The Messenger

ed her with affectionate enthusiasm. Lady McIntyre established the rescued o

ture of amenity and cheerful

me, I'm glad to say. You've got to rest and be taken care of." She spread the shaw

right." So little was Sir William prepared for any important communication, he didn't even go

or Madge, but for the chance that made him aware of how intently Greta was taking in the s

! No, not a word. Our papers haven't come." Then a pause. "How long did you say they'd give? Not this Saturday?

ood-by." When he had hung up the receiver, he still stood there, ro

yre started up, "it's

y soul! nothing whatev

ter." With a clearing brow sh

d went with quick, fussy, li

ple of messages. "Hall telephone." Sir William spoke shortly. He sat, elbows o

iting-table and took the address-book out of the stand. Madge hitched herself u

emanded, with her

ng up?" Na

er to pinch up his lips and go out of the room like that when he

ber of the Government never talks

sts only as long as the first shock of any piece of news. He thinks he's done all he's called on

Greta, sweetly. It was taking her

ng yet? Yes, what time? I'm speaking from Kirklamont for Sir William McIntyre. He must catch that train. Yes, motoring to-Yes. You could hold it a minute or two, I suppose, if-All right." He had no sooner ru

he sudden journey. They were too well accustomed to his bustling ways. But Sir William himself had the air of being even more wrought up, now that he'd had time to think over his news, than he

t out to an invisible

McIntyre, certain of th

Not at all

d slightly on one side in an attitude of polite attention. Very different from the form adopted by the ladies

ax, for Sir William preceded his launching of the fact with an increased activity of eyeb

McIntyre's last lingerin

illiam went on, "as no self-re

e heard that the Austrian Government was plainly composed of a

f, till Mr. Grant came in with Nan Ellis. Even then, Sir William had

ired at Sir William, rather as though that gentleman were responsible for the impasse. "What! Servia is to take it or lea

lled it Servi

ss Greta, gently.

e in with the

the "Times." He glance

ke much of it,

cused them. "They are full

difficulty?" Napier asked, a

d," she answ

himself loo

hrew out over the top of his paper. "But this-this Austrian

illiam's. "It amounts to the abj

ustria's terms," said

All the chancelleries of E

d of the hall. "If Russia goes in, Germany can't s

ed, long after, how he had looked round Kirklamont hall and saw that apart from Sir William th

into political slavery," Julian admitted

er voice. "What woul

answere

ught him up. "There are wors

tunately, we've reached a place wher

eren't even unhappy. They were far too excited. And to be excited about matters of world-wid

l minds, the younger man shared those hours of anxious hope, bred by th

h too late, as was seen in the re

tria on the Tuesday following that fateful Friday, arrested t

ont Hall, the German demand was made for British ne

his separatist soul. His horror of the Mittel-Europa plot, as it began to unroll, was lost i

yptic telephone calls or hurrying to and fro with confidential messages, all incongruously a girl's face would flick

iplomacy: Was France, was Germany, going to respect the neutrality of Belgium? Then the moment wh

stay the spread of the contagion. When Sir William came to a place where nothing more could be hoped for or immediately be done,

e strained senses of the two men who drove up from Inverness toward noon on the first Monday in that f

, her Russian embroidery, and her boarhounds. She came to m

embrace her father. Bobby, on the poi

met interrog

On Sir William. As she closed the book she'd been reading aloud and rose, the look was gone. Amid the heats of midsummer and of war she stood cool, pearl-powdery, sweet, wi

eep till after luncheon. But he wa

ier, but he, too, escaped h

n three quarters of an hour late

f sailors' knots. She looked up carelessly enough at Napier's appearanc

han I remembered,"

earth-rug, showed a m

papers?" This raised vo

, yesterday, about telling us anything. It's not very pleasant,"-Lady McIntyre revealed her conception of the use of wa

ith a single sentence-"at seven o'clock on Sa

at tremendous fact reached even Lady McIntyre. "Dear me! I wonde

the motions of surpris

, said to himself. "She knew."

r so much as looked at Nan: "Tell us, Sir William; it's only in the country, isn't it,

ywhere," Sir Will

ad gone over and sat down by Nan. It

iating. As he strolled nearer, Napier heard one or two of her leading questions, p

at? I should so l

or Miss Greta's, "Well, it would be quixotic. And whatever her enemies may say, England is not quixotic." It was the kind of little compliment with a s

an to tell how much wors

fectly what she was about. "It is difficult,"-she supplemented Julian's assurance-"very difficult, to see how England could come in,

vocate it," said Julian, "w

d. "You're wide enough

don't

s to France-" S

. "If behind our backs they've gone and committed us-" Julian's dark eyes flashed a threat of dire reprisal. Provisionally he wiped the floor w

growing bright red under the friction. "Y

telligent bricklayer had as much right to a voice in the policy of the country as a peer of the realm. None the less, in his heart of hearts, as Napier was whimsically aware, Sir Julian felt that, for all Sir William's official position, he hadn't any such v

adroitly precipitated, Miss Greta stretched out a hand

Julian was crying to Sir William'

ll learn it to their cost. English par

William barked back, "that w

that she was following the success of her ruse with an intensity that held her hands immovable, as though the rapid fingers had been caught, tied fast, in those "field-gray" filame

an had cried out at

am shouted, "we'd be wiped off the m

d, "England will never consent

e will go in because it would be

oo late the realization that her baulked eagerness for official news had made her egg on Julian to engage his fellow Scot at their real "national game"-which isn't golf at all. D

er would," Nan cried

so ill-advised," was t

covered her mental poise at a price. Her face was white with the cost of it, or under the tension of some im

minutes to luncheon time. "Five minutes," Napier said to himself,