison—dived full upon it. With an explosion of gas from the +huge cigar-shaped balloon, the dirigible dropped earthward, its bird +enemy seeming to fall with it.</p> + +<p>I gave a cry and covered my eyes with both hands.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I felt that I had been broken, crumpled up like a singed moth, burnt by +the vivid flame of that awful sight. But arms caught me from behind, as +I would have sunk to the floor with the roar of another explosion in my +ears, each brick of the house quivering on another. A kind Belgian voice +was soothing me: "<i>Pauvre enfant!</i>" and hands, strong, though womanly, +would have pulled me away from the window to lay me down on some +unoccupied bunk, if I had not struggled to keep my place. "No—no!" I +stammered. "I'm not going to faint. I must see! I must!" And shaking off +the nurse's protecting arms, I stared out toward an open space away from +the town, where a vast mass of wreckage blazed, turning the gray dawn +red.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + + +<p>"<i>Quel héros!</i>" rapturously sobbed the Belgian nurse who held me. "It is +he who has saved the lives of all our poor wounded ones, and our lives, +too. Did you not see the monster over our heads? It had to turn just in +the nick of time. An instant more, and there would have been a bomb for +us. Thank heaven! And thank the hero sent by heaven!"</p> + +<p>It was a deed, I thought, worthy of Eagle March himself. The air scout +who had accomplished it was his soul brother no matter what country had +given him birth.</p> + +<p>"Is it certain, do you think, that all those men in the Zeppelin died +there together?" I gasped.</p> + +<p>"Every man of them, yes, it is certain."</p> + +<p>"But he—the man of the monoplane? He fell with them?"</p> + +<p>"He fell, yes, my child. But he fell free of the Zeppelin. He is not in +that fire cauldron there. Didn't you see the end of what happened?"</p> + +<p>"No!" I said. "For a second I covered my eyes."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it was all in that second! We thought he was lost, sacrificed for +us; and even now it is most likely that he is dead. We saw the Zeppelin +drop away from under the monoplane. Then came the flare of light, with +the gas exploding and catching fire. But just before that, the monoplane +was poised in the air for an instant above the great falling shape. It +seemed to—do you call it 'plane' down? All that happened was so quick +and sudden, and the aeroplane came to earth so fast we could not be sure +of her fate. But if she fell, she fell free of the Zeppelin. We shall +soon hear. The other hospitals in town are full already, except our +little one, which has still room for a few. If any are saved from either +of the wrecks, they will be brought here, unless we have filled up our +beds meanwhile with people hurt by the Zeppelin bombs."</p> + +<p>By the mingled dawnlight and firelight we could see figures running to +the fields where the wreck of the great dirigible and the heroic little +monoplane had come down. But long before news arrived of the occupants' +fate we heard that none of the townsfolk had been injured by the +explosion of the only two bombs which the Zeppelin had been given time +to drop. Three or four buildings had suffered more or less, but +fortunately they were shops, and nobody had been sleeping there. One +bomb had fallen near a hospital, and Tony Dalziel, hearing a rumour that +the "Annex" (as ours was called) had been struck, came rushing from the +hotel close by to find out what had been my fate. When he saw the +steep-roofed building untouched, and with lighted windows, he was +relieved, but ventured to ask for me, and I ran down to speak with him +at the foot of the stairs for a moment.</p> + +<p>"Peggy! I just can't stand for this!" he groaned, and the tragedy in his +voice contrasted so quaintly with his comic appearance, bareheaded, hair +ruffled, and costume sketchy, that I felt rising symptoms of hysteria, +which had to be controlled. "I must get you and the mater and Milly into +safety somehow. To-night is the limit. Mater's more dead than alive, and +Mill isn't much better."</p> + +<p>"Don't worry about me, anyhow," I said. "You see, I don't much <i>care</i> +whether I'm dead or alive. That simplifies things a lot! I wouldn't go +away now if I could."</p> + +<p>"You <i>shall</i> go, the first chance there is," insisted Tony, with new +authority. "And it may come soon. There are some high-up Belgian +officers at the hotel to-night. They came in an automobile not so big as +ours, and it's broken down. If they can't get it right by to-morrow, +when they want to go back to Brussels, where they came from, I'll make +'em a present of our car for the rest of the war, if they'll take us +with them. You see, it's a serious matter with me. Things are getting +worse here, and my leave'll soon be up. You don't think I'd go, and let +you stay shut up in Liége with bombs falling all round you and perhaps +on you?"</p> + +<p>"Look!" I said, forgetting to answer, as I peered out through the open +street door. "Here come some men with a litter. They're bringing it this +way. Oh, Tony, if it should be the man of the monoplane! They think in +the hospital that he fell with his machine clear of the Zeppelin, and +may be alive."</p> + +<p>Ahead of the slowly borne litter ran a youth with a Red Cross band on +his arm. Seeing my nurse's cap and apron, all the uniform I had, he +began speaking breathlessly in Belgian French. Had we a bed? Our nurses +had sent word yesterday that if two or three were needed, we could +supply them. He hoped they hadn't filled up since, as here was an urgent +case: the aviator who had attacked the Zeppelin, and destroyed it by +plunging on to its balloon at the risk of almost certain death. But he +was not dead, and might live if he could have prompt surgical attendance +and nursing.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we can take him in," I said. "Everything is ready, and I'll run +ahead of you to warn the staff."</p> + +<p>"Tell them," the Red Cross man called after me, as, forgetful of Tony, I +turned to fly, "tell them we think it is the British or American +Monsieur Mars who did us such service, bringing news to the forts from +over the German frontier two days ago."</p> + +<p>I dashed on without stopping to answer or look back, for the litter was +arriving; and it was not till I repeated the name, as I gave in my +hurried report, that the sound of it on my own lips made my heart jump. +Monsieur Mars! Could it be.... The thought was too far-fetched.... I +dared not harbour it.</p> + +<p>My ward was on the top floor, where the least serious cases were +treated, men who could be got upstairs without too much strain and +suffering. On the ground floor one bed was free, as I knew, and it was +into that ward I went to tell the news to the matron. Perhaps when my +duty was done I did not hurry overmuch to return to my own less +interesting post; and I was still in the principal ward when the canvas +litter borne by four Red Cross men was carried in. Doctors and nurses +pressed forward to meet it, and I flattened myself against the wall, +sick with mingled fear and longing. Again I thought, <i>what if</i> ...</p> + +<p>The big room which a week ago had been the restaurant of our prosperous +hotel annex was still lit by electric lamps fantastically unsuited to a +hospital ward: chandeliers of sprawling gilt branches decorated with +metallic imitations of mistletoe. The light of day outside was filtering +in but dimly, yet it paled and made ghastly the yellowish glow of +electricity. Even the doctors and nurses with their tired faces looked +like ghosts, and the wounded soldiers in their narrow white cots seemed +figures of dead men modelled in wax. Some of them opened their eyes, in +deep violet hollows; others kept the lids down, caring for or conscious +of nothing. The staff who received the litter, and the Red Cross men who +brought it, spoke in low voices, but never in irritating whispers. The +moving feet made only a faint pattering sound on the linoleum-covered +floor, and the litter was set down noiselessly at the side of the one +free bed in the ward. Near it stood a screen which only a few hours ago +had hidden the death agony of a soldier. I looked at this and shuddered, +thinking once again, "<i>What if it were he!</i>" and if the screen should be +needed again for the same purpose.</p> + +<p>Where I lurked, out of every one's way, yet close to the door, flat as a +paper doll, against the wall which smelled of carbolic acid, nobody +troubled about me. I was just one of the younger nurses, and none +stopped to ask whether my place were there or upstairs in another ward.</p> + +<p>"Oh God, if it be he, let him live!" I heard my soul praying.</p> + +<p>Nurses leaned over the long dark form on the litter, whose face I could +not see, because where I stood only the top of the head was visible, a +head thickly covered with short rumpled hair, which might be blond or +brown when the blood stains were washed off. The bending figures +quickly, skilfully cut away the stained and blackened clothing, and when +it was the surgeon's turn to examine and perhaps to operate, some one +noticed the intruder. The head nurse came to me and laid a hand on my +shoulder. "My child, it was you who brought us the word just now!" she +said kindly, her eyes on my pallid face. "But you must go to your own +duties. This is a great honour we have, to care for the hero who has +saved us. It must be our turn to save him. Go tell the news in the upper +wards, that we hope for the best, the very best. Say to the doctors that +it is indeed Monsieur Mars. They will know the name. They will have +heard of him, and what he did for Liége only the other day."</p> + +<p>"I'll go, but <i>one</i> instant first, I implore you, nurse!" I pleaded. "I +think—it may be—that Monsieur Mars is an old friend of mine. I beg you +to let me have a glimpse of his face!"</p> + +<p>She looked at me and hesitated; but my imploring eyes, which suddenly +spouted tears, decided her kind heart in my favour. "One glance, then; +but control yourself," she said. And taking me round the waist, she led +me quickly across the room. "Mademoiselle, our young British assistant +thinks she knows the patient," the matron announced. "Make way for her, +an instant. Then she will go to her own ward."</p> + +<p>Some one pushed me forward, at the same time holding me firmly lest I +should collapse. One fleeting glance was vouchsafed me of a form covered +with a sheet, and a blackened, blood-smeared face, with half-closed eyes +whose whites showed under the lids, and on whose lips was some strange +semblance of a happy smile. To those who did not know him well, or love +him beyond all the world, that marred face might have been +unrecognizable in its mask of dirt and blood. But nothing could disguise +it from me. Monsieur Mars, the wounded hero of Liége, and Captain Eagle +March, late of the American army, were one and the same.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I didn't faint, but I don't remember anything else till I found myself +sitting on a chair in my own ward. The nurses were having morning +coffee. One of them gave me a cup. If I hadn't been a nurse myself, with +patients to think of, I should have dropped it and burst out crying. But +instead, I drank the coffee; and a moment later went back to the bedside +of the man I had been tending before leave was granted me to see Tony.</p> + +<p>"You look as if you'd met the ghost of some one you love," said the +nurse who had been keeping my place.</p> + +<p>But he was not a ghost. Not yet—not yet!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + + +<p>Tidings of the new hero of Liége floated up to our ward within the hour. +There was slight concussion of the brain; there were scalp wounds which +had had to be stitched up; and there were many bruises; but the surgeons +reported no bones broken, and complete recovery only a matter of days. +Even the monoplane itself, we heard, was singularly little damaged. All +this would have appeared miraculous, and the pious Belgians would have +attributed it to direct intervention of the Blessed Virgin, had not the +wrecked dirigible on examination told a silent story of the air scout's +cleverness as well as his daring. Before swooping on the Zeppelin from +above, he had apparently discharged bombs of his own on the balloon, +which had burst before the monoplane dashed down on to it, and the great +bulk had fallen away from under, without carrying the lighter machine to +destruction. The theory which awaited corroboration from the aviator was +that he had begun to plane down, despite some damage, and had actually +fallen but a short distance, striking earth a hundred yards away from +the wrecked dirigible.</p> + +<p>Nobody talked about anything except the feat of the foreign air scout. +The roar of the cannon from the fort had ceased to make us jump; and it +was better to chat about Monsieur Mars than to murmur in each other's +ears, "How long before <i>THEY</i> slip round the forts and get into the +town?" I made up my mind that whatever happened, nothing should tear me +from Liége while Eagle March was there. And when Tony sent up word +begging to see me on important business, in imagination I was defending +Eagle's hospital cot (naturally with him in it!) against a troop of +uhlans. In that mood, Tony's arguments about my going away made as much +impression as the chirp of a sparrow on a man stone deaf in both ears.</p> + +<p>"Wild horses, much less wild uhlans, couldn't drag me out of this +place," I said, feeling as brave and firm as a story-book heroine, +though to Tony I may have seemed obstinate as a mule. "What do you take +me for, boy? Go comfortably away in a motor car to safety indeed, while +Eagle March is here, lying at death's door? Or if he isn't at death's +door, it's only because the angels slammed it in his face."</p> + +<p>"Eagle March! What are you talking about?" Tony wanted to know, looking +dazed. I had forgotten that there was no reason why he should have +guessed the hero's identity, and I dashed into explanations. "Don't tell +people yet," I said, "because he mayn't want it talked about, but he's +the 'Monsieur Mars' who's been helping Belgium since the very first day +of war. Why, they say <i>he</i> gave the warning that the Germans would cross +the frontier. Isn't it <i>like</i> him? And how silly of us not to guess, the +minute we heard the name of 'Mars!'"</p> + +<p>"It never entered my head, though I've heard it a dozen times before +this last feat," said Tony. "People were talking about other stunts Mars +had done. But I supposed he was some French Johnny. Are you sure you're +right? Sure it's March, I mean? It does seem a little too strange to be +true, that he should turn up—or rather come down—here, of all places!"</p> + +<p>"'Too strange <i>not</i> to be true,'" I quoted. "Strange things are the only +things that happen in war, for a man like him—a man without a country. +We might have known he would come to the rescue of Belgium! And I am +sure I'm right, because I've seen him."</p> + +<p>"Great Scott!" was all that Tony had to say for a minute. Then he went +on in a changed and heavy tone: "I suppose you're nursing him?"</p> + +<p>"No such luck!" I answered. "I'm not experienced enough. But I'm +debating whether I might ask to see him, when he gets better, on the +strength of old friendship. I don't think he'd mind my claiming +acquaintance with 'Monsieur Mars.'"</p> + +<p>"Mind? I guess not!" said Tony. "But how soon will he be better?"</p> + +<p>"He'll be nearly well, they hope, in a few days."</p> + +<p>"He'll have to be, by George, if he wants to get out of town with his +monoplane before the Germans walk in. The Belgians are the heroes of +Europe, but there aren't enough of 'em to hold out forever, and that's +why you <i>must</i> go with us, Peggy, March or no March. He'd be the first +one to tell you to clear out, if he had his wits about him."</p> + +<p>"I dare say he would, but he hasn't got them yet," I replied calmly. +"You don't really <i>expect</i> me to leave him, do you, Tony, after—after +all I've confessed to you?"</p> + +<p>"I expect you to see reason," Tony lamely persisted. "There's just one +thing to do, and that is to scoot while there's a chance. If I were +alone without the mater and Milly, I'd say let's hang on for a day or +two longer and run the risk—though running it might make me overstay my +leave. That would be nothing, though. I wouldn't think of myself in any +way. But I can't let my mother and sister go without me to look after +them as well as I'm able. I can't ask them to stop, and they wouldn't if +I did, for they're wild to get away. Yet how can I let you stay here +alone? March would be furious with you, if he came back to himself and +found you hanging on."</p> + +<p>I laughed. "He couldn't kill me!"</p> + +<p>"The Germans could."</p> + +<p>"In spite of the red cross, and my lovely cap and apron? Well, I'm not +afraid. And Eagle will never know that I stopped for his sake when I +might have gone. I'm not sure I shouldn't have stayed in any case."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure you wouldn't, if I'd had to use force. But you see what a +position you put me in, Peggy. How can I, a chap you don't care a snap +for at heart, hope to drag you away from the one who's got it all? And +yet, what am I to do if you refuse to come?"</p> + +<p>"Dear Tony," I said quietly, "I do care lots of snaps for you, more than +I ever did, I think. But—oh, I <i>must</i> say it!—'snaps' is just the poor +little word that's appropriate compared to what I feel for Eagle. All I +have and am is for him, though he doesn't want it, and will never know, +I hope, what a fool his 'little friend' is over him."</p> + +<p>In silence Tony received the blow I had to strike. He stood with his +head down for a minute, while I ached with pity for him and for +myself—though I hated myself, too, because I was hurting him.</p> + +<p>"You must go with Mrs. Dalziel and Milly," I said, when he didn't speak. +"It's the only way. I shall be safe enough—as safe as the other nurses. +Who knows," and I laughed uneasily to break the barrier of restraint, +"but Eagle will take me away in his monoplane? That would be a splendid +solution of the difficulty, wouldn't it?" I spoke only in jest, but Tony +accepted the idea half seriously.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's exactly what <i>will</i> happen, I expect," he said. "You'll go +off with him. Anyhow, I've lost you! I see that. You could never put up +with me after this experience. That's true, isn't it, Peggy?"</p> + +<p>The same thought, put in a less brutal way, had been heavy in my heart +since my glimpse of Eagle lying unconscious on the litter. I knew then +that I was married to my love for him and that any other marriage would +be worse than illegal.</p> + +<p>I hesitated how to answer, but perhaps my silence spoke as clearly as +words. "Don't look as if you'd just lost your last friend, my poor +child," Tony said, in his good, warm way. "You haven't lost me, you +know, though I've lost you. And you needn't look so guilty, either, as +if you'd murdered me and buried me under the leaves! I was always +expecting this thing to come, though I didn't foresee the way of it. If +ever I felt tempted to believe our engagement was getting to be the real +thing, why, I said to myself, 'Wait till she sees March again before you +begin to be cocksure, my man.' Well, now you've seen him. And I guess +you've seen in the same minute that our experiment has failed."</p> + +<p>"I'm—afraid that's true, Tony!" I sighed. "I can't help it! It wouldn't +be fair to you for us to go on as we are. I shall have to break my word +to you, if I'm to be faithful to myself."</p> + +<p>"You won't be breaking any old word!" he said. "It was never an +iron-clad promise. I teased you till you agreed to try how the thing +would work. It's been my fault all through, and now I'll take my +medicine. Our engagement was never insured against war risks, and when I +get back my senses I'm going to be glad you saw March before it was too +late. I—brought you two together, sort of inadvertently, as you might +say, didn't I? But, honest Injun, Peggy, I'd do the thing over again, +knowing all I know. I only wish—yes, before the Lord I <i>do</i> wish—that +good may come of it to you both."