r still Jack returned
with a spade and worked for an hour, shaping the twin mounds.
Before he finished he saw Lorraine climbing the hill. Two wreaths
of yellow gorse hung from one arm, interlaced like thorn crowns;
and when she came up, Jack, leaning silently on his spade, saw
that her fair hands were cut and bleeding from plaiting the
thorn-covered blossoms.

They spoke briefly, almost coldly. Lorraine hung the two wreaths
over the head-piece of the cross and, kneeling, signed herself.

When she rose Jack replaced his cap, but said nothing. They stood
side by side, looking out across the woods, where, behind a
curtain of mist and rain, the single turret of the Chateau de
Nesville was hidden.

She seemed restless and preoccupied, and he, answering aloud her
unasked question, said, "I am going to search the forest to-day.
I cannot bear to leave you, but it must be done, for your sake
and for the sake of France."

She answered: "Yes, it must be done. I shall go with you."

"You cannot," he said; "there is danger in the forest."

"You are going?"

"Yes."

They said nothing more for a moment or two. He was thinking of
Alixe and her love for Sir Thorald. Who would have thought it
could have turned out so? He looked down at the river Lisse,
where, under the trees of the bank, they had all sat that day--a
day that already seemed legendary, so far, so far in the
mist-hung landscape of the past. He seemed to hear Molly
Hesketh's voice, soft, ironical, upbraiding Sir Thorald; he
seemed to see them all there in the sunshine--Dorothy, Rickerl,
Cecil, Betty Castlemaine--he even saw himself strolling up to
them, gun under arm, while Sir Thorald waved his wine-cup and
bantered him.

He looked at the river. The green row-boat lay on the bank, keel
up, shattered by a shell; the trees were covered with yellow,
seared foliage that dropped continually into the water; the river
itself was a canal of mud. And, as he looked, a dead man, face
under water, sped past, caught on something, drifted, spun
giddily in an eddy, washed to and fro, then floated on under the
trees.

"You will catch cold here in the rain," he said, abruptly.

"You also, Jack."

They walked a few steps towards the house, then stopped and
looked at each other.

"You are drenched," he said; "you must go to your room and lie
down."

"I will--if you wish," she answered.

He drew her rain-cloak around her, buttoned the cape and high
collar, and settled