d, he
stayed in lodgings close to the gateway which divided the Close from the
town, and thus was able to be at the Trellis House as much or as little
as he liked. It was generally much. Mrs. Otway wondered whether the war
would so far affect his work as to keep him away from Witanbury this
summer. She rather hoped it would.

"I'm even more sorry than usual for Jervis Blake to-day!" and this time
there was a note of real kindness in Miss Forsyth's voice. "I shouldn't
be surprised if he enlisted."

"Oh, I hope he won't do _that_!" Mrs. Otway was shocked at the
suggestion. Jervis Blake was a person for whom she had a good deal of
tolerant affection. He was quite an ordinary young man, and he had had
the quite ordinary bad luck of failing to pass successive Army
examinations. The news that he had failed again had just become known to
his friends, and unluckily it was his last chance, as he was now past
the age limit. The exceptional feature in his very common case was that
he happened to be the only son of a distinguished soldier.

"_I_ should certainly enlist if I were he," continued Miss Forsyth
thoughtfully. "He wouldn't have long to wait for promotion from the
ranks."

"His father would never forgive him!"

"The England of to-day is a different England from the England of
yesterday," observed Miss Forsyth drily; and as the other stared at her,
genuinely astonished by the strange words, "Don't you agree that that is
so, Mary?"

"No, I can't say that I do." Mrs. Otway spoke with greater decision than
was her wont. Miss Forsyth was far too fond of setting the world to
rights.

"Ah! well, I think it is. And I only wish I was a young man instead of
an old woman! I'm sorry for every Englishman who is too old to take up
arms in this just cause. What must be Major Guthrie's feelings to-day!
How he must regret having left the Army to please his selfish old
mother! It's the more hard on him as he always believed this war would
come. He really _knows_ Germany."

"Major Guthrie only knows _military_ Germany," said Mrs. Otway slowly.

"It's only what you call military Germany which counts to-day," observed
Miss Forsyth quickly; and then, seeing that her friend looked hurt, and
even, what she so very seldom was, angry too, she held out her hand with
the words: "And now I must be moving on, for before going to the
cathedral I have to see Mrs. Haworth for a minute. By the way, I hear
that the Dean intends to give a little