</p> + +<p>"You're an angel, Tony, a real angel!" I almost sobbed. "But you needn't +think that anything will 'come of it' in the way you mean, because it +won't. I don't delude myself. I don't even hope. All the same, I must be +true—to my own heart. And I beg of you to forgive me because I didn't +know it well enough before."</p> + +<p>"There isn't any question of forgiveness," said he, with his head up, +and his nice Billiken face very pink. "I bless you—bless you for all +you've been or done to me. And I wouldn't forget or undo anything if I +could, you can bet your life on that. I think I could bear the whole +business like a man, if I could stay right here and see you through. +But—there's mater and Milly to think of—and the regiment. +And—and—oh, well, life's just one damn thing after another!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dalziel and Milly came and pleaded with me after that, and tried to +frighten me into going with them; but, as Milly burst out desperately at +last, I was "as hard as nails." Tony had told them nothing, I found, +about the failure of our experiment or the identity of Monsieur Mars. I +well understood why, and was grateful—grateful for that and for many +things; most of all for bringing me to Belgium, and neither grudging nor +regretting what he had done. So, as a lover, Tony went out of my life; +but as a friend, he never can go.</p> + +<p>I had no time to cry or feel lonely, or tell myself what a beast I'd +been, after the three had reluctantly left me to my fate; for when I +went back on duty after the good-byes, it was to find that I had been +sent for to hasten to the principal ward. Monsieur Mars was being +delirious in English, and the doctors and nurses understood too little +of the language to know whether he were merely babbling or pouring forth +important information.</p> + +<p>There Eagle lay in his narrow, white bed, clean and pale, with his head +swathed in bandages, a very different man from the grimy, bloodstained +vision that had flashed on me a few hours before. The merest stranger +who had ever seen Captain March would have deserved no credit for +recognizing him now.</p> + +<p>The nurses waited eagerly for me to translate his mutterings; but he +only mumbled again and again, "It's all over, all over!"</p> + +<p>If I could guess at a sad hidden meaning for the words, it was one which +need not be handed on to others; and I proved so broken a reed as a +translator that I expected to receive marching orders, right-about face. +Strange to say, however, though his eyes were half closed and he seemed +to see nothing, know nothing that went on around him, after I had spoken +in a low tone to his nurse Eagle stopped muttering. For a moment he +appeared to listen, and then with a deep sigh as if of relief from pain +or some heavy anxiety, the half-open eyelids closed. The slight frown +which had drawn his brows together slowly faded away. He had the air of +being at rest.</p> + +<p>"One would almost fancy," said the head nurse, who had been watching the +scene, speaking thoughtfully when she had beckoned me away from the +bedside, "that this brave monsieur recognized your voice, Mademoiselle."</p> + +<p>Then I took heart of grace and did what I had told Tony I meant to do. I +said that I had met Monsieur Mars in England and America. I had +recognized him at once when the Red Cross men brought him into the +hospital, but I had said nothing of this at the time, because I had felt +that it would be considered unimportant.</p> + +<p>"On the contrary, Mademoiselle," answered that adorable woman, "it is of +the <i>greatest</i> importance. This heroic monsieur has saved us from death. +If there is anything, little or big, which we can do for him in return, +how gladly will we do it! Your voice has soothed him in his +unconsciousness. Who knows what your presence may do when consciousness +comes back? Why, it would be like throwing away an elixir to waste you +after this in the ward above. You are from now on promoted as assistant +nurse to our hero."</p> + +<p>She was a stout, plain person, with bulgy eyes and a pink end to her +nose, but I saw her as the most beautiful woman the world has ever +produced.</p> + +<p>I took up my new duties at once, trying not to act as if the moon were +my footstool. All the rest of the day and far into the night Eagle lay +as if asleep, with occasional fits of restlessness which, somehow, I +could always soothe; and this state, though it seemed alarming to me, +was approved by the doctor. It was better, he said, that after +concussion the brain should have for a while repose in unconsciousness. +The symptom was not good when the patient talked rationally too soon. +But if monsieur should waken and show signs of wishing to ask questions, +he must be answered clearly and quietly, if possible by the Demoiselle +Irlandaise who would best be able to understand and satisfy him.</p> + +<p>The Demoiselle Irlandaise was advised by the matron to take her repose +early in the night, in order to be ready for such an emergency as +monsieur the doctor suggested. But the demoiselle felt no need of +repose. Sleep seemed some strange and foreign thing. She sat through the +night watching the hero of Liége; and though guns boomed and were +answered, and the nurses occasionally discussed beneath their breath +what would happen to us all when the Germans came, never in her life had +that Demoiselle Irlandaise felt so happy and so useful.</p> + +<p>She had the reward of her vigil toward dawn, four-and-twenty hours +almost to the minute after the Zeppelin and its crew had been brought +down. Suddenly Eagle opened his eyes and fixed them on the nurse. At +first he stared as if dazed by what he saw; then came a flash of +recognition which changed to incredulity.</p> + +<p>"I'm—<i>dreaming</i> you!" he whispered huskily.</p> + +<p>I bent over him with an invalid's cup of liquid food prepared for this +emergency, kept hot in a vacuum flask. "No you're not dreaming me," I +cheerfully replied as I made him drink. "It's Peggy, taking care of you. +Now go to sleep again. I'll still be here when you wake up next time."</p> + +<p>"But——" he went on, staring round the room; "where am I? The horse +kicked me, I remember; only that seems so long ago! I thought—a lot of +things had happened since then. I hoped—but I suppose it's all a dream +about—about——"</p> + +<p>"Being in Belgium?" I prompted him, seeing his sharp anxiety. "That's +not a dream, but true. You're Monsieur Mars, the hero of Liége, because +you brought down the Zeppelin and the men who came to drop bombs on us. +We're all grateful to you, and praying that you may get well soon."</p> + +<p>"Thank God that it <i>is</i> true!" he sighed. "I wanted to do something. I'd +have been disappointed to wake up and find I'd only dreamed after +all—to find that I was back in London. I was afraid for a minute it was +the day of—but it's all right now. How is it that you're here? It +seems——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I just happened to be travelling in Belgium with the Dalziels when +the war broke out, and we got caught. They've gone now, but I stayed. +The nurses let me help them a little. I do the best I can. I told them +I'd met you at home. But every one here calls you 'Monsieur Mars.' They +know no other name."</p> + +<p>"Don't let them know any other. Don't let any one know."</p> + +<p>"I won't. You needn't worry! Now, will you sleep, please?—or they may +think I'm doing you more harm than good."</p> + +<p>"You do me the greatest good. I'll sleep, yes. But first—tell me one +thing more; about the <i>Golden Eagle</i>. I planed down part of the way, but +the motor'd stopped working. The last I remember is when I began to +fall."</p> + +<p>"The <i>Eagle's</i> safe," I assured him. "Hardly hurt at all; and there's a +Belgian flying man in Liége to-day, Simon Sorel, who knows you. His +mechanic is working on the <i>Golden Eagle</i>. She'll be ready for you when +you're ready for her."</p> + +<p>"That will be soon. Good man, Sorel!" he said, and closed his eyes. +"Little Peggy!" I heard him muttering later. But three minutes afterward +he had dropped into a natural sleep.</p> + +<p>"Magnifique!" was the Belgian doctor's verdict in his next round, when +Eagle had waked again, and had been attended by a nurse wiser and more +experienced than I. There was little that I was allowed to do for him, +but that little was a joy worth being born for; and I could have died of +happiness to see how, when he was awake and fully conscious, his eyes +followed me when I moved about. But it was better to live than to die +just then, and I did live with all my might. I lived in every nerve and +vein for those two days while "Monsieur Mars" was my patient. After the +first twenty-four hours he insisted that he was well enough to be +changed into the ward above, and leave his bed on the ground floor to +some one more seriously injured. On the second day he sat up in a +reclining chair, and announced that twelve hours more would see him out +of hospital. Doctors and nurses protested that he would throw himself +back into a fever, and the consequences might be serious; but as at that +very time the danger of the town being taken was imminent, arguments for +prudence lost their force. Toward evening on the third day Eagle, with +his head and one hand still in bandages, was limping about the field +where the <i>Golden Eagle</i> had been repaired; and when he came back it was +to say that he thought he might get off at midnight with dispatches for +the king in Brussels. He calmly announced this intention to me as I +handed him an innocent cup of broth, better suited to a confirmed +invalid than to a recovered aeronaut. But he quietly accepted the cup; +and I saw by the look in his eyes that I was to expect the first real +talk we had had together.</p> + +<p>"What about your going with me, Peggy?" he asked, as simply as if he +were proposing a short pleasure jaunt in a motor car. "You know, I +wouldn't suggest it if I didn't think it honestly the safest thing for +you. With luck we can make the trip in less than an hour, by air. Heaven +knows how long it would take you by earth; and there's no one here, +anyhow, to help smuggle you away if I go and leave you behind. I can't +bear to do it! Besides, from Brussels, there's a good chance of your +getting out with refugees, if you don't wait too long. And you can do as +much good work in London as in Liége. What do you say?"</p> + +<p>I wished that it might take us many hours to get to Brussels instead of +less than one. But I didn't put the wish into words. I said only, yes, I +would go; and many thanks.</p> + +<p>"Good! That's settled then," said he.</p> + +<p>"I must tell our matron," I hesitated. "I <i>hope</i> she won't think me a +coward!"</p> + +<p>Eagle smiled almost as he used to smile ages ago in London, when first +we were friends, and he still thought of me as a "little girl." "Few +people would call it a cowardly act for a young woman to fly out of a +beleaguered town in a battered aeroplane with a battered airman, and I +don't think your matron will be one of them. She'll thank you for what +you've done here, and bid you God-speed. But don't go yet to tell her. I +have some things to say to you. You'll be my passenger and 'observer' +when I start to-night, but we'll have no chance to talk; and in these +times we must face the fact that we may never have another chance this +side of heaven."</p> + +<p>The words went through me like a bayonet, for I knew too well how deadly +true they were. I didn't try to contradict him, or talk about "hoping +for the best"; for prattle of that sort seemed too futile. I only said, +"Let's take this chance, then. I've plenty of time—hours yet. Stretch +yourself out in the <i>chaise longue</i> and rest while we talk. I'll sit +here by you on the window seat."</p> + +<p>No one was very ill in this upper ward, which was kept for +convalescents. Some of the men had been given cigarettes to smoke. Some +were having their supper. It was generally known that Monsieur Mars and +the Demoiselle Irlandaise had been friends in England; and the news +having run round the wards that Monsieur Mars had practically discharged +himself as a patient, we were allowed to talk in peace. Not an errand +was found for me, not a nurse looked—or allowed us to see that she +looked—our way.</p> + +<p>"I didn't mean to remind you of my existence, you know, Peggy, till I +had something to say about myself worth saying," Eagle began, speaking +lightly, yet with a nervousness he couldn't quite hide. "I told you that +in my last letter. But Providence has stage-managed things differently."</p> + +<p>"Yes. We didn't expect to act together in a continental theatre, did +we?" I was deliberately flippant. "But I'm glad to be in this great play +with you, even in one scene, and such a little part!"</p> + +<p>"Maybe the part seems little to you. It doesn't to me! You've helped me +to get well twice as soon as I should have done among strangers. +Heavens! But I was glad to see your little face! I'd have told you that +first morning when I waked up what I'm going to tell you now, if you had +let me then. Things were rather mixed in my brain. I thought I was in +London, and you'd found me at a sort of nursing home I retired into for +a couple of days to get patched up, after that—er—that little accident +I had. I suppose you heard something of it at the time, though I don't +think you were on the spot to see."</p> + +<p>"Tony told me you were in church, and that it was you who stopped the +horses when they started to run away," I said, without beating round the +bush, for I thought he was bidding for my frankness on this sore +subject.</p> + +<p>"I hoped I might have passed unrecognized; but I feared that was too +much to expect. I was tempted to break my resolution and write to you +after all, explaining why I went to Lady Diana's wedding. But I stuck it +out because—well, because it <i>was</i> a resolution. Silly maybe! all the +same, I had it a good deal at heart to find a new place for myself in +the world before I made a sign to any of my friends, even loyal Peggy. +Besides, I had a safe sort of feeling you wouldn't misjudge me."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad you felt that," I said. "Almost glad enough to be glad you +didn't write. Though—I should have liked to hear."</p> + +<p>"Well, I thought of you a lot, if I didn't write. And I couldn't help +looking at you in church that day. I sent you wireless messages with my +eyes once or twice, although I knew it would be best if you didn't get +any of them."</p> + +<p>"I believe I did get them. I seemed to know that some one was calling +me."</p> + +<p>"It wasn't a S. O. S. call!" Eagle smiled. "I found—well, I found that +I wasn't in distress, or need of help. That's precisely why I went to +St. George's, Peggy. I wanted to test myself. Did you think the reason +might be that?"</p> + +<p>"No! I thought of a dozen things it might be, but never that one!"</p> + +<p>"It was the only motive that could have taken me there. I felt it gave +me a right to go, even though—if people who knew how things had been +saw me, they might—well, they might think me guilty of very bad taste. +But I didn't mean to be seen. I wasn't asked to show a card. I walked in +early and chose a place at the back of the church. I trusted to the +crowd to hide me, and it did. Dalziel may have caught a glimpse of me +between women's hats, but he couldn't have been sure if it hadn't been +for that affair afterward. That was bad luck, in a way, although I was +glad, if the accident had to happen, that I could be of use. However, it +didn't affect the question of my being in church. And I must tell you +about that. I didn't go to England for the purpose of making the +experiment with myself. It was another reason which took me there. But +being in England, I—tried it—tried it with success."</p> + +<p>"You mean me to understand that—you <i>didn't care</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Not exactly that! I'm not made of iron or marble. I didn't sit there in +church without a qualm. But the feelings I had were not those I'd +thought I must defend myself against. What I felt was—was no more and +no less than a rage of hatred against that damned—forgive me, +Peggy!—against that——"</p> + +<p>"Damned villain, Sidney Vandyke," I fiercely finished the sentence as he +had meant to end it.</p> + +<p>"I can't pretend that that word wasn't the only one to express my +feelings for him on his wedding day," Eagle admitted. "Not because he'd +taken Diana from me, though. That's the strange part! I found it out +while she was being married to Vandyke, and it was the thing I'd wanted +to find out. In the relief, I ought to have forgiven him everything. But +I didn't forgive. The ruin he'd wrought on my career overtopped +everything else in my mind even at that minute. If some great power +could have put me in Vandyke's place at the altar, and given Diana to me +instead of to him, I would not have taken her—not even with her love. +It seemed to me that what she would call her love wasn't worth the name +of love, after—what had passed. It was only the memory of all I'd felt +for her which hurt just then, so far as she was concerned. But for +him—God, Peggy! to see him at the height of his hopes and ambitions +made me mad to choke his life out! It does me good to confess this to +you now, for you're the only one on earth to whom I'd speak."</p> + +<p>"Yet, when you went out of church, you saved him from danger of death!" +I said thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"That's just one of life's little ironies, isn't it?" Eagle laughed a +low and bitter laugh. "It occurred to me afterward that I'd spoilt a +good melodramatic plot. Hero secretly goes to church to see the woman +who jilted him marry the villain to whom he owes his ruin. Villain is +killed before his eyes on the way to the wedding reception. Big climax!"</p> + +<p>"I think it was more dramatic," said I, "for the hero to save the +villain's life."</p> + +<p>"Too conventional. Obvious sort of thing!" sneered Eagle. "But I <i>am</i> +conventional and obvious, I suppose. I did what I did simply because I +couldn't help it, and I'd probably do it all over again. I'd have +regretted it afterward, perhaps, if Di—if Lady Diana hadn't been in +danger, too. I bear her no grudge."</p> + +<p>"You're very noble," I said.</p> + +<p>"It's not nobility. It's more like callousness. I freed myself from Lady +Diana on her wedding day, or found that I was free. But if you could see +into my soul when I think of Vandyke, you wouldn't call me 'noble.' I +honestly pray for the day when I can remember him with indifference, and +when I can say of what he did to me that good is born of evil. That's +what I'm working for. But the time hasn't come yet. Maybe it will if I +can manage to make myself of real use in this war. I've done nothing yet +except a little scouting."</p> + +<p>"Liége thinks differently, and so will all the world when it knows."</p> + +<p>"I'm not working to reinstate myself in the world's eyes, but in my +own—and most of all to help Belgium. There are things one does just for +the thing itself. I have a fellow-feeling with a country suffering +unjustly. After what I've gone through myself, I seem to owe her +allegiance, as to a friend who understands. The moment this war cloud +began to gather, I thought it would burst over Belgium, and I crossed +the frontier from France with the <i>Eagle</i>, to offer my services. I'm +glad now I failed in the hope that brought me over from America to +England. I wanted to join Shackleton's Polar expedition, but he had no +need of me."</p> + +<p>"So that was why you came to England?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I told you it wasn't for the sole purpose of testing my feelings +at St. George's Church. Being in London——"</p> + +<p>"I understand. But, oh, Eagle! To <i>think</i> you would have gone away for +years without bidding me good-bye!"