soners, half-way down, were on the edge of the slide, guiding
the logs.

"We don't have any trouble with them," said the captain carelessly.
"They're only too thankful to be here. They've two corporals of their own
who keep order. Oh, of course we have our eyes open. There are some sly
beggars among them. Our men have no truck with them. I shouldn't advise
you to employ them. It wouldn't do for women alone."

His smile was friendly, and Rachel found it pleasant to be advised by
him. As to employing prisoners, she said, even were it allowed, nothing
would induce her to risk it. There were a good many on Colonel Shepherd's
estate, and she sometimes met them, bicycling to and from their billets
in the village, in the evening after work. "Once or twice they've jeered
at me," she said, flushing.

"Jeered at you!" he repeated in surprise.

"At my dress, I mean. It seems to amuse them."

"I see. You wear the land army dress like these girls?"

"When I'm at work."

"Well, I'm glad you don't wear it always," he said candidly. "These girls
here look awfully nice of an evening. They always change."

He glanced at her curiously. Her dress of dark blue linen, her pretty hat
to match, with its bunch of flowers, not to speak of the slender ankles
and feet in their blue stockings and khaki shoes, seemed to him
extraordinarily becoming. But she puzzled him. There was something about
her quite different from the girls of the hostel. She appeared to be
older and riper than they; yet he did not believe she was a day more than
five-and-twenty, and some of them were older than that. Unmarried, he
supposed. "Miss Henderson?" Yes, he was sure that was the name Mrs.
Fergusson had mentioned. His eyes travelled discreetly to her bare, left
hand. That settled it.

"Well, if I came across these fellows jeering at an Englishwoman, I'd
know the reason why!" he resumed hotly. "You should have complained."

She shook her head, smiling. "One doesn't want to be a nuisance in war
time. One can always protect oneself."

He smiled.

"That's what women always say, and--excuse me--they can't!"

She laughed.

"Oh, yes, we can--the modern woman."

"I don't see much difference between the modern woman and the
old-fashioned woman," he said obstinately. "It isn't dress or working at
munitions that makes the difference."

"No, but--what they signify."

"What?--a freer life, getting your own way, seeing more of the world?"
The tone was a trifle