I am going quite mad about them--about you--about
everything. . . . I--the plain fact is that I love--such eyes--and--and
every harmonious and lovely feature that--that b-b-belongs to them--and
to--to _you_!"

She closed her painted fan slowly, slowly left her seat, took from the
blue bowl on the window-sill the wild rose blooming there, turned and
looked back at him, half smiling, waiting.

He sprang to his feet, scarcely knowing now what he was about; she
waited, tall, slender, and fresh as the lovely flower she held.

Then, as he came close to her, she drew the wild rose through the lapel
of his coat, and he bent his head and touched his lips to the blossom.

"When she and you--and Love--shall meet at last, you will first know her
by her eyes," she began; and the next instant the smile froze on her face
and she caught his arm in both hands and clung there, white to the lips.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

XXI

"LISTEN!" she whispered; "did you hear that?"

"What?" he asked, dazed.

"On the Bedford road! do you hear the horses? Do you hear them running?"

"W-what horses?"

"Tarleton's!" she gasped, pressing her white face between her hands.
"Can't you hear their iron scabbards rattle? Can't you hear their bugle
horn? Where is Jack? _Where_ is Jack?"

A flurry of mellow music burst out among the trees, followed by a loud
report.

"Oh, God!" she whispered, "the British!"

Brown stared at her.

"Why, that's only an automobile horn--and their tire just blew out," he
began, astonished.

But she sprang past him, calling, "Jack! Jack! Where are you?" and he
heard the door fly open and her childish cry of terror outside in the
sunshine.

The next second he followed her, running through the hall and out through
the door to the porch; and at the same moment a big red touring car came
to a standstill before the house; the chauffeur descended to put on a new
tire, and a young girl in motor duster and hood sprang lightly from the
tonneau to the tangled grass. As she turned to look at the house she
caught sight of him.

Brown took an uncertain step forward; and she came straight toward him.

Neither spoke as they met face to face. He looked at her, passed his hand
over his eyes, bewildered, and looked again.

She was slim and red-haired and slightly freckled, and her mouth was
perhaps a shade large, and it curled slightly at the corners, and her
eyes were quite perfectly made except that one wa