haven't the nerve to burst in
and ask for you. Nor will it do for you to see me all the way to that
car, or we shall have a dozen girls talking. If you will meet me
somewhere," she added, looking at Peter, "I'll risk it. I'll have a
headache and not go to first dinner; then the first will think I'm at the
second, and the second at the first. Besides, I've no duty, and the
hospital's not like Havre. It's all spread out in huts and tents, and
it's easy enough to get in. Last, but not least, it's Colonial, and the
matron is a brick. Yes, I'll come."

"Hurrah!" said Peter. "I tell you what: I'll meet you at the
cross-roads below the hospital and bring you on. Will that do? What
time? Five-thirty?"

"Heavens! do you dine at five-thirty?" demanded Julie.

"Well, not quite, but we've got to get down," said Peter, laughing.

"All right," said Julie, "five-thirty, and the saints preserve us. Look
here, I shall chance it and come in mufti if possible. No one knows me
here."

"Splendid!" said Peter. "Good-bye, five-thirty."

"Good-bye," said Langton; "we'll go and arrange our menu."

"There must be champagne," called Julie merrily over her shoulder, and
catching his eye.

The two men watched her make for the car across the sunlit square, then
they strolled round it towards a cafe. "Come on," said Langton; "let's
have an appetiser."

From the little marble-topped table Peter watched the car drive away.
Julie was laughing over something with another girl. It seemed to
conclude the morning, somehow. He raised his glass and looked at Langton.
"Well," he said, "here's to reality, wherever it is."

"And here's to getting along without too much of it," said Langton,
smiling at him.

* * * * *

The dinner was a great success--at least, in the beginning. Julie wore a
frock of some soft brown stuff, and Peter could hardly keep his eyes off
her. He had never seen her out of uniform before, and although she was
gay enough, she said and did nothing very exciting. If Hilda had been
there she need hardly have behaved differently, and for a while Peter was
wholly delighted. Then it began to dawn on him that she was playing up to
Langton, and that set in train irritating thoughts. He watched the other
jealously, and noticed how the girl drew him out to speak of his travels,
and how excellently he did it, leaning back at coffee with his cigarette,
polite, pleasant, attractive. Julie, who usually smoked