in this
hour could understand.

"Perhaps you don't know where our house is," he said quite quickly. "It
is one of those in the Square--facing the Gardens. I might have played
with you there when I was a little chap--but I don't think I did."

"Nobody did but Donal," she said, quickly also. How did she know that he
was going to say something to her about Donal?

"I gave him the key to the Gardens that day," he hurried on. "I was at
the window with him when he saw you. I understood in a minute when I saw
his face and he'd said half a dozen words to me. I gave him my key. He
has got it now." He actually snatched at both her hands and gripped
them. It was a _grip_ and his eyes burned through a sort of sudden
moisture. "We can't stay here and talk. But I couldn't _not_ say it! Oh,
I say, be _good_ to him! You would, if he had only a day to live because
some damned German bullet had struck him. You're life--you're
youngness--you're _to-day_! Don't say 'No' to _anything_ he asks of
you--for God's sake, don't."

"I'd give him my heart in his two hands," gasped Robin. "I couldn't give
him my soul because it was always his."

"God take care of the pair of you--and be good to the rest of us,"
whispered George, wringing her hands hard and dropping them.

That was how he went away.

A few weeks later he was lying, a mangled object, in a field in
Flanders. One of thousands--living, laughing, good as honest bread is
good; the possible passer-on of life and force and new thinking for new
generations--one of hundreds of thousands--one of millions before the
end came--nice, healthy, normal-minded George, son and heir of a house
of decent nobles.

CHAPTER V

And still youth marched away, and England seemed to swarm with soldiers
and, at times, to hear and see nothing but marching music and marching
feet, though life went on in houses, shops, warehouses and offices, and
new and immense activities evolved as events demanded them. Many of the
new activities were preparations for the comfort and care of soldiers
who were going away, and for those who would come back and would need
more care than the others. Women were doing astonishing work and
revealing astonishing power and determination. The sexes mingled with a
businesslike informality unknown in times of peace. Lovely girls went in
and out of their homes, and from one quarter of London to another
without question. They walked with a brisk step and wore the steady
e