adroit hotel manager might have placed it there for the delectation of well-preserved men of forty-two. He saw a face of health that was little lined; brown hair that did

asures with discreet, epicurean relish as he would this

ed it. She had heard of his rise and she had heard, too, things about him which a girl of twenty-seven can better understand than a girl of seventeen. His reason for wanting to see her he had said was to "renew an old acquain

alland should be down directly. But before

he explained as he set the tra

same as of old. There was an undeniable delight in this first impression of externals. There had been no promise that she would be beautiful, and she was not. There had been promise of distinction, and she seemed to have fulfilled it. For a second

had parted only yesterday, she indicated a place on the sofa for him, while she seated herself on the other side of the tea-table. "The terrace there in the foreground," she said with conformi

ough he had not seen the face; a brownish hand, not long-finger

now,"

it fattenin

ical turn of the lips, which was her asset in keeping any qu

of taste,"

man?" she hazarded. "Is that too

right!"

the rest of her face as formerly, now that it had taken on the contour of maturity, which was noticeable also in the lines of her figure. Yes, she was twenty-seven, with the vivacity of seventeen retained, though she were on the edge of being an old maid according to the conventional notions. Necks and shoulders that happened to be at his side at dinner, he had found, when

aid. "That little prophecy of mine di

f satisfaction

am a buffer between him and the heads of divisions. This has le

realized that he was the actual head of the army. His Excellency, with the prestige of a career, must be kept

bush. The little frown disappeared and she smiled understandingly. "You know I'm not a perfect goose!" she added. "Had you been made chief of staff in name, too, al

f the pyramid. Now it was so unusual in his experience as to be almost a shock. On the poin

ldn't wonder

l of his secret ambition long ago by recognizing in him the abil

e she strove to look at things with his purpose and vision, in full play, she went on in a different tone, as much to herself as to him: "You ha

lts, the power

de which you would bring to an even sharpness! Every regiment a unit of a harmonious whole, knowing how to screen itself fr

to see himself, done in bold strokes. It assured him that not only had his own mind grown beyond what were to him the narrow

icers Should cross the frontier we have been a little lonelier, having only the Brown officers to tea.

ening-yes, a tightening, as arms and armies grow more complicated and the maintaining of staff secrets more important. And you have been all the time at La

ed. I have been qui

ge I shall not know until I am superannuated." While he should rema

ad being unequal to expressing the joy of the memories that her exclamation evoked, she

teeth, as if the recollection must also be tasted. "Splendid, enchanting, enlighten

he exc

epeated after him.

hensible to him how well equipped she was t

u come to think it

he big lesson of all your journeying?

l alike-stupid, just stupid! Oh, so stupid!" Her frown grew with the repetition of the word; her fingers closed in on her palm in vexation. He recollected that he had seen her like this two or three times at La Tir, when

ntly,"

r the other on her knee, her body relaxing, her wrath passing int

arlike against war. At all events, if there is anything to make

on!" And he thought: "I'm re

ed to yours. I saw there was no use of working with the grown-up folks. They must be left to The Hague conferences and the peace so

instance," he o

ism! The wickedness of war, which i

to him. He started to speak, flushing angrily, but held hi

position," she rejoined in a flash of amuse

al army corps this year," he explained co

e first class in La Tir. I have the children come together every Sunday morning and I tell them about the children that live in other countries. I tell them that a child a thous

t, when you talk to

with a gesture like that of brushing away a cobweb. He

little peace prayer-they have even come to like to recite it-a prayer and an oath. But I'll not bother you with it. Other women have taken up the idea. I have

t!" he rejoined, half-bante

ritating," she said, less intently and smiling

fending war as you did defending peace!"

his retort fo

s human. It's going to war because one is angry.

I should lose

my point. I want to prevent you from losing!

myself against an exp

e people she knows," she went on. "So I am going to ask you not to let

gunshot of the line! Your people have as much Gray as Brown blood

m. "My thought is to stop war for both countries as war, r

man floundering in an attempt at logic. "It is for the premier to say. I merely make the mac

can with a word!" sh

amazed. "How?" he

developed in her? Was it possible that the Whole idea of the teachers of peace was an invention to make conv

r that you cannot win. Tell him that you will break y

er voice prompted him

I should lose when I have five million men to their three million! What a

with her one or two afternoons a week. It would be a fine tonic after his isolation at the apex of the pyramid surveying the deference of t

I am joking

y,

s oath: 'I will not be a coward. It is a coward who strikes first. A brave man even after he receives a blow tries to reason with his assailant, and does not strike back until he receives a second blow. I shall not let a burglar drive me from my house. If an enemy tr

iberate recital of it had the quality whic

war," she proceeded, "and those who strike wi

ps," h

and maimed, would you?" she demanded, and her eyes held the horror of the s

ke to see that," he replied. "I only d

tell the premier you can't! But there is still a

subject of no processes of reason but in the spell of an intuition

l not win!"

in masculine energy, resolute and trained, w

t of the machinery of modern war itself, a voice which the aristocratic sniff, the Louis XVI. curls, or any of the old gallery-display heroe

f the lips. She spread out her hands with fingers apart, as if to let something run free from them into the air, and the flame of appeal that had been in

ction that made it easy for him to descend from his own steed. "I stated a feeling. I made a guess,

so," he replie

or the children's lesson on Sunday. My sleeper is engaged,

ed that the interview was over. Really, he h

ars before we meet

ules about officers dossing the f

vice-chief of staf

rned him, "until the teachers of pea

might start another argument and she would miss her train. But she made no reply. "A

fresh; the flame w

hree acres and a cow. If you could only have the solidarity of the Japanese, their public spirit, with the old Chinese love of family and peace, and a cathedral near-by on a hill! Patriotism? Why, it is in the soil of your three acres. I love to feel th

f pleasure or of his career to linger. This meeting had left his curiosity baffled. He understood how Marta's vitality demanded action, which exerted itself in a feminine way for a feminine cause. The cure for such a fad was most clear to his masculine-perception. What