apter of experience,
the trial of this dreamer." Then a wave of restless impatience with her
abstraction swept over her. Speaking of dreamers, she herself would stop
dreaming. "For experience does make a great difference, doesn't it?" she
exclaimed with a sad, knowing smile. After a perceptible pause her eyes
suddenly glowed into his. All the commotion of her thought was
galvanized into purpose in the look. "I have had a heart full and a mind
full of experiences!" she said. "I have been close to war--closer than
you! I have looked on while others fought!"

The thing was coming! He should hear the story of the change that war
had wrought in her. She appeared to regard him as the one listener whom
she had sought; as a confidant who alone could understand her. His gift
for listening was in full play as he relaxed and settled back in his
chair, shading his eyes with his hand lest he should seem to stare. For
in his eagerness he would not miss any one of her varied signals of
emotion.

She was as vivid as he knew that she would be, her narration flashes of
impression in clear detail. Her being seemed transparent to its depths
and her moods through the last week to run past him in review. He
marvelled at times at her military knowledge; again at her impartiality.
She was neither for the Browns nor the Grays; she was simply telling
what she had seen. She passed by some horrors; on others she dwelt with
fearless emphasis.

"Then the hand-grenades were thrown!" She put her hands over her eyes.
"As they fell"--she put her hands over her ears--"oh, the groans!"

"It was the Browns who started it!" he interjected in defence. "I had
hoped that we should escape that kind of warfare." He was too intent to
recall what he had said to the premier about using every known method of
destruction.

"And this is only the beginning, isn't it?" she asked piteously,
exhausted with her story.

"Only the beginning!" he agreed.

Again brooding wonder appeared in her eyes, while there was wonder in
his eyes--wonder at her.

"And you remain with your property!" he exclaimed in a burst of
admiration.

Once more she was looking away into the distance; once more he was
studying her profile. He knew that she had gone through her experience
without tears and without a scream. She had been subjected to his final
test of all merit--war. Courage she had, feminine courage. And he had
often asked himself what would happen if he, a great man, should