outside of his life now, he would never, he need never,
thanks to the new interests which were crowding in, think of Joan again.

He opened his window before getting into bed and leaned out. The streets
were deserted and quiet, the people had shouted themselves hoarse and
gone home. Under the nearest lamp-post a policeman stood, a solid,
magnificent figure of law and order, and overhead in a very dark sky
countless little stars shone and twinkled. On the verge of war! What
would the next still slumbering months bring to the world, and could he
forget Joan? Is not love rather a thing which nothing can kill, which no
grave can cover, no time ignore?

CHAPTER XXVIII

"Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls must dive below."

ANON.

The wave of enthusiasm caused by the War swept even Fanny into its
whirlpool of emotion. For several days she haunted the streets,
following now this crowd, now that; buying innumerable papers, singing
patriotic songs, cheering the soldiers as they passed. She wanted to
dash out into the road, to throw her arms round the young soldiers and
to kiss them, she was for the time being passionately in love with them.
It was her one pathetic and rather mistaken method of expressing the
patriotism which surged up in her. She could not have explained this
sensation, she only knew that something was so stirred within her that
she wanted to give--to give of her very best to these men who symbolized
the spirit of the country to her. Poor, hot-hearted little Fanny; she
and a great many like her came in for a good deal of blame during the
days that followed, yet the instinct which drove them was the same that
prompted the boys to enlist. If Fanny had been a man she would have
been one of the first at the recruiting station. So submerged was she in
her new excitement that Joan and Dick in their trouble slipped entirely
out of her mind, only to come back, with the knowledge that she had
failed to do anything to help, when, on coming back one afternoon to
Montague Square, she saw Mabel standing on the steps of No. 6. To be
correct, Mabel had just finished talking to Mrs. Carew and was turning
away. Fanny hastened her walk to a run and caught the other up just as
she left the step.

"You were asking to see Joan, Miss Rutherford," she panted. "Won't you
come in and let me tell you about her?"

Mabel had hardly