nd
every now and then breaking into a contemptuous laugh, provoked
apparently by the eloquence of the young woman in the wagon. Meanwhile
the little girl whose hand he held was trying to pull him into a better
place for seeing the rest of the procession. For from the place where
they stood on the outskirts of the crowd, the foremost wagon with its
nodding wheat and sheaves, its speaker, its old women, and its bodyguard
of girls entirely hid the cart behind it.

"Dis way, pappa, dis way," said the child, dragging him. He let her draw
him, and suddenly from behind the speaker's cart there emerged the second
wagon with its white horses; Rachel Henderson, the observed of all
beholders, standing flushed and smiling, with the reins in her hands, the
vicar just behind her, and Lady Alicia's lace parasol.

"My God!" said the man.

His sudden start, and clutch at the child's hand made the child cry out.
He checked her with a savage word, and while she whimpered unheeded, he
stood motionless, sheltering himself behind a girl with a large hat who
stood in front of him, his eyes fixed on the Great End wagon. A ghastly
white had replaced the patchy red on his cheeks, and had any careful
observer chanced to notice him at the moment, he or she would have been
struck by the expression of his face--as of some evil, startled beast
aware of its enemy, and making ready to spring.

But the expression passed. With a long breath, Roger Delane pulled
himself together.

"Hold your noise, Nina," he said roughly to the child. "If you'll be a
good girl, I'll put you on my shoulder."

The child stopped crying at once, and Delane, raising her on to his
shoulder, pulling his own soft hat over his eyes and placing the child so
that her dress concealed his own features. Then he resumed an excited
scrutiny of the Great End wagon. At the same moment he saw a man in
uniform making his way through the crowd towards Miss Henderson who was
waving to him. An officer--an American officer. Delane recognized at once
the high collar and the leathern peak to the cap.

The crowd had already begun to cheer him. He reached the Great End wagon,
and its mistress, all smiles, bent over to speak to him. She and the
vicar seemed to be giving directions, to which the American with a
laughing shrug assented, going off to the front wagon, evidently in
obedience to orders. There the girl speaker had just sat down amid a
hearty cheer from the crowd; and the chairman of