g. But I shan't write it down. It is
all right to think it; but, as Cousin Sophia would say, it might be
brazen to write it down.

"I will write it down. I won't be cowed by the conventions and Cousin
Sophia! I want to be Kenneth Ford's wife! There now!

"I've just looked in the glass, and I hadn't the sign of a blush on my
face. I suppose I'm not a properly constructed damsel at all.

"I was down to see little Dog Monday today. He has grown quite stiff
and rheumatic but there he sat, waiting for the train. He thumped his
tail and looked pleadingly into my eyes. 'When will Jem come?' he
seemed to say. Oh, Dog Monday, there is no answer to that question; and
there is, as yet, no answer to the other which we are all constantly
asking 'What will happen when Germany strikes again on the western
front--her one great, last blow for victory!"

1st March 1918

"'What will spring bring?' Gertrude said today. 'I dread it as I
never dreaded spring before. Do you suppose there will ever again
come a time when life will be free from fear? For almost four years
we have lain down with fear and risen up with it. It has been the
unbidden guest at every meal, the unwelcome companion at every
gathering.'

"'Hindenburg says he will be in Paris on 1st April,' sighed Cousin
Sophia.

"'Hindenburg!' There is no power in pen and ink to express the contempt
which Susan infused into that name. 'Has he forgotten what day the
first of April is?'

"'Hindenburg has kept his word hitherto,' said Gertrude, as gloomily as
Cousin Sophia herself could have said it.

"'Yes, fighting against the Russians and Rumanians,' retorted Susan.
'Wait you till he comes up against the British and French, not to speak
of the Yankees, who are getting there as fast as they can and will no
doubt give a good account of themselves.'

"'You said just the same thing before Mons, Susan,' I reminded her.

"'Hindenburg says he will spend a million lives to break the Allied
front,' said Gertrude. 'At such a price he must purchase some successes
and how can we live through them, even if he is baffled in the end.
These past two months when we have been crouching and waiting for the
blow to fall have seemed as long as all the preceding months of the war
put together. I work all day feverishly and waken at three o'clock at
night to wonder if the iron legions have struck at last. It is then I
see Hindenburg in Paris and Germany triumphant. I never see her so at
any ot