</p> + +<p>"You don't quite understand yet or you wouldn't say that." His eyes were +wistful. "I was disgraced—put beyond the pale, down and out, unless I +could work my way up again out of the mud. Mentally, I was a sick man. +Now I see clearer. I'm on my way to get well in spite of scars. Life or +death will cure me soon. It doesn't much matter which!"</p> + +<p>It mattered to me—mattered so much that I could not speak.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A few hours later I had said good-bye to all my friends at the Liége +hospital. Again I was a passenger of the <i>Golden Eagle</i>, flying through +darkness as once I had flown through sunshine. Hidden by the night, we +winged our way to Brussels safely and surely, and landed outside the +town after forty minutes in the air—forty minutes which seemed to me +worth as many years.</p> + +<p>We came down in a farm field, safely but not silently, and waked the +farmer, and his three sons not yet of soldier age. They ran out with +rifles prepared for any emergency, but a few words of explanation warmed +their hearts to welcome us.</p> + +<p>I with my little bundle—my only luggage—was taken to the wife and +mother, who exclaimed over me as if I had dropped from another planet, +and gave me a bed for the rest of the night. One of the boys offered to +guard the monoplane while Eagle went off on the bicycle of the other +into town with dispatches from General Leman to the king.</p> + +<p>In the morning "Monsieur Mars" came back with the news that a party of +English ladies were starting for home in the care of a clergyman, and +that he had asked if I might go with them. They had consented to take +me, and I must be ready in twenty minutes. An automobile belonging to an +officer would call for me at the farm. It came promptly, and in it Eagle +and I had our last minutes alone together. We talked cheerfully; but I +knew as well as he knew that the chances were ten to one against our +ever meeting again on earth.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + + +<p>I could not bear to go away to safety in England while Eagle stayed +behind, daily risking his life. But he would not listen to my faltering +hints that I should take up Red Cross work again in Brussels. "If you +want to give me peace of mind, go," he said. So I argued no more, and +smiled my best smile as we clasped hands for the last time. That was in +the thronged railway station, where Eagle came to see me off and help +our pilot parson steer his charges through the crowd. I was glad then +that we had said our real good-bye alone.</p> + +<p>It took us two days to get out of Belgium at that busy time of +mobilization. We changed trains so often that we lost count, and +frequently waited for hours at wayside places in pouring rain or +broiling sun. We hadn't much to eat, but most of what we had we gave to +refugees worse off than ourselves, or to tired, hungry soldiers. It was +a hard, almost a terrible journey; but it gave me two friends, and +carried me one stage farther on the strange road along which Fate was +leading me blindfold.</p> + +<p>The two friends were old maiden ladies, the sort of old maiden ladies +Father and Di would have avoided like a pestilence if they had met them +travelling on the Continent. They were twin sisters, exactly alike in +figure and face. Their name was Splatchley; their looks were as +repellent as their name; and their natures were angelic. They were tall +and thin and sprawling, with corrugated iron foreheads, and grizzled +hair which they crimped over it in little bunches. They had wistful, +wondering brown eyes, like dogs' eyes (if you can imagine dogs wearing +pince-nez!), the sort of noses manufactured by the gross to fit any +face, and large stick-out teeth, which made you feel sure that no man +would ever have kissed the poor ladies at any price. Their clothes and +hats and shoes resembled French caricatures of British tourists, and +they had a habit of talking together in a way to rasp the nerves. But to +me they were adorable. All their lives they had lived in a country +village, fussing happily over church work; but an uncle, who had made +jam and lots of money, died, leaving everything to his nieces. Part of +that "everything" was a large house in Fitzjohn's Avenue, Hampstead, in +which, by the uncle's will, the Miss Splatchleys were obliged to live +for nine months of the year. They had done their duty by it for the +first nine months, and had then, with great excitement and some +trepidation, started with a maid as old as themselves for their first +trip abroad. They had just conscientiously worked, by the aid of +Baedeker, from France into Belgium when the war broke out; and the +heart-rending sights they saw among refugees inspired them with a +brilliant and benevolent scheme. It occurred to them that their big +house could be turned into a home for Belgian refugees, and they +resolved to offer a thousand pounds toward the expense of bringing +penniless people over to England. They could have their largest bedrooms +altered into beehives of cubicles for single women, and stick little +families of mothers and children into the smaller rooms.</p> + +<p>"Parkins will help," they said, as we whiled away dreary hours of +waiting in discussing over and over again their plans. And so saying +they smiled square-toothed, affectionate smiles at the old woman who had +been in their service since they were all three young together.</p> + +<p>"But we must have at least a couple of nurses to help the poor, +distracted mothers with the children, and, of course, there must be a +second cook and another housemaid to make things comfortable," they went +on. "We must try and think of some nice young girl, too, among our +friends, who would give up her time to work with us. We're too old to +make a success alone."</p> + +<p>Then they ran over a list of the girls they knew, in town and country, +but were able to suggest no one whom they both—Jane and Emma—could +agree upon as suitable. While these two angels were busily racking their +brains, I sat with a great idea developing in mine. I suppose I must +have looked intelligent and eager while this was happening, for Miss +Jane was moved to inquire if, by chance, I knew of anybody who would do? +"A girl who is kind, and willing, and bright and strong, and rich enough +to give up all her time for nothing," explained the dear old lady. "It's +a very difficult combination, I know. And, anyhow, your friends wouldn't +care to bother perhaps with such a middle-class institution as ours will +be. There'll be hundreds of charities organized by princesses and +duchesses, smart affairs that will do good on a grander scale than we +can, and maybe get a little fun out of it, too. But you <i>did</i> look as if +you had something on your mind to help us out with; so you must excuse +me if I asked."</p> + +<p>"I know a girl who would like to help you," I said, "if you'd have her. +She's willing and strong, though not at all kind, and perhaps not so +very bright. She isn't rich, either, but poor as the churchiest mouse! +Still, she'll gladly give up all her time if she may stay with you, +because she has no home that she can properly call a home."</p> + +<p>"We should <i>want</i> her to stay with us, of course!" they protested, both +together, as usual. "But, if she isn't kind——"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps she could learn to be kind! She would try hard," I said meekly. +"Her name is Peggy O'Malley."</p> + +<p>They thought I was joking at first; and when I'd made them understand +that I was in dead earnest, they shook their heads and looked dubious, +fearing it "wouldn't work."</p> + +<p>"You see, my dear," Miss Emma explained, volubly assisted by Miss Jane, +"you are the only earl's daughter, or indeed <i>any</i> member of the +aristocracy—higher than a knight's family—we have ever met +socially—if you can speak of this as 'socially'—being actually <i>thrown +together</i>, in all senses of the word, whenever they're in too great a +hurry to couple our train nicely, or when we fall out in a heap at some +wayside place like this. We don't flatter ourselves that you'd be likely +to select us for acquaintances if you were able to <i>choose</i> at this +time; and you mightn't be pleased with our ways at home. We have kippers +for breakfast sometimes, and always cold supper Sunday nights."</p> + +<p>I assured them passionately that if Providence had made them both +expressly for my taste, we couldn't be better suited to each other. As +for being an "earl's daughter," said I, there was nothing in that except +extra charges from dressmakers and hotels, and having things you had +never done attributed to you in paragraphs of penny weeklies. Then I +drew on all my funds of pathos, describing myself as unwanted and +unloved. This did the trick! The twin angels took me to their hearts and +promised me a place in their home and scheme. By the time we got on +board the boat they had dropped my handle and were calling me "Peggy +dear."</p> + +<p>In London a crowd had come to the station expressly to welcome and cheer +us returning wanderers. And London was not the same London we had left a +few weeks ago. It was a city under a spell, a London of some strange +dream, all the stranger because the only change was in the people. +Later, it changed again, becoming almost gay and lively in outer +appearance, but at this time the balance was not adjusted.</p> + +<p>Soldiers and recruits were marching through the streets, which but for +them and those who dazedly watched them were almost empty. Instead of +the mad herds of motor omnibuses, which had gone charging up and down in +"old days," a few moved sedately, with here an ancient horse bus +unearthed from oblivion. Of the lively streams of taxis, blue and green +and black and gray, the source seemed suddenly more than half to have +dried up. Some melancholy four-wheelers and hansoms had made bold to +steal out, and were finding customers. Little boys were playing soldiers +in the middle of Pall Mall, no longer a maelstrom. There was no din of +traffic to drown the frog-like music of their sixpenny drums and penny +trumpets. Looking into the doorways of the biggest shops one saw nobody +but the attendants, waiting to serve customers who were not there and +would not come. Outside the little shops the proprietors were frankly +standing, to wonder sadly what had happened to them and to London, and +what worse thing was likely to happen next? They talked in low voices to +each other, trying to smile or read the latest war edition of some +newspaper.</p> + +<p>Most of the people who were in the streets seemed to have come there to +look at the soldiers or to read the papers, which they did regardless of +bumping into all the others who were doing the same thing. Nobody +appeared to think of buying anything, though the shopkeepers had already +pathetically changed the aspect of their windows to suit altered +circumstances. Instead of displaying lovely dresses, they showed rolls +of khaki cloth, or linen, cotton, or flannel for shirts, and gray army +blankets. Shoemakers had bundled away their attractive paste-buckled +slippers, and put forward conspicuously thick-soled brown boots to which +they drew the attention of officers and soldiers. Chemists had hung +printed cards, advising the public to "Keep up Their Strength in War +Time" by taking So and So's Tonic Wine. But no one cared. No one bought. +There was a dazed look on most of the faces. If those who read +newspapers cannoned into each other, instead of glaring or swearing they +smiled mildly, wistfully, and perhaps fell into conversation about the +war. One felt able to guess what all the millions in London and even in +all England and Europe were talking about and thinking about at any +given moment; yet it was strange to us who had come from the hot red +heart of the war to see no other sign of it except this dreamlike +silence which hid the pain of parting from those loved best.</p> + +<p>Nobody came to meet me at the station, because, not knowing when I +should succeed in arriving, I had not tried to wire; nor would a message +have been likely to reach its destination if I had. The Miss Splatchleys +took me home with them, as if I had been an adopted child; and it was +from the appropriate address of "The Haven" that I telegraphed Father +and Diana: "Reached London safely with friends who have asked me to +visit them. Writing explanations."</p> + +<p>Miss Jane and Miss Emma prophesied that "his lordship" would put down +his foot on our plans, but they did not know him. I did. Having received +my promised explanations, he was more genial on paper than he often took +the trouble to be for "only Peggy."</p> + +<p>He wrote from Di's new house in Park Lane, a letter eminently fitted to +be read aloud, and to impress with his graciousness the middle classes +personified by estimable if vulgar females labelled Splatchley. He had, +it seemed, made inquiries about these ladies, and was in receipt of +quite satisfactory references. I had his permission to visit them until +further notice, and help in their good work, which he thoroughly +approved in these early trying days when everybody was organizing +something. Also, he was prepared to make me a small weekly allowance for +personal expenses and charities. He enclosed a cheque for the first +week. It was for two guineas.</p> + +<p>Kitty added a postscript with a good many italics. She was <i>so</i> glad +that I was safe after that terrible time when she and dear Ballyconal +had been <i>so</i> worried about me, and would have been even <i>more</i> anxious +if they had had any time to think of themselves. Of course, in the +circumstances, she could <i>quite</i> understand that it would be awkward for +me to accept Major Vandyke's hospitality, so perhaps things were best as +they were, especially as I would be working for the good cause. But I +<i>must</i> come and see them. Surely I could do that? And it would make talk +if I did not. She was sure I would be interested in the sewing guild +which Di had started. Everybody was starting a guild of some sort, but +this was a very special one, consisting of the most <i>top-wave swells</i>. +Not a woman on the list of workers whose name you couldn't find in Burke +and Debrett!</p> + +<p>Diana also wrote, not at all hurt that I hadn't accepted her invitation. +Indeed, she seemed to have forgotten the episode, quite taking it for +granted that I was disposed of with the Miss Splatchleys for some time +to come. "Kitty and I will motor out to see you the first day we have a +chance," she said, "if we can <i>find</i> Fitzjohn's Avenue. I never heard of +it. But then, one doesn't hear of streets in Hampstead, I suppose, +except in war, or crises like that, when we're all as democratic as +saints. You might ask your friends for a subscription to buy shirt +material for us to make up. I can get more workers than I need, but very +little money, and we need a lot, especially as some of us have had no +experience in sewing and we do waste rather a lot of material getting +things wrong at first! Still, we are persevering, and you must come and +see us at work cutting out and putting together garments for the wounded +every afternoon in my drawing-room, where the decorations are all +finished and immensely admired. We have tea, and I've engaged a palmist, +who tells us what will happen to our friends at the front and how the +war will end. She encourages us and keeps us up. Later we hope to get +convalescent officers to tell us their experiences while we sew. Could +you do any knitting for us? I remember you learnt from your nurse when +you were a small child. I thought it so irritating of you, but it might +come in useful now, if you remember the stitch. Some of us can crochet, +but it seems that won't do for socks. A good many use worsted of a +pretty colour which doesn't clash with their frocks; but as for me, I've +thrown aside <i>all</i> vanity. Don't forget to ask the Miss Splatchleys for +a cheque, as Bally says they're rich; and I do hope you haven't jilted +poor Tony. He has gone, as of course you have heard, and the Dalziels +don't know <i>anything</i>—I mean about you and T——I see them every day. +Milly spoiled two shirts this afternoon, but her mother bought us some +beautiful readymade ones instead, with tucked fronts."</p> + +<p>Work was so real and so pressing with us at "The Haven" that I laughed +at the picture of Diana's guild with its list of helpers from Debrett, +its palmist, and its tea. Miss Jane and Miss Emma, however, said that it +was my duty to go and see my family, as I was younger than they were, +and it was not to be expected that they could get to me. The desired +cheque I hadn't meant to mention, but in reading the funny part of the +letter aloud one of Di's references to it fell out inadvertently, and +the generous creatures caught it up. They were prepared to spend many +hundreds of pounds in turning "The Haven" into a refuge, and in +supporting the homeless Belgian women and children to whom they offered +hospitality, but they couldn't allow my sister to ask in vain. I was +given twenty guineas for the guild and told that I ought to take the +cheque myself, for I would discover that "it was the busiest people who +could always find time."</p> + +<p>We were busy from six-thirty in the morning till ten-thirty at night, +with indigestibly short intervals snatched for meals; but, as the two +angels said, there was always time to do one more thing. On that +principle I contrived to go to Diana's on one of her "afternoons," armed +with the Splatchley cheque and my own knitting, strongly resolved not to +drink any of Sidney Vandyke's tea or eat one of his horrid éclairs.</p> + +<p>I was ushered into the house by two powdered footmen far too big for it. +It is a small house for Park Lane, all up and down stairs; but the +drawing-room is of good size; and when a bishop-like butler published my +name at the door, I saw that the room was full of women, young, old, and +middle-aged, seated at sewing-machines, or standing at long tables +cutting out strange-looking shapes from hideous materials.</p> + +<p>There were some quaint sights to be seen at "The Haven," rooms being +partitioned off into cubicles; others being turned into dormitories, +nurseries, or refectories for the refugees, who had already begun to +arrive, before things were half ready to receive them. But Diana's smart +new drawing-room in Park Lane presented a far more extraordinary study +in contrasts than anything the middle-class "Haven" could show.</p> + +<p>Improbable Louis-Seize furniture was pushed back against white and gold +and silk-panelled walls. Gilt-legged tables and chairs were piled with +rolls of bleached and unbleached cotton, feverishly pink flannelette, +and scarlet flannel; or littered with cut-out parts of garments, some of +which (judging from the confusion and clamour about them) had got badly +mixed. On the garland-embroidered curtains of primrose yellow silk were +pinned placards announcing patriotic meetings of women who wished to +assist or form recruiting agencies; or appeals from the Red Cross +Society or the Prince of Wales' Fund. Rugs had been rolled up, and the +polished parquet floor was strewn with shirt buttons, reels of cotton, +and torn papers of pins. Scissors hid among scraps of waste material, +and on request were searched for by very young girls whose apparent +business was to supply the sewing-machines with cut-out and basted-up +garments, to fold and stack the finished things according to kind, and +to knit wildly at intervals on immense stockings with singularly long +feet which clearly could suit no one but Santa Claus.