vely. "Oh, if only I
was a man, I'd have shouldered my gun the first day; indeed I would."

"But the issues were hardly ... defined then," ventured Martin.

"They didn't need to be. I hate those brutes. I've always hated the
Germans, their language, their country, everything about them. And now
that they've done such frightful things ..."

"I wonder if it's all true ..."

"True! Oh, of course it's all true; and lots more that it hasn't been
possible to print, that people have been ashamed to tell."

"They've gone pretty far," said Martin, laughing.

"If there are any left alive after the war they ought to be
chloroformed.... And really I don't think it's patriotic or humane to
take the atrocities so lightly.... But really, you must excuse me if you
think me rude; I do get so excited and wrought up when I think of those
frightful things.... I get quite beside myself; I'm sure you do too, in
your heart.... Any red-blooded person would."

"Only I doubt ..."

"But you're just playing into their hands if you do that.... Oh, dear,
I'm quite beside myself, just thinking of it." She raised a small gloved
hand to her pink cheek in a gesture of horror, and settled herself
comfortably in her deck chair. "Really, I oughtn't to talk about it. I
lose all self-control when I do. I hate them so it makes me quite
ill.... The curs! The Huns! Let me tell you just one story.... I know
it'll make your blood boil. It's absolutely authentic, too. I heard it
before I left New York from a girl who's really the best friend I have
on earth. She got it from a friend of hers who had got it directly from
a little Belgian girl, poor little thing, who was in the convent at the
time.... Oh, I don't see why they ever take any prisoners; I'd kill them
all like mad dogs."

"What's the story?"

"Oh, I can't tell it. It upsets me too much.... No, that's silly, I've
got to begin facing realities.... It was just when the Germans were
taking Bruges, the Uhlans broke into this convent.... But I think it was
in Louvain, not Bruges.... I have a wretched memory for names.... Well,
they broke in, and took all those poor defenceless little girls ..."

"There's the dinner-bell."

"Oh, so it is. I must run and dress. I'll have to tell you later...."

Through half-closed eyes, Martin watched the fluttering dress and the
backs of the neat little white shoes go jauntily down the deck.

* * * * *

The smoking-room again. Cl