t home, who, reading between
the lines, knew that at last our great and glorious armies were on the
high road to victory.

It was not to be yet, but it was coming, slowly but surely, and Mrs.
Dashwood, in the old home with the green lawn sloping to the water's
edge, wished a thousand times that she had been born a man that she
might have taken her share in the great achievement.

A month passed, and to the house in Regent's Park came a letter, written
on a folding-table by the light of a candle stuck in a bottle, and in
the writer's ears as he scrawled the lines was the tramp of the relief
filing past his dug-out door.

"Darling little Mater," wrote Dennis, "I'm going to give you a
surprise, unless the _Gazette's_ out already. You've heard me
speak of Private Hawke of ours, the crack shot of my company,
well, he and I have got three days' leave for a special reason.
The King is going to present Hawke with the V.C., which he has
deserved over and over again, at Buckingham Palace next
Thursday. Incidentally I might mention that I am also to
receive it on the same day. Also the Military Cross, likewise
the D.S.O. It makes me positively blush as I sit here, and I
really believe I'm the most fortunate beggar in the whole of
our crush, if not in the Army.

"Don't make any mistake, dear, it has been sheer luck on my
part. I've just happened to be there at the right moment. Some
beggars who have done far more than I have have got
nothing--but there it is.

"By the way, the French have been awfully decent to me.
Somehow, Joffre got to know about a little scrap I had when the
French attacked a German trench, and I helped to carry out the
commandant, who was badly wounded. They have given me their
Military Medal for that, and for inducing a German company to
surrender I've got the Croix de Guerre, their newest
decoration, you know; and I'll be hanged, but on top of it all
the Cross of the Legion of Honour has come along for a little
air raid into the Black Forest with a charming
_pilote-aviateur_ named Laval. It was really only a sort of joy
ride, but I managed to bring Laval back after he was hit. Thank
goodness, they tell me he's almost well again, and I must say I
like the French awfully.

"I never told you anything about that business, because I was
afraid you might think I was risking my neck unnece