</p> + +<p>As, according to my stepmother, all the ladies of the guild were +"top-wave swells," I'd expected to find the fair brigade of volunteers +exquisitely dressed in the latest Paris fashions of "before the war." +But no! They had invented a still later fashion of their own. It was to +be frumpish. The smart thing for the women of Great Britain was to have +their hair done plainly, with an angelic effect of putting patriotism +before vanity, and having no time to spend on self. No money, either, to +judge from their frocks! Where they had raked up their old clothes, I +can't imagine. There were skirts and blouses in that transformed +drawing-room in which, a few weeks ago, their wearers would not have +gone out to burn down a church or to be dragged to prison. Still, I must +say that most of the wearers contrived to look very distinguished, even +those at the sewing-machines, who had got tousled as children do over +unaccustomed schoolroom tasks. No one had on any jewellery except Kitty, +Mrs. Dalziel, and Milly, and one or two others who were also evidently +Americans not required to sacrifice everything for Great Britain's sake. +They, with their pretty dresses, their rings and earrings and strings of +large, glistening pearls, were like gay flowers in a kitchen garden.</p> + +<p>Kitty, fat and fashionable, and Di, slim and elaborately frumpish, came +to meet me with pajama legs in their hands. They didn't trouble to take +off their thimbles, and I thought they seemed far from being ashamed of +the needle pricks on their fingers.</p> + +<p>A few of the girls I knew already, and some of the older women. All had +heard from Di or from the Dalziels that I had been doing a little +amateur work as a nurse in Belgium, but no one—not even Di +herself—expressed curiosity as to details. They had so much to think of +that interested them more; and I was thankful for the self-absorption of +Kitty and Di which saved me from awkward questions as to how I had +contrived to get out of Liége. It was simply taken for granted by my +family that, according to my own written account, I had made the journey +home with thoroughly reputable refugees. I felt sure that Tony had not +given his mother and sister any indiscreet information about "Monsieur +Mars." Neither did he appear to have told them that our engagement was +definitely broken off. Their unsuspecting friendliness made me feel +guilty, and I decided that I ought sooner or later to let them know the +truth.</p> + +<p>That day at Di's, however, they gave me no chance to speak, even if I'd +had strength of mind to snatch it. Tony was safely on his way to +America, travelling in the steerage, having given up his cabin to as +many ladies as it could hold. He was admiringly mentioned, and then +dismissed as a subject of conversation in favour of others more exciting +to his family and closer at hand. Milly, while sewing spasmodically on a +weirdly shaped shirt which could only be got on or off by a weirdly +shaped man, talked about Stefan and produced a letter from him, which +she cherished inside her blouse. He had been wounded, seriously though +not dangerously, in Poland, and invalided home. It was not thought that +he would be able to do any more fighting, and so when he was strong +enough, he hoped to try and reach England in order that they might be +married at once, if Milly would not mind taking an invalid for a +husband. Apparently Milly did not mind in what condition she took her +count provided she was sure of getting him. She was looking forward, if +all went well, to becoming a Russian countess within a few weeks, for +Stefan expected to arrive in a ship from Archangel along a sea route +protected by the British navy. She had so little fear of anything going +wrong that she was "encouraging dressmakers" by starting her trousseau, +and had begun to study the Russian language as a surprise for her +fiancé. Mrs. Dalziel talked about Stefan, too, and how she would help +nurse him back to health in a suite at the Savoy, when he and Milly were +married. Meanwhile, mother and daughter were giving themselves up to +good works, it seemed, whenever they had a minute to spare from their +own affairs. Milly went three times a week to the Russian Embassy to sew +for the Russians, and came twice a week to Diana's guild. Mrs. Dalziel +had joined two committees got up by stranded Americans at the Savoy: one +to supply money for moneyless millionaires, and the other to find +clothes for clotheless millionairesses.</p> + +<p>Whenever one of Diana's workers collapsed with fatigue, she was given +tea or something to eat, and allowed an interval's repose in Di's +boudoir, which had become the temporary consulting-room of Madame +Mesmerre. The tame clairvoyant was expressly forbidden to foretell +anything depressing; if she could not get visions of husbands, sons, and +lovers coming safely home, it was distinctly understood with Diana (who +paid by the afternoon) that she mustn't have any visions at all. This +arrangement, however, was a family secret, which Kitty betrayed to me in +confidence. Every one said that Madame Mesmerre was wonderful, but I +didn't consult her.</p> + +<p>I don't understand much about sewing or other really useful things of +that sort, but I've picked up enough (thanks to helping my poor friends +at Ballyconal) to know that men's shirts ought to have armholes bigger +than those for little boys, and that they shouldn't be as short as bibs, +or as long as surplices. Even this small amount of knowledge made me +unexpectedly useful at the guild, where every member seemed to have her +own original conception of what shape a shirt ought to be, and what it +should be made of. Even my brief apprenticeship with the Miss +Splatchleys, to whom most kinds of domestic work was as easy as +breathing, made these fashionable women's desperate efforts at doing +good seem pathetic. I agreed to return whenever I could, but no one +would promise to come and see the "Haven Home for Belgian Refugees." +They were all too busy working, by day; and at night it was a <i>duty</i> to +go to a theatre or music hall, because the performance was given for the +benefit of some fund, or else somebody sang a patriotic song to +encourage recruiting.</p> + +<p>We grew busier and busier at "The Haven" as the days went by. Refugees +poured in. There was hardly time to be sad or anxious in the daytime; +but at night always, always, my brain ceased to feel like a brain, and +became a battlefield, as before in Belgium. The horror and anguish of +war poured into my soul as water pours into a leaking ship. The most +dreadful thoughts could be warded off in the busy hours of the day; but +in the night stillness they found me without defence, and I surrendered.</p> + +<p>Those were the hours when it seemed to me impossible that any of the men +I knew, and above all, Eagle March, could ever escape from the slaughter +alive. The Miss Splatchleys said that I looked pale and thin, with blue +shadows under my eyes, and begged me not to work so hard. But I could +have worked twice as hard without realizing that I was tired, if some +one who knew the future, as no crystal-gazer can know it, had told me +that Eagle would come out of the war unharmed.</p> + +<p>Even when there was scarcely time for a decent meal, there was time to +read the war news. All night long I existed for the moment in the +morning when the two papers which the Miss Splatchleys took in should +arrive, and I could bolt the big headlines and secretly search for the +name of "Monsieur Mars." Then, whether I found it or not, the same +suspense had to be lived through till the afternoon, when the evening +editions came out; and after that again until the hour for the "Last War +Extra."</p> + +<p>Often the name of Mars started up to my eyes from the closely printed +columns and set my heart beating and my blood flying to my head. No one +seemed to have identified him as Captain March, not even the British or +American war correspondents who occasionally reported his exploits. Or +if they did, they respected his wish to keep it secret.</p> + +<p>"Mars, the Belgian Air Scout," he was generally called, for few +journalists appeared to know that he was a foreigner who had offered his +services to the brave little country. Wonderful, almost miraculous, +feats were attributed to him. Sometimes they were denied; but usually +they proved to be true.</p> + +<p>One morning I read that he had made a daring flight of two hundred miles +over German territory, had dropped bombs on an ammunition train, had +been fired on, and returned to his base "somewhere in Flanders" with the +wings of his machine riddled by ninety-eight bullets. Again he and Sorel +(who had been at Liége when we were there) went reconnoitring over the +great German fortress of Metz, hoping to destroy the Zeppelin sheds. +Quickly they were detected, although nearly three thousand feet above +the forts. Up came shots from high-angle guns, spattering around them +like spray from a fountain; but they persevered, making for the +direction of the drill ground. Then suddenly Mars' motor ceased to work. +It seemed that all was over for him, and the task left for Sorel to +finish alone. But Mars, said the papers, resolved not to give his life +away for nothing. Sweeping down in a bold volplane he launched his bomb, +and had abandoned himself for lost when suddenly the motor started +again; whereupon he darted off defiantly, following Simon Sorel, who had +thrown his bomb also, and escaped.</p> + +<p>If this had been all, I might have borne it somehow in my pride of +Eagle. But there was always something more. I read of his monoplane +being struck by a fragment of bursting shell over the enemy's lines, and +his volplaning with a disabled engine, to drop into safety and a French +stone quarry with important information to give concerning the +disposition of German forces. When Paris was threatened and almost +despairing, Mars flew over the sad city letting fall leaflets with the +inspiring message, "Prenez courage, tout va bien." Over Brussels also he +maneuvered, dropping his leaflets, and while angry German soldiers took +aim at him and his monoplane he "looped the loop" far above their noses. +His cool remark after this exploit was said to have been: "These Germans +do shoot badly!" He had more than one duel in the air with hostile war +planes, having vowed with the Belgian airmen to ram all enemy aircraft +whenever possible. There was a fearsome account to read, one morning, of +his bringing down an aeroplane which had dropped bombs on the heads of +French troops, helping out the wounded aviator and military observer, +and then setting fire to their machine. In this adventure the <i>Golden +Eagle</i> was injured, and another monoplane was lent the airman while his +own was being put to rights. The "Elusive Mars," newspapers began to +name him, because in the face of almost certain destruction he +invariably escaped in the nick of time and within an inch of his life. +At last, however, one October day of good news for the Allies, there was +bad news for me. They had put it in big headlines on the most important +page:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Mars, the Belgian Airman, Caught at Last. While Reconnoitring His +Machine is Disabled, and Falls in Enemy's Lines. He is Believed to +be Wounded, and is Certainly a Prisoner."</p></div> + +<p>I had no heart to rejoice in the tidings which made the rest of my world +happy that day. And for many days afterward—days each one of which +seemed a lifetime of suspense—there was no other news of Eagle March. I +felt as if the future were a very long, dim corridor, in whose chill +twilight I groped, my eyes straining toward the distance.</p> + +<p>So a month dragged itself away, and then came news at last.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + + +<p>"Escape of the gallant Mars," were the words that seized my eyes as I +opened the front door of "The Haven" to snatch the morning papers. Rain +was pouring down, but I halted in the porch to read, oblivious of the +rivulet that streamed over my hair. "Mars, the elusive" had been true to +his name once more. It was an almost miraculous story, or would have +seemed so in less stirring times than these, which are teaching us that +brave men can do anything they set their minds to do. Mars, with a few +English prisoners, and some Russians from General Rennenkampf's force +captured in East Prussia, had been sent to work in the fields outside a +little German town in Alsace. Several of these, among them Mars, had +been wounded and in hospital together, but were turned out as cured the +moment they were strong enough to wield a scythe. Led by Mars, a young +Russian officer and a private in a Highland regiment had escaped from +the gang of prisoners by crawling for a long distance through tall ranks +of grain. They had hidden themselves among the stacks, and at night had +continued their progress in the direction—they hoped—of the French +frontier. Next morning they were given shelter by a farmer's wife whose +sympathies were with France. She provided them with disguises, but they +ventured to move only at night. At the end of four nights' travel they +came upon French soldiers advancing into Alsace, and made themselves +known, but not until they had been fired on as spies. Mars and the +Russian had both been wounded, and were in a French field hospital at +the time the newspaper account of their adventures went to press. +Neither were badly hurt, but they were extremely weak from lack of food +and loss of blood, to say nothing of old wounds scarcely healed when +they had started on their dash for freedom. The Russian officer (said to +be a nephew of Prince Sanzanow, Russia's ambassador to England) +considered that he owed his life to the aviator; and it was believed +that when the two were able to move they would be brought to a private +convalescent home in London, financed by the Russian ambassadress and +other great ladies.</p> + +<p>I was so happy for the rest of the day that, as I could tell no one what +was in my heart, I sang to myself, under my breath, "It's a long, long +way to Tipperary." Eagle was alive and safe after all my black fears, +and I felt sure that if he came to England I should meet him. He could +not say now that he had done nothing "worth while." I thought, too, that +he would see the time had come at last to let the world know that +"Monsieur Mars" and Captain Eagleston March were one. I longed for the +day of revelation. It seemed to me that it would be a great day. I could +hardly wait for it to arrive; but a fortnight passed and the papers had +no more to say of "Mars, the elusive."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the world had been busily making history for its future +generations, and momentous things had been happening to almost every one +I knew, except myself and my own immediate circle. Since I had first met +Milly at Diana's many weeks ago, and had been shown the letter from +Stefan, he had actually arrived in England from Archangel, whence gossip +said two hundred and fifty thousand other Russians had been mysteriously +shipped to north Britain. Alas for romance! those Russian hordes were +imaginary, but there was no doubt that Milly Dalziel's Russian had +appeared in flesh and blood—though with only enough of either to keep +body and soul together. They had been married a few days after Count +Stefan Stefanovitch had arrived—a picturesque wedding performed with +all formalities by a Russian priest, while the bridegroom lay propped up +in bed, in that suite at the Savoy of which Mrs. Dalziel had talked, no +guests present except the bride's mother and father (Tony Senior having +obediently dashed across the ocean) and the Russian ambassador with his +wife.</p> + +<p>At the time I was not unselfish enough to interest myself profoundly in +Milly's marriage, for my mind was filled with thoughts of Eagle March, +and I could not forget how Milly, snubbed by him for her own good, had +let her supposed love for Eagle turn into bitter spite. I didn't believe +that a girl who had so lately cared for a man like Eagle March could +really have been caught in a rebound of heart by Stefan Stefanovitch. I +had seen Stefan no more than once or twice, when he was military attaché +at the Russian Embassy, but that was often enough for me to know some of +his limitations. In looks and manner he compared poorly with Eagle, to +my mind. I was inclined to think that without his counthood Milly would +have had no use for him, or he for her without her money. This spoilt +the romance of the affair in my eyes, and I had no premonition of what +Milly's Russian relationships were soon to mean for me.</p> + +<p>When she had been married a little more than a fortnight and before any +further news had come out concerning the "Elusive Mars" and his +companion, I was told one day by Miss Jane that I was called for at the +telephone. I left a roomful of baby Belgians, for whom I was playing +nursemaid, to run to the 'phone, and was stabbed with disappointment to +hear Diana's voice. You see, every rap of the postman, every b-b-bur-r-r +of the telephone bell, <i>might</i> mean the longed-for message from Eagle +which always I hoped for, even expected!</p> + +<p>"Hello, Peggy!" said Di. "I've got a piece of good news for you."</p> + +<p>My heart gave a silly leap and then sat down again; because she would be +the last person in the world to give me news of Eagle March.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" I asked, without interest.</p> + +<p>"Princess Sanzanow hasn't forgotten you, and sends you a special +message."</p> + +<p>(Princess Sanzanow is the wife of the Russian ambassador.)</p> + +<p>"She's giving quite an informal dinner," Di went on, "getting it up +almost on the spur of the moment, because the doctor says that Stefan is +well enough to go out, and the affair is really for him and Milly. I +don't think there'll be many there except ourselves, for the princess is +asking every one verbally. That's why she sends you a message instead of +a card. It is to say that she has always admired 'la petite Lady Peggy,' +and now more than ever. I happened to tell her about your Liége +experience, and your work for the Belgians. She particularly wants me to +bring you to dinner with her and the prince to-morrow night. You'll +come, of course?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know if I can!" I hesitated. "There's so much to do here, +and, anyhow, I haven't a frock. Miss Jane and Miss Emma bought me lots +of nice things when they bought their own, for, of course, they lost +their luggage, too. But we never so much as thought of evening dresses. +I'd forgotten their existence!"</p> + +<p>"But you <i>must</i> go," Di persisted. "The trunk you stored at Norfolk +Street for Ballyconal has been brought here with Father's and Kitty's +things. Celestine can take the measurements of some frock or other +you've packed away there, and I'll go out and choose a pretty model +gown, ready to wear, for a present to you. Shoes and gloves you can get +yourself, I suppose? If you'll come here early to dress, Celestine can +take tucks and change hooks in next to no time, if necessary. I accepted +for you; and it will be horribly rude to the Princess if you refuse now, +for no reason at all."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I could have found or invented a reason, if I hadn't remembered in a +sudden flash that Monsieur Mars' companion in flight was supposed to be +a nephew of Prince Sanzanow. If I went to the Embassy I might hear news. +I was willing to do almost anything for that hope, even to dressing at +Sidney Vandyke's house, and continuing the armed truce in his automobile +to our destination. But I drew the line at accepting a frock bought with +his money.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, I'd forgotten the trunk I packed up with winter things for +Ballyconal," I answered. "There's that white chiffon velvet gown, made +over from yours, which I wore in New York last spring before the weather +turned hot. Do you remember? It will do beautifully for to-morrow night. +I'm sure it's as good as ever, so you needn't buy me anything; many +thanks. And I'm so glad you spoke of the trunk. I'll have it brought up +here afterward. It's small and won't take up much room. There are lots +of things in it I can spare for our Belgian women."