h us when
they arrive, as the Norfolk Street house is given up; and you must of
course come, too. You can be our guest till you and Tony are married, if
you don't want your engagement to last _too_ long."

I hardly knew whether I most wanted to laugh or cry over that letter.
All I did know was that nothing would induce me to stay with Diana and
Sidney Vandyke. I would even rather be married, if worst came to worst;
but though Tony and I were playing at being engaged, the thought of
actually marrying him was like jumping over a precipice. I wasn't ready
for the precipice yet, and must avoid it if I could.

I folded up the letter and kept its news and its suggestions to myself.
I sympathized with Milly; and hoped that, after all, even if Russia and
Austria and Servia and Germany flew in each others' faces, it might be
possible for England and France and Italy to keep the peace. Di was
always inclined to exaggerate, and probably she was glad of any excuse
by this time to put an end to a motoring _tete-a-tete_ with Sidney.

I went to bed and tried to believe that I had had a bad dream, but next
morning I was still dreaming it. The papers told us how the Stock
Exchange in London had closed, which seemed like hearing that England
had suddenly gone under the sea. Belgrade was being bombarded. The
Germans as well as Russians were mobilizing furiously. King George had
telegraphed to the Czar, but before his message had time to reach
Petrograd, the Kaiser had declared war on Russia. Belgium had begun
mobilizing too, and only just in time. Trains were wanted for the
soldiers. Frightened tourists clamoured in vain to get away. Even those
who had automobiles could hardly move along the roads, and many
chauffeurs were called to their colours. Ours was French, and went off
at a moment's notice, with just time for a polite "_Adieu, peut-etre
pour toujours._" Tony hated everything mechanical except rifles and
revolvers, and had never learned to drive a car; Belgian chauffeurs had
something better to do than help travellers out of trouble; so there we
were!

It seemed only another phase of the dream from which we could not wake,
when glittering hordes of German cavalry, the Kaiser's beloved uhlans,
were said to be clanking over the frontier to violate the neutrality of
Belgium, and we heard that Great Britain had declared war on Germany. I
would have given anything to be back in England then, not because I was
afraid of what might ha