All for a Scrap of Paper A Romance of the Present War

what h

TRAGEDY I

IR PRESUMPTIVE TO THE A

ARCHDUKE FERDINAND AND HIS CON

TION IN VIENNA. GRIE

which riveted the gaze of both, a

w terrible!" crie

derbolt. As I told you, I did not look at my paper this morning,

seen them," rejoined Nancy. "Fancy the grief of the

young men, both anarchists,

errible? No king or queen

ems there are suspicions of political causes. This paper suggests that these fellows were agents of the Servian Government, who have a special

always skip

in a naval port on the Adriatic, and it is said they would have got it but for the Archduke. It is also commonly believed that a School of Servian Patriots have for years bee

s quarrelling and fighting, and that kind of th

o little known before the war of the Balkan States with the Turks

ke going into a

respondent during their squabble, and he told me a lot about Montenegro and Servia and

vely spot somewhere on the Rhine, where we shall be among civilised people, and where there will be

cuted, and I suppose that will be the end of it; but if there is evidence which goes to show t

omplica

y, there will be trouble. It's common knowledge that Austria doesn't like Slav influence, and she'll use this

. One of the girls I went to school with, spent a winter in Vienna, and she had a lovely time. She says

u see, directly Austria tried to do this, Russia would step in. Russia is practically under a contract to protect the Servian

sia and Austria? And Russia, with her coun

u see, there is a close alliance between Austria and Germ

more. It can't affect us, can it? England has nothing to do with Servians murdering

e saying just now, isn't it? It makes me more than ever determined to throw myself into a movement that shall make war impossible. But oh, my dear girl, I do

might seem as though she were fighting

won't do. I'm sure dad wouldn't con

asked Bo

tain Trevanion. I-I believ

On your ma

n't be j

e held her to him, and kissed her passio

g for a captain, and with his name and prospects-he'll be sure to be a major and afterwards a colonel in a very short time, especially if a war breaks out. And-and he's very ambitious for me. That's why I shall have to break it to him by degrees. I s

in examinations to pass; but I can manage them all right. Don't think I'm conceited, Nan

dently, "and meanwhile you could be on the

alled first, but it could be managed. As it happens, I'm comf

t say nothing a

ggested Bob, as

sent, and be very circumspect and all that. So, as we've been

newspaper and thre

hed it falling from rock to rock until it fell in

hy of you. I'll work like a slave. I'll map out my programme to the minutest detail, and I'll win all along the line. Edward VII was called a peacemaker, and everybody admired him for it. But I'll do mo

me in?" she asked,

my love, my inspiration; but for you everything would be i

s, and sacrificed brilliant prospects because of her love for him. The sky of his life seemed cloudless. Nothing, as far as he could see, stood in the way of his attaining his highest hopes. The plan which had so suddenly b

gains

there had always been something wanting. He had fighting blood in his veins; the old fire for which the Trelawneys had been famous had constantly made its appeal. And now Nancy had shown him how his life could be a positive one

use demands

d he was a man, every inch of him. And he was called on to fight-to fight the War-god which had lifted its head so arrogantly and brutally. But his warfare was to be for peace-the peace of the world. It was to be for man's sal

y in which he believed; but more, he could by this means make himself worthy o

w Nancy's kisses were warm on his lip

e before him, alluring, ennobling, inspiring.

His father had been an omnivorous reader, and had amassed a large library. Nearly every inch of wall-space was covered with book-shelves. On

long and steadily, and as he

urmured; "the noblest m

ost a great man. No one could associate it with meanness or impurity. An intellectual face too, with a broad forehead and large, speaking eyes. A face

he looked that his f

uld most desire," refl

n of his life, and

a small volume. It was entitled Thoughts

read; but his mind was too full of h

o the picture. "He does love her," he reflected. "He is alive, he knows, and he is pleased

ard. The night was almost windless too, and not even the murmur of the waves in the Bay of St

ing the picture. "I love her as my life, and I

ed on him. He was sure he saw the quiet hum

efore; he had seen visions of the future of which hitherto he had been blind. He had been carried away by his love and his enthusiasm; his nature had been moved t

work and fight for the peace of the world? To destroy the ghastly nightmare of war, to fight against the War-god

him, and giving him his blessing. There w

eams of the moon streamed through t

a true man," and then he left the room, feeling

at you

r's bedroom door, as the

ght you would have b

I heard you come in. Come i

ed. Mrs. Nancarrow was still a young woman, and looke

at you were

thinking,

? Thinkin

ppose

t ab

t fat

few seconds. Both felt t

g. But you won't breathe a word, will you? It's a profound secret. I mean that you must

, if you don't wis

ed to Nanc

ha

eated t

ou please

in the bed and threw h

ob? Why, I never dreamed tha

o-day. I-I-mother, wha

you p

my dear boy! Oh, if onl

Bob, who had a strain of the mystic in h

e cried; "I couldn't have wished for anything better

it is true. I motored Nancy over to Gurnard's Head this afternoon, an

wait a minute until I dry my eyes. I never expected

to me, mother, or that I love you one whit the l

only boy loves another woman better than he loves his mother. It isn't sorrow. Bob, oh no! I'm as glad as glad, and I could