</p> + +<p>"Very well, as you like," said Di. "That white velvet was quite nice, +and will be all right if it is not full of beggar's creases. You can +have the little trunk put on the luggage carrier of the car to-morrow +night when we send you back to Fitzjohn's Avenue. It will save the +trouble of getting Carter Paterson or some one else to call here for it. +And that reminds me: one of the things I wanted to say to you was this: +you were asking Bally if he had any old clothes to spare you for your +Belgian women's husbands. Well, Kitty has found a few, but there are a +whole heap of Sidney's things you can have if you want them. Masses of +luggage have just arrived from America: boxes of books and rugs, and +trunks full of clothing packed up and sent after him by his +soldier-servant when Sid definitely decided to resign and live over +here. All the clothes are a bit out of date now, or Sidney thinks so, +and there are some army things he never wants to see any more. Anyhow, +he has collected quantities of new clothes, and if you would like the +American things for your men protégés, you're welcome to them."</p> + +<p>It went against the grain with me to accept even this favour from the +enemy; but I reflected hastily that I had no right to refuse what would +do good to others. After all, it was nothing to me, and Sidney could not +help realizing that, if he heard of the transaction. I thanked Di again, +and said I should be glad of anything she had to give, as the +destitution among the men of the Belgian refugees was as pitiful as +among the women. "We shall be thankful to get the collection out of the +house," answered Diana. "Sid's man unpacked the boxes and, of course, +was free to choose what he wanted for himself, but he's such a little +monkey, none of the clothes would fit him. I remembered you and your +poor people, which I <i>do</i> think was rather sweet of me, as I have such +crowds of things to do every moment; so I told Sykes to spread the lot +out in that empty room we haven't furnished yet, directly over mine. I +mean to have it turned into a kind of 'den' for Sid, so the sooner we +can sweep away the boxes and mess generally, the better. Suppose you +look in after the dinner at the Embassy to-morrow night, and pick out +what you fancy. Sykes can dump everything into an empty trunk for you, +and it can be put with yours on the back of the Grayles-Grice for you to +cart off to Hampstead."</p> + +<p>I knew that if I wished to make sure of the booty, I had better take Di +at her word, for as likely as not she would change her mind in a day or +two, and offer the things to somebody else. I replied that I thought her +plan a very good one, and I would carry it out exactly as she proposed.</p> + +<p>The next evening I went early to Park Lane, in order to unearth the +white velvet frock from the old trunk packed for Ireland, and dress +myself in it when it was found. Talking to Kitty and Di delayed me for a +few minutes, however, so that I had no time to waste when I ran up to +the shuttered room where my little trunk, as well as Sidney's things +from America, were in temporary storage. No one could be spared to help +me, as Di's maid and Kitty's had already begun to lay out their +mistresses' things for dinner. But I have been used all my life to +looking after myself. I didn't in the least mind grubbing on my knees to +unlock the box, finding the dress I wanted, and unwrapping it from +layers of tissue paper. As I stood up to shake the frock, and examine +anxiously as to its condition by the light of the electric lamp, which I +had switched on for the purpose, I saw many suits of Sidney Vandyke's +clothes neatly folded by Sykes, his valet, and piled on tables and +boxes.</p> + +<p>It was too late then to look at the things before dressing, but I cast +an appraising glance in their direction, and my eyes lit upon what +seemed to be a khaki uniform, bundled ignominiously between a suit of +evening clothes and a crimson dressing-gown.</p> + +<p>"Fancy his not having sentiment enough to keep his army things!" I +thought scornfully. "But, of course, he was never a real soldier at +heart, or he wouldn't have resigned, at his age, to be lazy and please +Diana! How different from——" But I wouldn't let myself even <i>think</i> +Eagle's name in that connection.</p> + +<p>Fortunately I had packed away the white chiffon velvet with unusual care +(for me), and there were few creases in the soft folds which wouldn't +disappear eventually when I had put the frock on. As I dressed in a far +corner of Di's room (well out of her way and that of her maid, +Celestine, and managing my toilet operations as best I could with a +small hand glass) my thoughts would fly back to that old khaki uniform +upstairs. I wondered if it were one Sidney had worn in camp in Texas +days when his jealous rage was piling up against Eagle. It seemed to me +that there must be an evil influence hanging about those clothes of his; +and I was still thinking this when Major Vandyke, Father, Diana, and +Kitty and I were bunched together, a rather silent party, in Di's big, +roomy town car, spinning from Park Lane to the Russian Embassy with +Kitchener's "night lights" fanning long white arms across the sky of +unnaturally darkened London.</p> + +<p>As it was supposed to be a small, informal dinner, we arrived promptly +on the hour; and when Princess Sanzanow—a beautiful, tall woman, with +the mysterious, sad eyes of the Slav people—had greeted us, she said +that four of her guests had still to arrive: Count and Countess +Stefanovitch, and two others whose presence was to be the surprise of +the evening. "I will tell you only <i>this</i>," she laughed, in her pretty +English, when Di pretended to be wildly curious; "like Stefan they have +both come back from the front, and they are the most exciting heroes! I +won't dream of spoiling my great <i>coup</i> by letting you guess their names +until they are announced; but this you shall know, dear Lady Diana: my +two 'surprises' are to have the honour of taking you and our bride in to +dinner. All the other women will be envying you both."</p> + +<p>Di was pleased and interested. She realized that our hostess meant to +pay her, as well as Milly, a great compliment; for those "other women" +of whom the princess spoke were important socially, and charming in +themselves. What she had called a "small, informal dinner" would be made +up of twenty-two guests; and the informality would consist in the +innovation of having small tables.</p> + +<p>The princess introduced me to a very young youth, her son, who had been +away at Eton when I had visited at the embassy before. He began at once +to air his grievance of lacking a year of the age when a man can be +allowed to serve his country; and I was sympathizing with him because he +was not fighting when Milly and her husband were announced. She was +looking prettier than I had ever seen her, with quite new airs and +graces of a married woman and a countess; and Stefan, though extremely +plain of face and insignificant of figure, was interesting because of +his experiences, his limp, and his right arm in a black silk sling.</p> + +<p>Milly seemed to think that she and her husband were the guests of the +evening and apologized in a high voice for being late, but the princess +reassured her.</p> + +<p>"We have still two more to come. Our two surprises," and she was going +on to excite Milly's curiosity as she had Diana's, when the magnificent +Russian butler, who looked as if he had stepped from some medieval +picture, cried aloud two names:</p> + +<p>"Major Baron Skobeleff; Captain March."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + + +<p>My blood so flew to my head that for a second or two I was giddy, and +saw nothing through the rain of sparks which hung like a veil before my +eyes. But in an instant I came to myself, wrenched back to a clear +vision of things by sheer necessity to act. Somebody would have to do +something, if the situation were not to ruin the princess's whole +evening; and after all he had suffered, whatever happened, Eagle March +must be saved from the pain of public humiliation. Yet who was to do +anything? Who was to save him?</p> + +<p>Only a few persons knew that to arrange a meeting between Sidney +Vandyke, Diana, Milly, and Captain Eagleston March, was about as tactful +as to invite the King of Belgium to dine with the German Kaiser. Only a +few persons knew, and those most concerned were the very ones who would +do least to shield Eagle's feelings.</p> + +<p>The princess began gayly to explain that here was her great "surprise" +at last: the two heroes of whose classic escape the whole world had +heard. The "Elusive Mars," as he had been called, was in reality Captain +March, who had refused to make use any longer of his <i>nom de guerre</i>. +But in the midst of explanations, as she would gently have led Eagle +toward Diana (oh, horror! she had evidently planned to send these two in +to dinner together!), suddenly she realized that some freezing spell had +turned her principal guests to figures of ice.</p> + +<p>Eagle, struck with deadly pallor under the brown mask sun and wind had +given him, stiffened involuntarily and held back. Sidney had gone +crimson, and then yellow-white; Diana—with a shocked face drained of +colour—looked ready to faint; while Milly, in all her new pride of +importance, flung up her head and stared insultingly. This +transformation had taken place with the announcement of the officers' +names; and it took Prince and Princess Sanzanow no longer than is needed +in the counting one—two—three to notice it. Living all their lives in +an atmosphere of diplomacy as they did, even their great tact and +presence of mind failed for a few dismal seconds to cope with the +emergency, it being so utterly unforeseen, and such a blow to them that +their cherished "surprise" should be not only a dead failure but a +brutal catastrophe.</p> + +<p>They must have realized in a flash that these people whom they had +brought together were bitter enemies. They must, in a rush of emotion, +have blamed themselves and each other for not finding out in time what +perhaps they might have suspected or known without telling had they not +been foreigners and comparative strangers in London society. As a matter +of fact, they could not have known unless they had catechized Americans, +which it would never have occurred to them to do; but no doubt the +thought came to their minds, and they must have cursed their +"inspiration" for that "pleasant surprise."</p> + +<p>I saw Princess Sanzanow's eyes appeal in despair to her husband. But the +situation was too complicated even for him to solve in a second, for the +worst was yet to come. Thinking to compliment Di, and honour the man who +had brought their nephew out of captivity, they had arranged that +Captain March should take Lady Diana Vandyke in to dinner. The +expression on her face and the stiffening of his muscles had shown this +plan to be impossible, to say nothing of Major Vandyke's mad-bull glare. +Now, at an instant's warning, there would have to be a general post, and +changing of partners; and the most desperate difficulty of all must have +lain in the princess's complete ignorance of the facts. She stood there +among the company she had invited to meet each other as if blindfolded, +not knowing which ones, or how many, were affected by the vendetta.</p> + +<p>I saw and divined this between two heartbeats, for I was one of those +who knew the undercurrents hidden from strangers; and in such moments +one thinks quickly. Of all the guests, I was the least important, and +the youngest except the Sanzanow boy; yet I felt that I was the only +person present who could or would act in time. I made up my mind to risk +seeming rude or shockingly bold. There was just one thing I could think +of to do, and I did it.</p> + +<p>Into the midst of that brief, freezing pause, I plunged. Almost running +forward, I held out both hands to Eagle. "Oh, dear Princess!" I gasped. +"We are the best and oldest friends, Captain March and I. We've known +each other since—since I was a child; and we met in Belgium when he was +'Monsieur Mars.'"</p> + +<p>Eagle grasped my hands so tightly that I should have had to cry out if I +had worn rings, and Princess Sanzanow gave me such a look of touching +gratitude that I was sure I had been lucky enough to do the right thing. +"Oh, I am so glad!" she breathed. "Then, if you are great friends, you +will want to go in to dinner together, and I must let you do so."</p> + +<p>She had the air of having just been saved from drowning; and I was the +straw which had thrust itself out in the nick of time for her to catch. +Having accomplished my mission as a straw, I gave my attention wholly to +Eagle, but though I tried not to notice, I was dimly conscious, all the +same, of what was going on around me. I saw Major Skobeleff, the young +Russian officer whose escape Eagle had aided—Prince Sanzanow's +nephew—talking to Milly; and noticed that Stefan Stefanovitch had been +given to Di as a substitute for Captain March. Somehow or other the +princess juggled her guests about so that three minutes after the crash, +when dinner was announced, all could "set to partners" without +confusion. There was a French duchess—a refugee from Paris—present, +whom the prince had to take in, and the princess had the duke. That +arrangement couldn't be upset; and the only quite ridiculous effect of +the whirlwind was to give young Prince Paul to a widow old enough to be +his grandmother.</p> + +<p>I had rushed into talk with Eagle before we stopped shaking hands; but +he had not been able to answer the call of conventionality so soon; and +it was not till after we were seated at table that he could control +himself to speak. On his other side was Prince Paul's elderly dinner +companion. On my other side was the new military attaché who had taken +the count's place in the Embassy, a man past the soldiering age; and as +he had Madame Pavlova to talk to, for him I did not exist. Eagle and I +could speak to each other as if we were alone together in a forest +haunted with far-off voices.</p> + +<p>"What a fool I was to come here!" he said. "I ought to have known."</p> + +<p>"Don't be sorry," I whispered. "Think how glad I am to see you. And +there's no reason—no reason in the world—why you should wish to keep +out of <i>their</i> way. You have nothing to be ashamed of—but very proud."</p> + +<p>"I <i>am</i> glad to see you again," he answered. "Don't imagine I'm not! But +I meant to see you, anyhow. I've known for weeks where you were. I made +that kind old parson who piloted you home promise to wire to an address +I gave, when you got safely back to England. And afterward he wrote to +tell me what fine work you were doing. This is the first time I've been +out anywhere except for an invalid crawl or two. It's only three days +since we left the nursing home in Fitzroy Square, where Prince and +Princess Sanzanow visited us several times. Skobeleff is their nephew, +you know. They asked us both to stay with them, and Skobeleff is being +moved here by his servant to-night; but I made an excuse not to +come—said it would hurt the feelings of an old friend who had offered +to lend me his chambers in Whitehall Court to finish getting well in. +The Sanzanows wouldn't take a refusal for dinner this evening, though. +It made no difference my telling them who I really am, March instead of +Mars. I thought they were sure to know something of my story. They said, +when I tried to cry off, that it was going to be a small dinner—just a +few friends who would like to meet Skobeleff and me, so I let myself be +persuaded. This is the result!"</p> + +<p>As we spoke together, the conversation around us murmured vaguely in my +ears. I heard it without listening, as one can hear an undertone of +murmuring sea beneath all other sounds. People were talking of the one +inevitable subject, the war, with variations; the New Patriotism which +has made the Tory Lion and the Liberal Lamb lie down together in peace, +side by side, paying each other compliments; the good-girl tactics of +the suffragettes; the surprising slump in murders and every sort of +crime; possible raids of Zeppelins; and the amusingly persistent legend +of Russians in France; the same things which were being discussed at +that very moment, no doubt, in every household high and low, from one +end of Great Britain to the other, but always new and ever interesting, +yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow. I glanced at Di and Major Vandyke and +Milly, to see how they were bearing themselves, and I was not pleased +with what I saw.</p> + +<p>The princess had distributed her guests at three small tables, and, of +course, had separated Di and Sidney. I had to crane my head round a +floral monoplane, which was our centrepiece, to catch sight of them at +their separate tables; and even so, I had but a glimpse now and then of +a profile. But the expression of those profiles, and the earnest, +confidential way in which they turned toward their neighbours, convinced +me that they were not talking war-talk. Milly faced me where I sat, and +though the tables were lit by amber-shaded wax candles which gave an +ivory effect to the women's complexions, the primrose light could not +subdue Milly's colour. As a rule, she was rather pale, but to-night +cheeks and ears were flushed deep rose colour. She looked excited and +childishly angry, her greenish-gray eyes dilated and her lips pouting. +Had she not been conscious of her new honours as a married woman and a +countess, I don't think she would have dared display her feelings at a +dinner-party of so much importance. Once or twice she stared with +narrowed gaze across the room at Eagle March, then turned to one of her +two companions in such a way as almost to advertise the fact that she +was speaking of him. She would make little impression, I thought, on +Major Skobeleff if she tried to prejudice him against Eagle; but it +might be different with the man on her other side, who knew nothing of +Captain March save what she had to tell; and even Skobeleff—though +surely he would not believe evil of his comrade—could not help +remembering. I could imagine Milly whispering: "What an awful <i>faux pas</i> +for the princess to have brought Major Vandyke and Captain March +together in her house, where they can't get away from one another for +hours, without being rude to her and the prince! Why, the man was such +an enemy of Major Vandyke's that he actually betrayed his country in the +hope of ruining his superior officer. It's a long story, but I can tell +it to you if you like. Captain March had to leave the United States army +in the most dreadful disgrace!"</p> + +<p>She looked so like a spiteful, green-eyed cat, that I seemed to hear the +words hissed out; and as the man whose ear approached her lips was one +of the famous gossips of London, I could imagine, too, how the story +would spread and grow. Milly would certainly tell Prince and Princess +Sanzanow, also, before she went home, what a dreadful thing they had +done in asking "that notorious Captain March" to be their guest, and +especially to meet Major and Lady Diana Vandyke. Sidney, too, if he +could pile anything more on the injuries of the past, would be sure to +do his best.</p> + +<p>As I thought these thoughts my cheeks began to burn even more hotly than +Milly's. I had been questioning Eagle about his adventures, and he had +been answering in the laconic way most brave men have when teased to +talk of themselves; but for a minute, keen though I was, I lost the +thread of narrative I had begun eagerly drawing out. This was when I met +Milly's eyes and flung a challenge from mine to hers. "Dare to hurt him +with your lying tongue, and somehow, surely as you live, I'll make you +repent. Don't dream that my affection for Tony can stand between you and +me," was the warning I sent.</p> + +<p>Silently we defied each other in the savage and primitive way which we +female human things have merely modernized, not modified, since the days +of Lilith up to the days of suffragettes. I was asking myself what +punishment I could devise and inflict, if necessary, to fit Milly's +crime, and how I—so small and powerless—could dig myself into a +defensive trench between Eagle and Sidney Vandyke, when I realized that +Eagle's eyes were studying my flushed face. They were sad eyes, yet +there was a faint glint of laughter in them.</p> + +<p>"You little fighter!" he said. "You never throw down the cudgels you've +taken up in my defence."