e Germans could."

"In spite of the red cross, and my lovely cap and apron? Well, I'm not
afraid. And Eagle will never know that I stopped for his sake when I
might have gone. I'm not sure I shouldn't have stayed in any case."

"I'm sure you wouldn't, if I'd had to use force. But you see what a
position you put me in, Peggy. How can I, a chap you don't care a snap
for at heart, hope to drag you away from the one who's got it all? And
yet, what am I to do if you refuse to come?"

"Dear Tony," I said quietly, "I do care lots of snaps for you, more than
I ever did, I think. But--oh, I _must_ say it!--'snaps' is just the poor
little word that's appropriate compared to what I feel for Eagle. All I
have and am is for him, though he doesn't want it, and will never know,
I hope, what a fool his 'little friend' is over him."

In silence Tony received the blow I had to strike. He stood with his
head down for a minute, while I ached with pity for him and for
myself--though I hated myself, too, because I was hurting him.

"You must go with Mrs. Dalziel and Milly," I said, when he didn't speak.
"It's the only way. I shall be safe enough--as safe as the other nurses.
Who knows," and I laughed uneasily to break the barrier of restraint,
"but Eagle will take me away in his monoplane? That would be a splendid
solution of the difficulty, wouldn't it?" I spoke only in jest, but Tony
accepted the idea half seriously.

"Yes, that's exactly what _will_ happen, I expect," he said. "You'll go
off with him. Anyhow, I've lost you! I see that. You could never put up
with me after this experience. That's true, isn't it, Peggy?"

The same thought, put in a less brutal way, had been heavy in my heart
since my glimpse of Eagle lying unconscious on the litter. I knew then
that I was married to my love for him and that any other marriage would
be worse than illegal.

I hesitated how to answer, but perhaps my silence spoke as clearly as
words. "Don't look as if you'd just lost your last friend, my poor
child," Tony said, in his good, warm way. "You haven't lost me, you
know, though I've lost you. And you needn't look so guilty, either, as
if you'd murdered me and buried me under the leaves! I was always
expecting this thing to come, though I didn't foresee the way of it. If
ever I felt tempted to believe our engagement was getting to be the real
thing, why, I said to myself, 'Wait till she sees March again before you
begin to be cocksure, my man