happily, "you have found in me a friend, it is because
my heart is much too small for all the love I bear my fellow beings."

"That's a quaint thing to say," he said.

"It's really true. I care so deeply, so keenly, for my fellow beings
whom God made, that there seemed only one way to express it--to give
myself to God and pass my life in His service who made these fellow
creatures all around me that I love."

"I suppose," he said, "that is one way of looking at it."

"It seemed to be the only way for me. I came to it by stages.... And
first, as a child, I was impressed by the loveliness of the world and
I used to sit for hours thinking of the goodness of God. And then
other phases came--socialistic cravings and settlement work--but you
know that was not enough. My heart was too full to be satisfied. There
was not enough outlet."

"What did you do then?"

"I studied: I didn't know what I wanted, what I needed. I seemed lost;
I was obsessed with a desire to aid--to be of service. I thought that
perhaps if I travelled and studied methods----"

She looked straight ahead of her with a sad little reflective smile:

"I have passed by many strange places in the world.... And then I saw
the little Grand Duchess at the Charity Bazaar.... We seemed to love
each other at first glance.... She asked to have me for her
companion.... They investigated.... And so I went to her."

The girl's face became sombre and she bent her dark eyes on the snow
as they walked.

All the world was humming and throbbing with the thunder of the
Russian guns. Flakes continually dropped from vibrating pine trees. A
pale yellow haze veiled the sun.

Suddenly Miss Dumont lifted her head:

"If anything ever happens to part me from my friend," she said, "I
hope I shall die quickly."

"Are you and she so devoted?" he asked gravely.

"Utterly. And if we can not some day take the vows together and enter
the same order and the same convent, then the one who is free to do so
is so pledged.... I do not think that the Empress will consent to the
Grand Duchess Marie taking the veil.... And so, when she has no
further need of me, I shall make my novitiate.... There are soldiers
ahead, Mr. Estridge. Is it the woman's battalion?"

He, also, had caught sight of them. He nodded.

"It is the Battalion of Death," he said in a low voice. "Let's see
what they look like."

The girl-soldiers stood about carelessly, there in the snow among the
silver birches