d the
bedroom that had once been Eugenia's.

CHAPTER XVIII

_A Poem and a Conversation_

Not the next day, but the one following, Barbara and Mildred walked over
to the old chateau together.

Nona did not go with them, as Sonya did not appear to be well and she
did not wish to leave her. So she sent a message of explanation to the
Countess Amelie, saying that she hoped to be able to call upon her very
soon.

It chanced that Sonya did not know of Nona's decision. She was lying
down when the girls went away and believed she had the little house to
herself. Really she was not ill, only tired and perhaps happier than she
had been in a long time. It is true that she had confessed herself
defeated and that there was no longer any illusion in her own mind.
Perhaps so long as she lived, war and not peace would flourish upon the
earth. But the world learns its lessons in strange and dreadful ways
and perchance peace might be born in the end from the horror and waste
of bloodshed.

By and by, when she felt more rested, Sonya got up and went down into
the old dining room of the farmhouse, which the girls had made into
their living room. There was a possibility that the fire might be dying
out and it would be wise to replenish it.

To her surprise Sonya discovered Nona curled up in a chair by the
window, reading.

The older woman no longer wore black; it had become too depressing in a
continent where more than half of the women were in mourning. She had on
a simple frock of a curious Russian blue, made almost like a monk's
cowl, with a heavy blue cord knotted about her waist.

Nona stared at her friend for a moment in silence. It was curious that
whatever costume Sonya Valesky wore seemed to have been created for her.
Nona recalled the beauty of her clothes in their first meeting on
shipboard, yet they held no greater distinction than this simple dress.
Well, perhaps personality is the strongest force in the world and Sonya
Valesky's distinction, whatever her mistakes, lay in this.

She now walked across the room and put a few of Francois' precious pine
logs on the fire.

At this Nona stirred. "Don't trouble to do that, Sonya; I meant to in
another minute. I thought you were ill upstairs."

Sonya shook her head. "I am not in the least ill and you are please to
stop worrying about me, Nona. I thought you had gone with your friends
to the chateau. What has kept you at home?"

The younger girl answered vaguel