</p> + +<p>"No, and never will!" I answered, defiance in my voice even for him, +because my blood had been set on fire and the flame would not die down.</p> + +<p>"You're very young!" he said, with a faint sigh. "So young that you +haven't learnt not to hurl yourself against stone walls. Learn the +lesson from me, child. Public opinion is a stone wall, the thickest and +highest in the world. The tiny bubble of my reputation was wafted +against it by an evil wind, and burst forever. If I was fool enough once +to hope that I could mend it, I know now that I was mistaken. Broken +bubbles are like Humpty Dumpty: they can't be put together again; and I +don't mean to break my head in the place where the bubble burst, or let +you break yours."</p> + +<p>"We shan't break <i>our</i> heads," said I. "We'll break other people's +wicked heads, that deserve to be broken; and they're aching hard already +with sheer rage, because you've made a beautiful new bubble for +yourself, ever so much bigger and brighter than the old one they tried +to burst. Only <i>tried</i>, because they may find that it didn't smash when +it seemed to! Then if the old bubble is saved, there'll be two, solid as +crystal and brilliant as rainbows—<i>boomerang</i> bubbles—that will come +blowing back to break the brutes who wanted to burst them!"</p> + +<p>Captain March laughed out aloud, and I saw Sidney turn involuntarily +with a slight, nervous start, as if he fancied that the laugh must be +directed against him. "Irish Peggy, you're inimitable!" said Eagle. +"Look out for your metaphors, or you'll be turning my bubble into a +bull!"</p> + +<p>"Hang metaphors!" I retorted. "I wish I <i>could</i> turn the bubble into a +bull, not an Irish, but a wild one, and <i>set</i> it at two or three people. +Perhaps I shall yet! And what has made you suddenly change your mind, +Eagle? At Liége, in hospital, you told me how you hated Sidney Vandyke +and felt as if you could choke his life out."</p> + +<p>"I haven't changed my mind," he said. "I hate Vandyke now as I hated him +then, more if possible. That's not Christian, but I can't help it, or +else I don't try to help it; I'm not sure which. If by killing Vandyke I +could get back what he took from me, I should do my best to kill him. +But I am just cool enough, where he is concerned, to realize that I +can't help myself by hurting him; rather the contrary. That's where we +come to the stone wall. So I'm not going to smash what he has left of my +head on the stones he piled up against me. To do that would be giving +the enemy great satisfaction, wouldn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps!" I had to agree with a sigh.</p> + +<p>"But if the circumstances ever change in my favour," Eagle went on, his +pleasant face hardening into grimness, "and I can get revenge without +putting myself in the wrong, God help Vandyke!"</p> + +<p>"I hope He <i>won't</i> help him, when that time comes!" I exclaimed. "And I +believe it will come. Something often tells me so—tells me that I——"</p> + +<p>"That you—what?" Eagle prompted me as I broke off.</p> + +<p>"That I shall have some hand in the—the retribution, whatever it may +be. It's what I always pray for."</p> + +<p>Eagle gazed straight at me, with eyes which had changed sadly since the +day they first met mine in the Wardour Street shop. I had thought them +full of romance and dreams then. Their look was harder and older now, +the look of a man who has been down very near to the gates of hell, and +by desperate fighting has battled his way up the heights again, but not +so high as to forget the red glare that singed his eyeballs. My heart +ached, because it seemed impossible that the peace of dreams and romance +could ever come back. I was glad—glad, that Eagle's heart hadn't +softened toward Sidney Vandyke, who was as bitterly his enemy to-night +as ever; but I was sorrowful because the beautiful youth of a man's soul +had been scorched in the furnace fire.</p> + +<p>"I can't bear to think your friendship for me should harden or embitter +you, Peggy," Eagle said. "Nothing is worth that! I oughtn't to talk to +you as I've been talking now. I shan't again. Forgive me, and forget. +Help <i>me</i> to forget! Forgetfulness is the best thing that can happen to +me now. I realize that in my sensible moments. But it's hard to be +sensible always."</p> + +<p>How I wished I could help him even in so small and humble a fashion! At +least, I could try to draw his thoughts away for the moment from the +unhealed wound violently torn open. It was a temptation to dwell on it, +to look at it and feed my anger; but on his wistful hint I threw the +temptation off. Instead of returning to our interrupted talk of his +adventures as I wished to do, I answered Eagle's questions about life at +"The Haven," and told him pathetic or funny stories of our refugees. +"I'm getting to be quite a weird combination of Red Cross nurse, +nursery-governess, and nursemaid," I said. "I really ought to design +some special sort of costume suited to my <i>métier</i>, but I've never had +time to think one out yet! Meanwhile, I wear a badge which keeps up my +courage, and gives me back my strength whenever I'm tired. You couldn't +guess what it is!"</p> + +<p>"The flag of the Allies?" he ventured.</p> + +<p>"No. The chevron you gave me when you made me your corporal. Do you +remember?"</p> + +<p>I saw by his eyes that he was touched. A gleam of the old light flashed +into them, and brightened his smile. "Do I remember?" he echoed. "Yes, I +remember, Peggy, only too well. And I remember the day you flew with me +from Hendon in the poor old <i>Golden Eagle</i>, heaven rest her ashes! The +day when—when Lady Diana failed me, and your pluck and presence of mind +saved us both from coming to grief. I remember lots of other things +you've probably forgotten; and I use the memories for balm."</p> + +<p>I had to look down suddenly to hide the tears that stung my eyelids. But +I winked them away in an instant, and was bracing myself to make him +laugh by mimicking the man who had introduced us: Nebuchadnezzar of +Wardour Street.</p> + +<p>When great hothouse peaches and amethyst bunches of grapes were brought +by the footman, I knew that soon Princess Sanzanow would smile at the +French duchess, and we should all troop away to leave the men. I was +sure that Eagle would not join the ladies conventionally in the +drawing-room, and I did not want that summons to mean a long good-bye. I +asked hastily, therefore, if he would come and see me and the Miss +Splatchleys and our Belgians at "The Haven," when he had grown a little +stronger.</p> + +<p>"I'm strong enough now," he said. "Write to-morrow to tell me when I may +come, and let it be soon, for the minute I'm fit I shall go back to the +front, of course."</p> + +<p>"Of course," I repeated firmly, though my heart felt as if it had been +squeezed by a mailed fist. "I will write the first thing in the morning, +and send you a formal, written invitation from dear Miss Emma and Miss +Jane."</p> + +<p>"Do. My address is 21a Whitehall Court. You won't forget, will you?"</p> + +<p>"No, I won't forget," I assured him, with a secret smile.</p> + +<p>"Because I shall beg the princess as she passes to forgive me if I go +without bidding her farewell in the drawing-room. Being a bit of a crock +still gives me a good excuse, and—she'll understand and be glad to be +rid of me."</p> + +<p>Even as he spoke, the signal I'd been expecting was given by our +hostess. We all rose, smiling at our neighbours, and the men stood while +we women trailed to the door. I, being last of all the guests, saw the +princess pause as Captain March took a step forward; and I knew that he +was bidding her farewell.</p> + +<p>Then I went on, and in the drawing-room found Di waiting to pounce, +anger for me in her eyes, a smile for everybody else on her lips.</p> + +<p>"How dared you!" she whispered. "How <i>dared</i> you treat that man as if he +were your best friend!"</p> + +<p>"Because he is," I answered bluntly.</p> + +<p>"Then you're no friend of ours! Sidney and I will <i>never</i> forgive you +for this night—trying to put us both in the wrong as you have!"</p> + +<p>"It's an honour not to be forgiven for that," I flung back at her. "Now +I'm going to tell the princess that I have to get back early to my +Belgians, and I shall have a taxi called to take me away because, after +this, I can't even accept from Sidney a lift in his motor."</p> + +<p>"You must accept it," whispered Diana furiously, "if only to take the +things we're giving you out of his house. It <i>is</i> his house, you know; +and though you're my sister, I can't expect him to ask you into it again +as a visitor, after your deliberate insult to us both to-night. Your +being no more than a child has excused some things, but it can't excuse +this; for you haven't acted like a child. You've acted like a malicious +woman, and—I think we've reached the end."</p> + +<p>"I think so, too," I replied. "Don't be afraid. I shan't trouble either +of you after to-night. I'll not go in your motor, but I'll go to your +house and fetch my trunk. As for the things you were giving to the +refugees, I'll take them or not, as you like."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to have the rubbish out of the way and see the last of it," +said Diana; and looked as if she would gladly see the last of me.</p> + +<p>I apologized prettily to the princess, explaining how early were the +hours of "The Haven," and how much there was to do there. She forgave me +with all her gracious charm, pressing my hand as if to show her +gratitude for a certain incident which could not be mentioned in words; +and five minutes later I was spinning alone in a taxi toward Park Lane.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + + +<p>I had been offered the help of Celestine and Sidney's man to make up in +parcels such clothes as I wished to take for our refugees and their +menfolk; but now I determined to do all the work myself. The +bored-looking footman who opened the house-door showed no surprise or +interest on seeing her Ladyship's sister arrive in advance of the rest. +He listened respectfully but dully as I briefly explained my errand and +told him that I should need no help until I rang for my trunk and other +things to be carried downstairs. When I had made this clear, I ran up to +the room above Diana's and shut myself in, meaning to make such haste +with what I had to do as to escape with my booty, if possible, before Di +and her husband came home.</p> + +<p>I was trembling still with excitement which clouded my mind and kept me +from thinking clearly; for I was furiously angry and desperately sad at +the same time. I said to myself that I didn't care if I never saw Diana +again; yet my heart was ready to break because we had come to the +parting of the ways. To-night, I thought, I was definitely giving up my +family, or my family were giving me up, it mattered very little which. +My father had never cared for me, therefore I had not cared for him as +most girls care for their fathers. Di had made use of me, but had never +loved me, and I had "seen through" her ever since I was a tiny child. +Lately we became almost as strangers; and yet the two had been the only +ones near to me. Breaking with them was like a small figure in a group +on a big canvas suddenly loosening itself and falling off its +background, a mere lonely bit of paint.</p> + +<p>"What will become of me?" I wondered. "I can never go back to Ballyconal +now. Yet I can't spend the rest of my life with the Miss Splatchleys. +What shall I do when I'm not wanted there any more?"</p> + +<p>Tears began to drop slowly from my eyes, then to rain fast over the +clothing I tried to sort. I knew it was silly to think of such things. +There would be plenty of time by and by to arrange the future. But I +could not concentrate my mind on the work in hand until, as I tossed the +neatly folded clothes about with a kind of stupid aimlessness, I came +once more upon Sidney Vandyke's khaki uniform.</p> + +<p>"This I will not take, anyhow!" I decided. "It would be of no use, and I +do believe it might carry a curse with it, because of the evil thoughts +of the man who wore it last. I wish I could burn it up!"</p> + +<p>That I could not do; but to show spite I wreaked such childish vengeance +as I could by dashing the uniform on to the floor and proceeding to +trample on the coat with my high-heeled white satin slippers.</p> + +<p>As I kicked it away in loathing at last, one of the slippers flew off +and seemed spitefully to follow the coat as if to deal one final insult. +It turned a somersault on the way, as defiantly as the <i>Golden Eagle</i> +had "looped the loop" over German heads at Brussels, and then plumped +down on top of the fallen garment, landing with its pointed satin nose +poked under the flap of a slightly gaping breast-pocket.</p> + +<p>I slipped my silk-clad foot into the shoe where it lay, and pushing the +point still further into the pocket, thus lifted the coat on my toe to +give it another disgustful toss. As I did this it seemed that something +crackled with the sound—or the feel, I could hardly tell which—of +stiff paper. Then a very strange thing happened to me: suddenly I saw +before my eyes, as clearly as though it were really there, the +khaki-coloured notebook I had given Eagle—the notebook out of which he +had torn a leaf with a message written on it for Major Vandyke.</p> + +<p>I didn't know (I don't know now, and never shall) what painted this +picture on my brain: whether it was the high, mysterious Power which had +been leading me slowly but very surely to this minute, or whether it was +nothing more than a mental association between a khaki coat worn by +Eagle's enemy on that disastrous night and a faint crackle of paper +jarring tensely on strung nerves. I know which I <i>like</i> to think; but in +either case the effect was the same.</p> + +<p>I saw the notebook. I saw Eagle hastily scrawling his appeal for a +written order to fire the guns. I saw Major Vandyke wearing this coat, +read the message, crumple up the paper, and then—then—the vision +faded. But the question rang in my ears: what would he be likely to do +with the paper? What should <i>I</i> have done had I been a man in his place? +Would I have torn the message into bits and trusted to the wind to +scatter it?...</p> + +<p>No! If I meant to swear that no such document had ever reached me, I +should have been afraid to leave bits of khaki-coloured, blue-lined +paper lying about the ground. I should have crumpled the message deep +down in the bottom of a pocket, and burnt it later, when I was safe in +my own tent. Yes, that was what any man as quick-witted and unscrupulous +as Sidney Vandyke would have been likely to do. He could not possibly +have forgotten such a bit of evidence afterward, and left it in the +pocket of his coat instead of destroying it; such things could happen +only in the crudest melodramas, where the actors were mere puppets for +uncritical and ignorant audiences to applaud. It was wildly absurd to +dream that I might find any hidden treasure tucked away in a +breast-pocket of Sidney Vandyke's cast-off uniform; and I did not for a +moment believe it; yet the vision of the khaki-coloured paper had been +so clear that I dared not resist the impulse it prompted.</p> + +<p>I picked up the coat, holding it away from me gingerly, by the collar, +as a small white cat might grip a large brown rat by the back of its +neck. Then, also gingerly, I dipped my fingers into one pocket after +another. All were empty: yet now quite distinctly I heard a crisp, +delicate crackling of paper.</p> + +<p>It was like searching for a ghost and seeing no sign, but catching a +faint echo of invisible feet. Something was hidden there. I could not be +mistaken. Perhaps the thing when found would not be worth finding; but a +thousand times over, it was worth the pain of looking for.</p> + +<p>I cleared a place on the large table which had been spread with +contributions for the refugees, and laid the coat out flat. All over the +two fronts I slowly, carefully, passed my fingers until, between the +cloth and lining, far down on the left side near the edge of the coat, I +touched the thing that crackled.</p> + +<p>Whatever it was, this thing must have slipped down through a break in +one of the pockets. I explored again, and discovered a small rip not +more than two inches in length at the bottom of the inside +breast-pocket. But the lost bit of paper could not be got at through +this opening. The lining of the coat would have to be slit down before +the hidden thing could be reached, and I pulled the pocket wrong side +out, hoping with a quick jerk to tear it from the coat. More easily said +than done! The material was expensively tough, and resisted my frantic +tuggings, yet I wouldn't give up. I dared not go foraging downstairs for +a pair of scissors; neither did I wish to ring for a servant to bring me +them. I wanted desperately to be alone with this cast-off garment of +Sidney Vandyke's—alone with any secret I might force it to yield up.</p> + +<p>The coat seemed to resist every effort and trick of mine, as if it still +served its old master and were stubbornly resolved to protect him +against a stranger's prying; but at last a sharp jerk made a stitch give +way. After that the rest was easy. I wrenched the pocket half out, and +that once done I was able with both hands to tear the lining down nearly +its whole length. Then I thrust my hand between it and the cloth, and +touched a crumpled piece of paper.</p> + +<p>I dreaded while I longed to look at what I had discovered: for I +realized that in all human probability I was about to suffer a crushing +disappointment. This lost scrap of paper might prove to be part of some +torn, irrelevant letter of long ago; or it might be an American +greenback, or a forgotten memorandum. As I withdrew my hand—the paper +in it—involuntarily I shut my eyes, as if shrinking from a blow. But I +scolded myself for cowardly weakness, and opened my eyes again to see a +folded, refolded, and crumpled piece of khaki-coloured paper ruled with +blue lines. Then I knew that, from the first faint crackling which I had +felt rather than heard, I had been sure in my heart of finding this +thing: sure that I had always been meant by Fate to find it.</p> + +<p>With cold and shaking fingers I cautiously unfolded the paper without +tearing it. Yes! It was a leaf torn from a notebook—the khaki notebook +I had given Eagle. One page was blank. The other was almost covered with +writing, scribbled with blue pencil, a pencil which must have been +rather blunt, because the marking was heavy, though it showed signs of +haste. No one familiar with Eagle March's hand could have failed to +recognize it as his, rough and hurried as was the scrawl.</p> + +<p>At the top of the page was jotted down the date of that unforgettable +night at El Paso.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Have just received by your orderly verbal command to fire nos. one +and two guns, aiming beyond Mexican end of bridge. I beg if this is +correct that you repeat order in writing.</p></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<span class="smcap">March</span>."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here was the evidence which would have saved Eagle at his court-martial +and proved Major Vandyke a liar and blackguard. He had, no doubt, +crushed the incriminating paper into the deepest depths of his +breast-pocket, perhaps covering it up with other things lest it should +flutter away and betray him. There had been no time to destroy the paper +at that moment, and so he had put off disposing of it until after his +famous rush across the Rio Grande had been safely accomplished. When he +returned and could get back to his own tent, his first thought must have +been of the document whose existence he meant to deny. To empty his +pocket and find the paper gone must have been a frightful blow, and +Sidney could hardly have known a peaceful moment until after the +court-martial, when all danger of the lost message coming to light +seemed to be past forever.