spoke. "You sound rather forlorn and 'wee' as the Scotch sometimes say. Of course, I know you are tired from the long trip into Brussels and coming here to spend the night with me. It is lovely to have you for this quiet walk, but I'm afraid you'll find a bed on the floor a pretty hard resting place even for war times."

"Oh, I shan't mind. Besides, I brought over some more bed-clothes," the younger girl answered, although her attention was not really fixed upon her reply.

Eugenia had guessed correctly in thinking Barbara was tired. Her face was very small and white, so that her eyes appeared almost unnaturally large and blue. Her only color was in her lips, which drooped like a weary child's.

"Oh, yes, the work is all right. One can't expect an easy time of it these days. Besides, I hope some day to prove to you, Eugenia, that I did not come to Europe to nurse in the Red Cross just for the sake[Pg 49] of an adventure. Of course, I shall never dare hope to do anything to compare with what you have done, or to be anything like you, but——"

[Pg 49]

Barbara's speech was interrupted by her friend's hand being laid firmly across her lips.

"I prefer your not saying things like that," she answered in a tone that the other girl felt obliged to respect. It was not that Eugenia was unduly modest. Only that she had never appeared to desire to talk about her final experience in France. Indeed, the other three girls had been provoked before this by her reticence. It was all very well for Eugenia not to discuss before strangers her rescue and care of Captain Castaigne under such extraordinary difficulties. But it was tiresome of her never to be willing to relate the details of her experience to her most intimate companions. Personally, Barbara Meade intended to hear the whole thing some day from beginning to end. Then she would be able to tell the story to the Countess Amelie, who had become her own[Pg 50] and Nona's devoted friend. For Captain Castaigne had given only a brief account of the circumstances to his mother. Actually he had been as reticent in the matter as Eugenia. However, Barbara was not in the mood tonight to demand other people's confessions.

[Pg 50]

"If you are tired, suppose we sit down for a while," Eugenia suggested. The two girls found a tree near by that had been uprooted by an underground explosion and lay face down upon the earth with its arms outspread, like a defeated giant.

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