extremely good-looking.

Presently they approached a battery of artillery on the march, with their
rumbling guns and grey ammunition wagons, raising a cloud of dust as they
advanced.

Blanche pulled the car up at the side of the road to allow them to pass,
and as she did so a tall, smartly-groomed major rode up to her, and,
saluting, exclaimed in French, "Bon jour, Madame! I intended to call upon
you this morning. My wife has heard that you have the general, your
father, visiting you, and we wanted to know if you would all come and
take dinner with us to-morrow night?"

"I'm sure we'd be most delighted," replied Paul's wife, at the same time
introducing Enid to Major Delagrange.

"My father has gone up to the fort with my husband," Blanche added,
bending over from the car.

"Ah, then I shall meet them at noon," replied the smart officer, backing
his bay horse. "And you ladies are going out for a run, eh? Beautiful
morning! We've been out manoeuvring since six!"

Blanche explained that they were on a shopping expedition to Commercy,
and then, saluting, Delagrange set spurs into his horse and galloped away
after the retreating battery.

"That man's wife is one of my best friends. She speaks English very well,
and is quite a good sort. Delagrange and Paul were in Tonquin together
and are great friends."

"I suppose you are never very dull here, with so much always going on?"
Enid remarked. "Why anyone would believe that a war was actually in
progress!"

"This post of Eastern France never sleeps, my dear," was Madame's reply.
"While you in England remain secure in your island, we here never know
when trouble may again arise. Therefore, we are always preparing--and at
the same time always prepared."

"It must be most exciting," declared the girl, "to live in such
uncertainty. Is the danger so very real, then?" she asked. "Father
generally pooh-poohs the notion of there being any further trouble with
Germany."

"I know," was Blanche's answer. "He has been sceptical hitherto. He is
always suspicious of the Boche!"

They had driven up to the little wayside station, and, giving the car
over to Jean with instructions to meet the five-forty train, they entered
a first-class compartment.

Between Dieue and Commercy the railway follows the course of the Meuse
the whole way, winding up a narrow, fertile valley, the hills of which on
the right, which once were swept by the enemy's shells and completely
devastated, w