</p> + +<p>No wonder (as Tony had written, describing the trial) that the accuser +had been more worn and nerve-shattered than the accused. No wonder that, +even when he arrived in England, Sidney Vandyke had looked changed and +ill! No wonder he had taken to steadying his nerves with alcohol, and +had not tried to conquer the habit!</p> + +<p>By this time he must have ceased to dread the reappearance of the +vanished document; but it had reappeared, and it was not too late to be +of use. The small scrap of paper in my hand was big enough to give me +all the power I had prayed for—the power to prove Captain March's +innocence and Major Vandyke's guilt.</p> + +<p>"Eagle said to-night that if the time ever came when he could take +revenge without putting himself in the wrong, God help Vandyke!" I +remembered. "We little thought how soon it would come. But it's here! +It's here! The 'stone wall' has tumbled down, like the wall of Jericho, +and it's Sidney Vandyke's head, not Eagle's, that will be broken."</p> + +<p>I was almost out of my wits with joy. I danced a war-dance of triumph, +swinging the khaki coat and waving the document over my head. Then, when +a wild whirl had satisfied my wish to celebrate, I refolded the bit of +paper, hung the coat over my arm, and dashed to the door. Downstairs I +plunged, passed Diana's room, and had reached the head of the stairs +leading to the ground floor when I actually bumped against Di coming up. +If I had not stepped hastily back I should have thrown her downstairs. +As it was, she caught at the banisters and barred the way against me.</p> + +<p>The flashing glimpse I had caught of her face, before we almost +telescoped like two trains running into one another, had shown it pale +and depressed; but the surprise of our encounter brought light to her +eyes and colour to her cheeks. Her look changed from mere startled +annoyance to puzzled suspicion. "Good gracious!" she exclaimed. "One +would have thought the house was on fire! Another instant and you'd have +knocked me down. What is the matter with you, Peggy?"</p> + +<p>"I'm in a hurry, that's all," I answered.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing with Sidney's coat over your arm?" she catechized me +sharply.</p> + +<p>"Didn't you know it was among the 'rubbish' upstairs that you were so +anxious to get rid of?" I retorted in the same tone.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I knew that; but why do you career downstairs with it as if the +sky were falling, and leave everything else? You <i>shall</i> tell me! I +won't let you go till you do."</p> + +<p>With the first words she had spoken after our collision, Di had mounted +the top step, though still guarding the way down; and with her shrill +threat she pushed me back from the stairhead by throwing herself against +me and at the same time grasping the coat as if to snatch it off my arm.</p> + +<p>Diana is much taller and stronger than I am. She could take the coat +from me by force; and the thought darted through my head that without it +to prove where and how the lost message had been found, the paper would +lose half its value. My word, unsupported by proof, would not be enough +against Major Vandyke, for it was known that I detested him, and was a +sworn friend to Captain March. I must keep the coat at any cost to +myself—or even to Diana.</p> + +<p>Standing at bay, looking up at her white face of anger and suspicion, I +felt very small and frail of body; but my soul gathered strength of +battle. I clasped my bare arms over the coat and locked my fingers round +my two elbows.</p> + +<p>"This is mine," I said. "You gave it to me to do as I liked with. You've +no right to take it away. I'm going to make a present of it to somebody +who's been robbed of everything, and needs it."</p> + +<p>This was the best explanation I could think of. But it was not good +enough for Diana. She attempted to push me farther back, and I resisted, +trying to wriggle myself free and elude her; but she was on the alert, +and too quick as well as too strong for my trick to succeed.</p> + +<p>"No, you shan't slip away like that, you little wild-cat!" she cried, +beginning to pant slightly. In the white light of the electric +candelabra, which made the corridor bright as day, I saw her beautiful +bosom heave under its double rope of creamy pearls. All the charming +softness which men loved was gone from her face. It looked hard and +cruel.</p> + +<p>Just as I meant to escape at any price, so she meant at any price to +keep me. I guessed that she had come home alone, and let herself in with +a latch-key, for apparently there were no servants about. That was +fortunate for me; and fortunate that Father and Kitty, and above all +Sidney, had gone on somewhere else from the Russian Embassy, for there +would have been very little chance for me if I had had to run the +gauntlet.</p> + +<p>"You hate Sidney. I believe you hate me, too!" she went on when she had +got her breath. "I don't trust anything you say or do. You've some +horrid idea in your head. I read that in your face the instant I saw you +here. You mean mischief. What's in your mind I don't know, but I <i>shall</i> +know! You'd better tell me!"</p> + +<p>"I've told you all I have to tell," I said. "If I'm a wild-cat, you're a +tigress. What will the servants think if they come and see you like +this?"</p> + +<p>"I don't care what they think. And besides, they won't come. I've +changed my mind about giving you that coat. I must ask Sidney first if +he wants to keep it for any reason. I'll let you know to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"To-morrow will be too late. I've to see my man to-night."</p> + +<p>"Why are you taking him the coat, and not the rest of the suit?" she +persisted.</p> + +<p>"It's only the coat that will be of use to him." I had the answer ready.</p> + +<p>Without warning she made another dive at the coat to catch me unawares. +She failed and my hold tightened; but the sudden wrench twisted the +thing partly wrong side out, to show the lining. The cry Diana gave, the +horror that flashed in lightning from her eyes, told me what she had +seen, what she must have guessed.</p> + +<p>"My God, Peggy!" she gasped. "You believe <i>that</i> of him? You were +seeking for—but you found nothing. Of course—of course you found +nothing!"</p> + +<p>"There's nothing there now," I said, trying not to let my voice tremble.</p> + +<p>Diana's eyes searched mine. They were dilated. Her face, and even her +lips—always coral red—were sickly pale. "What do you mean?" she asked +in a low, choked voice. "Do you mean that you did find—oh! I see +now—the whole disgraceful thing! You were taking this coat to Eagle +March. You traitor! I thank God I came in time."</p> + +<p>She seized me by both shoulders. Her white hands, with their rose-pink +nails and little round dimples at the finger roots, felt hard and +remorseless as steel claws. She looked suddenly capable of anything. The +thought struck on my heart like a hammer-stroke that she would stop at +nothing to save Sidney's reputation. For the first time, I was afraid +for myself. I was afraid she would be too strong for me. She would push +me along the corridor and through the open door into her room. If I +screamed she would tell the servants I had gone mad. She would get the +coat away from me. She would find the paper, if she had to tear my +clothes off to do it. Once inside the room, she would have all the +advantage if she could turn the key and lock us in together. I, too, was +in a mood to stop at nothing. I was fighting for the man I loved. She +was fighting merely for a man with whom her fate was bound up; but in +strength of body I was no match for her. It was only in a battle of wits +that I might have a fair chance. But on the other side of her door it +would be too late to use my brains.</p> + +<p>"It's now or never!" I thought.</p> + +<p>Clutching the coat for dear life with one hand, with the other I +snatched at the pearls which were the "immediate jewels" of my sister's +soul. I gave the double rope a sharp jerk, and with a snap the string +yielded. Pearls spouted in all directions like a creamy spray, and with +a cry, involuntarily Diana loosened her hold on me to save them. That +was my chance! I ducked under her arms and dashed downstairs—like a +streak of lightning. Before Diana had run halfway down I was at the +door. For an instant I fumbled in an anguish of suspense at the catch. +Then it yielded. I slammed the door in Di's face, and bare-shouldered as +I was (I had taken off my wrap to do the packing) I ran like a rabbit +after a taxi I saw at a little distance.</p> + +<p>"Taxi, taxi!" I called. And though my lips were dry and my voice seemed +to my own ears almost inaudible, as when one tries to scream in a +nightmare, the man heard and stopped. Luckily the taxi was empty. If it +had not been things might have ended differently; for as I scrambled in, +panting, "Quick, number 21a Whitehall Court!" I saw, with one corner of +my eye, that Diana stood in the doorway looking out.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + + +<p>As the taxi sped away with me, the relief was so great that I lay back +on the seat, limp and half fainting. I let myself rest there, revelling +in safety after the strain of danger. Nothing could keep me now from +Eagle, I told myself, and nothing could stand between him and his +righteous revenge on Sidney Vandyke. If he were not at home when I got +to Whitehall Court I would wait until he came, even if I had to sit in +the taxi, within sight of his door, all night. But he <i>would</i> be at +home! I felt that, when he left the Russian Embassy, he had been in no +mood to go anywhere else, unless for a lonely walk; and, even so, he +ought to have got back by this time. He had left before I had, and I +must have arrived at Diana's an hour ago.</p> + +<p>It was only when the taxi drew up in Whitehall Court that I remembered +leaving my little gold bag—a present from Kitty—with my discarded +cloak in Park Lane. All the money I had was in the bag. I could not pay +the chauffeur; but, in any case, I meant to keep him till I learned +whether or no Eagle were at home.</p> + +<p>To my chagrin, the man looked dubious. "How long, Miss, will you want me +to wait?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>I explained that I could not tell yet. I must find out whether the +friend I had come to see were in. If not I might need to keep the taxi a +long time.</p> + +<p>"Very sorry, Miss," the chauffeur replied, "but I have an appointment in +a quarter of an hour from now in Downing Street with an official +gentleman I serve pretty often. I was on the way there when you called +me; but when you said 'Whitehall Court', I took you up because you +seemed in a hurry and I thought there was plenty of time. I supposed you +was going to stop here, it bein' rather late in the night for a young +lady, but I can't possibly stay more'n five minutes longer. Tell you +what I can do, I'll ask another feller to come along and wait for you."</p> + +<p>There was no help for it. I had to confess that I was penniless, having +forgotten my money. "But here's a bangle," I said, slipping my one bit +of jewellery off my arm. "You can have this for security. If you'll give +me your card I'll send the money to-morrow, and I'll trust you to send +back the bangle."</p> + +<p>I held it out to him: a thin band of gold with a four-leaved shamrock +made of emeralds—a present from Tony, which he had implored me to keep +in memory of our "friendship".</p> + +<p>The chauffeur hesitated, evidently asking himself whether or no I might +be trusted without the security. As he turned the bangle over in his +hand, and the question in his mind, I heard quick steps coming along the +dark street, and looking up, the taxi lights showed me Eagle March's +face. He was far more surprised than I was, because it had already +occurred to me that he might cool his brain with a solitary stroll in +the night.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Eagle!" I exclaimed, giving him hardly time to be sure of +recognition. "How thankful I am that you appeared just at the right +minute. I've come to see you about something <i>very</i> important, and I +haven't a penny."</p> + +<p>No doubt Eagle was astonished that I should be arriving alone, +cloakless, at half-past eleven or later to call upon him; but after the +first look of amazement at sight of me, he concealed his feelings. For a +second—no longer—he hesitated. Then he said, smiling, "I have plenty +of pennies! Don't you think I'd better get into your taxi with you, and +drive round for a few minutes rather than you should—have the trouble +of coming into my place?"</p> + +<p>"The driver has an engagement," I said. "And, anyhow, I <i>must</i> come in. +It's really serious, Eagle."</p> + +<p>He argued no more, though he looked somewhat troubled for my sake. I +understood very well his state of mind. He paid and tipped the +chauffeur, who handed back my bangle and darted off.</p> + +<p>"Were you going to give the fellow that?" Eagle asked, nodding at the +gold band. "Then it must indeed be serious. I once heard you say at El +Paso that it was your most valued possession!"</p> + +<p>"Fancy your remembering!" I said.</p> + +<p>"I remember lots of things concerning you," he answered, as he guided me +into the big, dignified building whose lights were lowered like most of +London's illuminations in these Zeppelin-haunted times.</p> + +<p>"Wish the bangle on for me," I said hastily, at the foot of the stairs, +which we were to ascend rather than expose my uncovered shoulders to the +scandalized eyes of the man in the lift.</p> + +<p>"Would Dalziel approve?" he asked, smiling, as I thrust the bangle into +his hand. "You showed it to me in Texas as a 'filopena present' from +Tony."</p> + +<p>"You remember that, too? This is the one thing I've kept to remind me of +poor Tony."</p> + +<p>"Poor Tony, indeed, if you've sent him about his business."</p> + +<p>Eagle slipped the bangle over my hand, looking straight at me, as though +wondering not only why I had come, but why I was so pale and strange.</p> + +<p>"Wish that my errand here to-night may end in the greatest and most +glorious success," I prompted him.</p> + +<p>He held my wrist for a second or two, wishing silently. Then he dropped +it rather abruptly, and we went upstairs to the first floor, where were +the chambers lent to Eagle by his friend. I felt somehow that, by asking +him for such a wish, I had impressed him with the real importance of my +night visit.</p> + +<p>He unlocked the door of the flat with a latch-key and almost pushed me +in, as if fearing that I might be seen and perhaps recognized by some +passing occupant of the house. Switching on the electricity, the +vestibule was lit by a red-shaded light, cheerfully welcoming. Off it +opened two or three rooms, and Eagle ushered me into a large +oak-panelled study, lined with bookshelves and having long windows, +which, when uncurtained, would look out on the Embankment. Now they were +draped with crimson velvet, the sort of hangings that normal men with no +female belongings invariably choose. By the door stood a tall folding +screen, covered with red satin and oriental embroidery. There were +bronzes and a few marble busts on top of the low bookshelves; on the oak +panelling, here and there, hung a huge Chinese plate, here and there a +sporting picture. With one glance I took in the whole interior, and saw +that it was thoroughly masculine. In a large fireplace some logs of +wood, evidently not long ago ignited, were crackling. Suddenly aware +that I was very cold, I walked across the room and—shivering—held out +my hands to the blaze. But I still kept the khaki coat hanging over my +arm.</p> + +<p>"Poor child, you look frozen!" said Eagle. "Why didn't you put on your +coat?"</p> + +<p>I laughed—a nervous, excited laugh. "<i>My</i> coat!" I echoed. "Look at +it!"</p> + +<p>So saying, I stretched out my arm to display the garment, and Eagle saw +what it was.</p> + +<p>"Khaki uniform!" he exclaimed. "From the U. S. A. By Jove! Is it Tony +Dalziel's?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed it is not," I returned. "I'm here to tell you about it. Oh, +Eagle, what <i>should</i> I have done if you hadn't come home?"</p> + +<p>"You oughtn't to be here, dear Peggy," he said. "And I'm not sure that I +ought to have brought you in, but I've got into the habit of trusting +you when you tell me that a thing's important."</p> + +<p>"It <i>is</i> important," I cut him short. "So important I hardly know where +to begin."</p> + +<p>"Your wits are too quick for you to be in doubt long," Eagle flattered +me, smiling; "and you must begin at once, dear child, because for the +sake of all the conventionalities I can't let you make me a long call, +good as it is to see you here. We are alone in the place now, so it's +all right for the moment. The servant my friend Jim White lends me with +the rooms doesn't stay at night. He lights the fire and puts everything +shipshape, and then leaves me in peace till morning. But Jim himself, +who is doing interpreter's work in France, has run back for the day on +business. He is with some War Office chaps for the evening, but any time +after twelve o'clock I expect him back to stay the night. You must be +gone before then, so you see we have twenty minutes at most."</p> + +<p>"Rome was saved in <i>one</i> minute, I've always heard," I said. "Eagle, +this coat was Sidney Vandyke's. It's mine now, because Diana gave it to +me, with a lot of other things they cared nothing about, for our Belgian +men. They didn't know God was delivering them into my hands—and your +hands. For I give this to you to do with as you will. It is the coat +Major Vandyke wore the night at El Paso when he was in temporary +command. He wore it when his orderly, Johnson, brought him the message +you wrote on a leaf out of your notebook—the message he swore never +reached him."</p> + +<p>As I spoke I held out the coat in both hands, with the inside toward +Eagle, so that he could see for himself the hole I had made in the +lining, and perhaps draw his own conclusions. I saw his eyes fix +themselves on the long, tell-tale slit and the colour rush up to his +forehead.</p> + +<p>"Who tore that slit in the lining?" he asked sharply.</p> + +<p>"I tore it to-night!"</p> + +<p>"Peggy!... You found something?"</p> + +<p>"Yes! It had slipped through a ripped place down between the cloth and +the lining."</p> + +<p>"Good God! <i>The message?</i>"</p> + +<p>"The message! Here it is." And from the bosom of my low dress I pulled +the folded bit of khaki-yellow paper, warm from my heart. He took it +from me. Our fingers touched, and his were cold as ice.</p> + +<p>I stood still while he opened the paper and read the words which were of +as great importance in his life now as when he wrote them. They had +power to make all the difference to him and to another man between +honour and dishonour.</p> + +<p>For a long minute he was silent and motionless, reading or thinking. +Then he looked up abruptly, and his eyes blazed into mine.</p> + +<p>"Peggy!" he said in a level, monotonous tone which I knew hid deep +feeling. "Do you realize what this means to me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I answered. "I realize fully. I've dreamed of a moment like this +for you. I've lived for it, for weeks and months that seem like years."</p> + +<p>"And that it should come to me from you!"</p> + +<p>"I hoped—I prayed."</p> + +<p>"Tell me what happened."</p> + +<p>I told him, only leaving out the part about Diana, how she had come home +and guessed the secret I had found and tried to rob me. To mention that, +I thought, might seem as if I were trying to boast of what I had done. +Then, when I had explained how I dashed out of the house, leaving +everything but the coat, which would be invaluable as proof, I hurried +on, lest he should ask questions I didn't wish to answer.</p> + +<p>"What has become of the notebook?" I wanted to know. "I hope you've got +it?"