t to proceed beyond the outskirts of
the town, and here it was that they came upon a large villa, with lilac
budding in the garden. By mutual consent, they turned in at the tall
iron gate, and entered the half-ruined house.

The part of the house giving on the road had been destroyed by a large
shell. Over a gaping hole in the ceiling was a bed, its iron legs
weirdly twisted, which threatened to overbalance at any minute and to
come hurtling down into the hall beneath. Shattered picture frames
still hung on the walls, and on the floor near at hand lay a rosary, the
Crucifix crushed by some heedless boot. The furniture lay in heaps, and
the front door was lying grotesquely across a broken mirror. Everywhere
was wreckage.

The other half of the house was still almost intact. In what had once
been the salon they found comfortable chairs and an excellent Pleyel
piano, while a copy of the _Daily Mirror_ gave the clue that the room
had until recently been occupied by British troops.

David seated himself at the piano and began to play, and Jonathan threw
himself in an arm-chair near the window to listen, and to watch the
alternate cloud and sunshine outside. It was one of those perfect
mornings of April, bright-coloured and windy, and the breeze in the
lilacs combined with the notes of the piano until they could hardly be
told apart. The rare whirr and explosion of a shell only had the effect
of accentuating the intervening peace. Jonathan had never felt so at one
with Nature and with his friend, and more than once, stolid and calm
though he generally was, he felt a tear in his eye at an extra beautiful
little bit of music or the glory of the world outside.

III

"Coming up to the villa this morning?" asked David of his friend a day
or two later.

"I've got a confounded rifle inspection at half-past ten. You go on and
I'll get up there as soon as I can," answered Jonathan, and he went off
to talk to his platoon sergeant while his friend strolled off to the
villa.

When he was going up the road to Ypres an hour later, he met an orderly
on horseback. "Excuse me, sir, I don't think the road's extry nice now,"
he said. "They're dropping some heavy stuff into Yips again."

Jonathan smiled. "Oh, that's all right," he said. "Thanks, all the same,
for warning me. I'll take care." And he hurried on up the road.

It was not until he was inside the villa that he noticed anything out of
the ordinary. Suddenly, however, he st