</p> + +<p>"Better than that," Eagle said. "If I'd had it in my possession all this +time I might have written this message whenever I chose, torn out the +leaf, and pretended that it had been done on the night of the gunfiring. +Luckily Dell, the friend who defended me in my trial, kept the book. It +was produced at the court-martial in my defence, and the torn edge +shown, with the marks on the next page made by pressing down heavily +with a blunt pencil. Vague traces of words could be seen, but even with +a magnifying glass they couldn't be read. There was no evidence that +amounted to anything, but my friend kept the book. He said it might be +of use some day. I had no such hope, but now—my God, Peggy, with that +coat and your story, the case against Vandyke seems to me complete!"</p> + +<p>"How thankful I am to hear you say that!" I almost sobbed, moved by his +excitement to greater excitement of my own. "I felt it must be so; but +I'm only a girl. I didn't <i>know</i>. I couldn't be sure. Oh, Eagle! You'll +never understand what it is to me to think I've been able to help you, +even a little. If it hadn't been for me the dreadful thing would never +have happened. You'd still be just what you were before we met."</p> + +<p>"You've not helped me a 'little'; you've given me new life," he said. +"Some time I'll tell you, maybe, why I'd rather have the gift from you +than any one else. But I can't understand what you mean by saying 'the +thing would never have happened' if it hadn't been for you."</p> + +<p>"If I hadn't wanted a new dress, and if I hadn't gone to Wardour Street +to sell my lace and make money to buy the frock, we should never have +known each other. You wouldn't have seen Diana; we shouldn't have gone +to America, and if we hadn't gone to America, and met Major Vandyke, +those guns would never have been fired, and heaps of official bother +would have been saved. But far the best of all, <i>you</i> would have been as +happy as ever!'"</p> + +<p>"You might as well blame yourself for being born," said Eagle; "and on +my soul, I tell you, Peggy, that even without the new hope you've given +me to-night, I wouldn't go back if I could choose, and be without my +experience in Belgium, or—or without <i>you</i> in my life."</p> + +<p>He held out his hands for mine, and I gave them to a grasp that hurt. +Something he was about to say; but before he had time to speak there +came a long shrill peal of the electric bell.</p> + +<p>Eagle dropped my hands instantly. "By Jove! It must be Jim. He's +forgotten his key! I don't want him to see you, Peggy. He's a very good +fellow, but a rattle-brain—tells everything he knows. Run behind that +red screen, and when I've got him into his own room, which I'll do +somehow in a few minutes, I'll take you to a taxi, and drive home with +you if it can be managed."</p> + +<p>I whisked behind the screen, peeping out to whisper: "Better hide the +khaki coat if you don't want questions!"</p> + +<p>Eagle took my advice, handing me the coat to keep for him as he passed +on his way to the door. There was plenty of room to stand behind the +screen without flattening myself against the wall. And without danger of +being seen I could look through the interstices between the leaves of +the screen into the brightly lighted room.</p> + +<p>I heard Eagle's footsteps on the parquet floor of the vestibule. I heard +the click of the latch as he opened the door. After that, instead of a +loud, jolly greeting from his friend, there was dead silence for an +instant. Then a woman's voice spoke in a low tone of intense and +passionate eagerness. I had never heard it speak in that tone before. +But with a shock of surprise and fear, I recognized the voice: it was +Diana's.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + + +<p>My heart stood still. Thinking calmly, it seemed that Diana had no power +to harm Eagle March. I had the coat which betrayed Sidney. Eagle had the +written message, and his friend in America had the notebook out of which +it had been torn. The chain of our evidence was complete. It could not +be broken. Eagle had long ago seen through Diana and ceased to worship +her. Surely she could do nothing with him now, no matter how shamefully +she might humble herself. But I could not think calmly. And as I heard +her sweet, imploring voice, begging to come in, as I realized that Eagle +could not shut her out, a heavy presentiment of failure weighed upon me. +I braced myself to be ready for anything that might happen, ready to +spring from behind the screen and confront Diana if need came.</p> + +<p>"If you ever cared for me, if you have any pity for an unhappy woman, +let me in—let me speak to you," were the words I heard her say, in a +voice like the wail of harp-strings. Its pathos would have been +irresistible to any man, even if he had never loved her. Eagle March let +Diana come in, though I heard him protesting that his friend Jim White +might arrive at any moment.</p> + +<p>"What does it matter?" she cried; and with the words she was at the +study door. Through the leaves of the tall screen I saw her trail in, a +figure of beauty in her white satin dress and sombre purple cloak, her +dark hair wreathed with a fillet of emerald laurel leaves that gave her +face the look of some tragic muse of long ago. "I know Jim White," she +hurried on, "and he knows me well enough to be sure I'm here for nothing +wrong! I'm not afraid of him. It's you I'm afraid of, Eagle!"</p> + +<p>She stopped, and faced him. Unknowingly she faced me, too. Eagle's back +was turned toward me, but I could see Diana's blue eyes gazing up at +him. They were sad and beautiful beyond words. With a shiver of fear, I +realized that no woman on earth could be lovelier than my sister. All +womanhood, with its appeal to man, was in her great imploring eyes.</p> + +<p>I was glad that Eagle did not answer. I hoped his silence might mean +that her beauty had lost its magic for him, that he understood fully how +she had come to beguile him, and that he meant to give her no opening.</p> + +<p>"This is the first time I have seen you since—since that night at +Alvarado when you bade me 'good-bye,'" she went on, letting her voice +break into a half-stifled sob.</p> + +<p>"You saw me at the Embassy," he answered, so coldly that, in her place, +I should have been chilled with discouragement.</p> + +<p>"I dared not look at you there," she confessed. "I was afraid +of—myself. Oh, Eagle! I'm even more afraid of you now—more afraid than +of myself!"</p> + +<p>"Really, I am not so very formidable, Lady Diana," said Eagle, with cool +scorn that showed in tone and manner. "But if I may ask—since you stand +in such dread of me, why do you come to beard the lion in his den?"</p> + +<p>"Because the lion is brave and kingly I have ventured. I <i>had</i> to come, +Eagle. There was no other way. I found out your address from your +Russian friend, Major Skobeleff. He happened to mention it, asking me if +I knew Jim White who'd lent the place to you. I didn't guess then how +thankful I'd soon be to know where you lived. Oh, Eagle! Don't look at +me so cruelly! I can't bear it. You hate me, but you mustn't judge. If +you knew everything, you'd see that you'd done me a wrong."</p> + +<p>"I should be sorry to think that," said Eagle, as formally as if he +spoke to a stranger. "And you are mistaken if you really suppose I hate +you. I have gone through a good deal lately, Lady Diana, and learned to +see personal things in the right proportion. Let me assure you, my +feelings toward you are not in the least malevolent."</p> + +<p>"You mean you don't care for me any more? I ought to be glad, for your +sake and mine, too. But I <i>did</i> love you, Eagle. I truly did, only—I +was a coward. I was deceived, as other people were deceived. And I had +Father to think of as well as myself."</p> + +<p>"Don't excuse yourself to me, I beg! All that is past and done with. You +didn't come here I'm sure to——"</p> + +<p>"Ah! If the past could be done with! It can't, and that is why I have +come. I know Peggy has been with you. It's useless to tell me she has +not."</p> + +<p>"I've no intention of telling you a lie, Lady Diana."</p> + +<p>Di broke down, and cried without any effort to restrain herself. She did +not look quite her beautiful self when she cried, but she looked a +hundred times more pathetic. "You won't believe me, I suppose," she +sobbed, "but till to-night I never knew—knew that Sidney had deceived +me. I believed what he told me to believe. It is an awful blow! I +think—my heart is broken. But, oh, God, Eagle, if you ruin him before +the world it will be my death!"</p> + +<p>To my astonishment Eagle answered with a laugh—a laugh of exceeding +bitterness.</p> + +<p>"You seem to believe and disbelieve easily, Lady Diana Vandyke!" he +said. "Once you believed in me. Then you ceased to believe in me and +threw me over because another man—a richer man than I—told you and +everybody else that I was a liar. You believed in him instead—on his +mere word. You married him. May I ask if he has confessed to you, or do +you take his guilt for granted as you took mine, on circumstantial +evidence?"</p> + +<p>"No, he has not confessed anything," Di answered. Yet there was +something in her tone and confused, anxious manner that made me sure she +was not telling the truth. The conviction swept over me that something +had happened at the house in Park Lane since I slammed the front door +and ran out. Diana might have thought twice before coming to grovel here +to Eagle, unless she had been sure that I was not jumping to +conclusions—sure that there could be no possible mistake about <i>what I +had found in Sidney's coat</i>. Suddenly I knew as well as if she had put +the story into words that Sidney had come home before she had made up +her mind what to do; that she had told him about the coat, and that I +had carried it off to Eagle March; that Sidney, knowing well what my +discovery must have been, had broken down and sent Diana to Eagle, in +the one last hope that her pleading might save him from his enemy's +revenge.</p> + +<p>"I haven't seen Sidney," she hurried on. "But—instinct tells me some +things. I'm afraid—I know that his loving me so much made him cruel to +you. Oh, don't look at me like that. You turn me to ice. It's +true—'cruel' isn't a hard enough word for what he did. I don't try to +excuse him. But he sinned for my sake. That softens my heart toward him. +I'm human!"</p> + +<p>"I'm not inhuman, I trust," said Eagle, "but it doesn't soften <i>my</i> +heart toward him."</p> + +<p>"I don't ask that," Diana wept. "All I ask is your forgiveness for +me—that you soften your heart for me!"</p> + +<p>"I forgive you freely, Lady Diana," Eagle answered, "for any injury you +may have done me in the past, for I have lived it down. The injury +Vandyke did me, I thought—till to-night—I could never live down. But +thanks to the most loyal friend a man ever had I've been given my +chance."</p> + +<p>Diana flung up her head, and there were no tears in her eyes. "Peggy a +loyal friend!" she cried. "She's a traitor to Father and me when she +betrays Sidney. What right has she to be loyal to you at our expense? +And it isn't loyalty, not what <i>you</i> mean by loyalty. She has always +hated Sidney for your sake, and now she can calmly see him ruined, not +because of any wish for justice, but simply because she's desperately, +idiotically in love with you; because she'd do anything—no matter how +cruel to others—in the hope of winning you for herself. Now you know +the real truth about Peggy."</p> + +<p>"I wish I could think it were the real truth," said Eagle very quietly +and very slowly. "To have Peggy's love would be the best thing in the +world. I've realized that for some time now—while I was under arrest +before my court-martial and had plenty of time to think. That was the +time it was borne in on me, Lady Diana, just how much difference there +is between you and Peggy."</p> + +<p>Diana stood speechless, staring at him.</p> + +<p>I was afraid the two out there might hear my heartbeats, they sounded so +loudly in my own ears.</p> + +<p>"I realized how foolish I'd been, not to see that difference before," +Eagle went on, still speaking with a deliberate distinctness, as if he +were willing I should catch every word.</p> + +<p>That he should be saying such things to Diana was so wonderful, so +almost incredible, that I asked myself if he were saying them only to +save my pride because Di had snatched my love for him out of hiding and +trailed it in the dust at his feet. "I ought to have loved Peggy almost +as much as I love her now, the very day we met first. I ought to have +felt she was the <i>one</i> woman—the one thing in the world for me. But she +looked such a child! It would have seemed like sacrilege to love her as +a man loves a woman—that little sprite of a creature. And then I met +you. You dazzled me, Lady Diana. That's the word for it. I think no +other would fit. But I didn't know I was <i>only</i> dazzled, till you took +the light away. As soon as the bright spots faded from before my eyes, +as bright spots do at last when you've been staring at the sun, I saw +things as they really were. I saw what my feeling for you was worth, and +what my feeling for Peggy might grow to be. But I tried not to let it +grow. I'd suffered enough. I was down and out, and if I wasn't worthy of +you, still less was I worthy of Peggy. Besides, I thought she was +engaged to Dalziel, and I wanted to be glad for her. He's a good fellow. +Then we were thrown together in Belgium, she and I; and if I hadn't +loved her before, I should have begun to love her then, as a man loves +just one girl in his life. Whatever I have done since—the few small +things I have been able to do—have all been with the thought of her in +my heart as a lodestar. So now you will understand, Lady Diana, how +little impression you can make upon me by calling your sister a +traitor."</p> + +<p>"You say all this to hurt me!" Diana cried out. "But you did care for me +once, Eagle. Do not forget that!"</p> + +<p>"I forget nothing," he said. "But the time you speak of seems a long +time ago, I care so much more for Peggy now. Just how much I care for +her, I am going to prove to you in a moment."</p> + +<p>For a second he paused, while Di waited, not knowing what to say; and it +seemed as if I were waiting, too; my heart and breath stopped for his +next words.</p> + +<p>"If I had ever loved you as dearly as I once thought I did," he went on, +sadness in his voice, "I suppose I could have refused you nothing when +you came to me to-night. But—I don't defend myself—I only confess to +the hardness in me; you haven't moved me at all. You were cruel as the +grave to me. I could be cruel in return to you. That is, I could act as +I thought right and be indifferent to the effect on you. Your husband +did his best to ruin me. Virtually, he did ruin me. Even to-night he has +lied again, the same old lie, to pull me down if he could from the +miserable little height I've crawled up to, like a singed moth creeping +out of the flame. Did you ever believe in his truth and my +guilt—believe in the depths of your soul—if you have a soul? I doubt +it! Anyhow, you helped his lies to-night, as often before; of that I +have no doubt at all. I've no mercy for you in my heart, and none for +Vandyke. I had none, even when I stopped the horses on your wedding day. +I didn't do that from any softening of heart toward either of you. It +was purely mechanical. I'd have done the same for a pair of thieves, I +assure you. Nothing you could say to me for yourself, Lady Diana, would +make me give up my revenge, or rather my justification, which—by his +own fault—can't come to me without Vandyke's ruin. But something you +have said about Peggy has made all the difference."</p> + +<p>"About Peggy? What do you mean?" Di faltered.</p> + +<p>"You said that she was a 'traitor to her people' for my sake. Now, +because I love her, I can't let her be that. I won't profit by her +loyalty to me—at your expense. And I won't have the world say in +speaking of her, 'There's Lady Peggy O'Malley, who bore witness against +her brother-in-law and ruined him.' For myself, I believe it wouldn't +give me a qualm if Vandyke blew out his brains to-morrow, but you have +made me realize that I couldn't bear it for <i>her</i> sake. Thank you for +that, Lady Diana. Here is the paper which Peggy found inside the lining +of your husband's coat, and brought to me. Because of Peggy and my love +for her, take it and do with it as you choose."</p> + +<p>Diana gave a little joyous shriek, but my cry of despair mingled with +it. I pushed back the screen so that it tottered and fell with a crash, +as I flew out in time to seize Eagle's hand with the paper in it.</p> + +<p>"No!" I gasped. "Don't let me have lived for nothing, Eagle! I would +gladly have given my life to get this bit of paper for you. I shall die +of grief if I'm not to help you after all."</p> + +<p>Holding the written message firmly in one hand, he laid the other over +mine.</p> + +<p>"You heard all I said?" he asked. "I am glad. I meant you to hear it in +your sister's presence. Yet, though you heard, you speak of not +<i>helping</i> me, Peggy? What she said isn't true, then? It isn't true that +you love me?"</p> + +<p>"It is true, and you know it only too well," I answered, hardly +remembering that Diana listened, hanging anxiously on every word as on a +verdict for life or death. "I worship you, Eagle; and that's why I don't +care to live if you are not saved. The great chance has come, when we +least expected it, and if you don't take it now it's in your hand——"</p> + +<p>"It seems to me that my way of taking the great chance is after all the +only way, if we are to be happy. Peggy, I find that I love you too much +to take any other way. Can you love me as I am, love me enough to say: +'Do what is right for you?'"</p> + +<p>"It is right for you to have justice!" I pleaded with him.</p> + +<p>"I would rather have love."</p> + +<p>"You can have both!"</p> + +<p>"No. It doesn't seem so to me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you are obstinate—obstinate!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps! I'm afraid I always was. But I love you. I've suffered, and +now I want to be happy and at peace. It isn't only for your sake. It's +for mine as well. Great love is worthy of the only great revenge. Shall +I burn the paper?"</p> + +<p>"For God's sake, say yes, Peggy!" I heard Diana sob. But I hardly +listened. If she said more, I did not hear it. I was looking at Eagle.</p> + +<p>"Does silence give consent?" he asked. There was a new light in his +eyes, brighter and clearer than the careless light of youth that was +lost. I could not quench it. So I bowed my head and let the khaki coat, +which half unconsciously I had been holding all the time, drop to the +floor. The glory of Eagle's smile repaid me. He took my hand in his, and +leading me, walked to the fireplace. There he stooped, and without +hesitation dropped the paper, which might have changed his whole life, +into the flames.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye to the past!" he cried. "Hail to the future! Peggy, such as it +is, such as it can be for me now, will you share it?"</p> + +<p>"You know!" I whispered.</p> + +<p>He pressed my hand tightly, then turned to Diana.</p> + +<p>"You had better go home to your husband," he said. "You can sleep in +peace to-night, and all nights. Presently I shall take Peggy to +Hampstead; but I want her to myself for a moment first."</p> + +<p>Without a word to either of us, Diana obeyed, her head bent low. I +suppose she could find nothing to say, since "Thank you" would be +commonplace: and Di is never commonplace.</p> + +<p>I heard Eagle open the door for her, and shut it behind the trailing +white satin and purple brocade. Then he came back to me and held out his +arms.</p> + +<p>I had been in the sky with him before, but this was heaven.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He is at the front now, and has been for a long time, but whatever may +happen, neither life nor death can part our souls. The sacrifice he made +was for my sake, and for the sake of love. So you see why, changing only +our names, I have written this bit of secret history and told the truth +about Eagle March and Monsieur Mars.</p> + + +<p>THE END</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Secret History Revealed By Lady Peggy +O'Malley, by C. N. Williamson and A. M. 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