The Red Planet

to hundreds of thousands of mourning men and women there has been nothing but its truth to bring consolation. They are conscious of the supreme sacrifice and thereby are ennobled. The

the idol of their hearts; but the manifestation of their grief was stoical compared with

re was a tragedy unrelieved, stupid, useless. Here was no consoling knowledge of glorious sacrifice;

to weep over the pain of the world. God knows there is in it an infinity of b

f tears in which at times it has been shrouded. What has been will be. Nay, more, what has been shall be. It is the Law of what I believe to be God.... As a concrete instance, where do you find a fuller expression of the divine gaiety of the human spirit t

lessly out of date. Now that we are at grip with elementals, I find myself, if anything, in advance of the fashion. This, however, by the way. What I am clumsily trying to explain is that if I am t

mes and babies. I have seen her in the morning tearing away across country by the side of her father, the most passionate and reckless rider to hounds in the county, and in the evening I have come across her, a pretty mass of pink flesh and muslin-no, it can't be muslin-say chiffon-anyhow, something white and filmy and girlish-curled up on a sofa and absorbed in a novel of Mrs. Henry Wood, borrowed, if one could judge by the stat

the garden, and with her young appetite she consumed half the fruit she had brought. At the time I did not notice an unusual touch of depression.

thout a speck on it. Of such is the Kingdom

ve bitten a speck

t out,"

like the wise Uncle in the Su

I am,"

, finished the strawberry,

-bantering talk with me was trivial enough. No one could adduce a reason for her midnight walk on the tow-path. The obvious question arose. Whom had she gone forth to meet? What man? There was not a man in the neighbourhood with whom her name could be particularly associated. Generally, it could be associated with a score or so. The modern young girl of her position and upbringing has a drove of young male intimates. With one she rides, with another she golfs, with another she dances a two-step, with another she Bostons; she will let Tom read poetry to her, although, as she expresses it, "he bores her stiff," because her sex responds to the tribute; she plays lady patroness to Dick, and tries to intrigue him into a soft job; and as for Harry she goes on telling him month after month that unless he forswears s

t impulse, to walk in the starlight-there was no moon-along the banks of the canal. In the darkness, had she missed her footing and stepped into nothingness and the black water? The Coroner's Jury decided the question in the affirmative. They brou

ving known Death as a familiar foe, and having fought against its terrors; having only by the grace of God been able to lift up a man's voice in my hour of awful bereavement, and cry, "O Deat

lete. They arose in their full vigour; the colour came back to their cheeks and the purpose into their eyes. They laughed once more. Their days were filled with work and cheerfulness. In November Sir Anthony was elected Mayor. Being a practi

was riding through the town and pulled up before Perkins' the fis

ou've had

eed, Sir

ellow. So was my boy. We're

cks one's life to bits, doesn't i

e our c

our only son," sa

r mother," sa

a kind of

ignantly. "You must be imbibing the n

all, which he maintained was being waged for the exclusive benefit of the capitalist classes. In the

me, Sir Anthony, and like yourself I've given my boy to my country. I've

tion. For us, she's the only thing in the world. We're elderly chaps, you and I, Perkins, and the only thing we can

te true," s

nt down and he

nd for the women. But we must kee

"I wish to God," said

do I!" said

erwards verified) was reported to me

e after the conclusion, "I'm of th

am

so old, sir. I'm

e of life

on't they t

tion of the position of his wife and myself. And Mrs. Marigold, a soldier's wife of twenty years' standing, would have taken it, just like myself, as a matte

themselves Sergeants and swanking about and letting their men waddle up to their gun like cows-and when I see them, as I've done with your eyes-watch one of their men pass by an officer in the s

a tin head. That's what you've done," said I. "And the War

ach those mother's darlings up there the difference

ed the matter to them alr

itorial Sergeant whom he had set out to teach. Marigold encountered a cannonade of blasphemous profanity, new, up-to-date, sci

nued. "New men, new guns, new notions

myself at his expense, he asked me stiffly if there was anything more that he could do fo

rch Betty Fairf

who hold up horror-stricken hands at the independent ways of the modern young woman. If it were not for those same independent ways the mighty work that English women are doing in this war would be left undone. Bett

sensitive. She had a way of throwing back her head and pointing her chin fearlessly, as though in perpetual declaration that she cared not a hang either for black-beetles or Germans. And she was straight as a dart, with the figure of a young Diana-Diana before she began to worry her head about beauty competitions. A kind of dark hat stuck at a considerable angle on her head gave her the prettiest little swaggering air in the world.... Well, there was I, a

of local news, of the

scaped penal servitude by the skin of his teeth, died in the odour of sanctity, and the possessor of a colossal fortune in the year eighteen sixty-three. This worthy gentleman built the hospital and endowed it so generously that a wing of it has been turned into a military hospital with forty beds. I

herself and drew her chair a trifle nearer the fi

d me why I invite

d I, "it was for

you to be the first to receive

ou don't mean to say you're

onishment s

id you

" said I. "You to

nly, on reflection

you say '

, with a signi

defiant ann

to marry Wil

astonished. "Captai

ve you to say

my dear,

ted on Mrs. Fairfax, together with one of his subs, and was made welcome at various houses. Living under the same roof as Betty, it was natural that he should fall in love with her. But it was not at all natural that she should fall in love with him. She was not one of the kind that suffer fools gladly.... No; I had not

. I naturally had him in my head

very enthusias

id I. "I'm not young enough to be

t it was Ma

en I have asked you for news of him your answers have shewed me that all was not

set sternly as she

it dwindle, and it has dwindled until it has perished of inanition."

s and all the rest of it. You must excuse a man in the circumstances for not being aux pet

he war has nothing to do with it. It started a mont

ire and lit a fresh one. I accepted the actio

engaged to Ca

He's going out next week. It's idiotic to have an engage

n a couple of minutes. The day after to-morrow! I as

ng out ne

very old friend that you've come to tell me all about it. So I can talk to you frankly. Have y

'm marrying h

to say, as I was busily searching for her point of view

e they were off to the front and said what a wonderful help it would be to him if he could carry away some hope of my

ge," said I, in a grandfatherly way-though God knows if I had been

it up there and then. Looked up Whitaker's Almanack for the ne

seemed rather mad. Betty rose and from

jor, I shall cry. I've never done so

, and, still holding it, seated hers

I said. "Things that your poor mother, if she were

ch

she had. She had begun it soon after her head overtopped mine in

hat marriage means. There i

into frank

s intimacy. They miscall one abominably. I thought she had outgrown this childish, though affectionate ap

e, proud, laughing young face a foot

he doesn't. To tear away veils and reveal frightening starkness is an act from which he shrinks with all the modesty of a (perhaps) deluded sex. I took courage. "I want," I repeated, "to put things clearly before you. You are marrying this young man. You will have a week's mar

ed away from her eyes, giving place to something which awakened memories of what I had seen once o

a strong, clean, brave English life like his to go out without leaving behind him someone to-well, you

te a different kind of n

, and aren't ashamed to say so to those who really love and ca

ength, and held me with h

may win through to a green old age. I hope to God the gallant fellow will. Your present motives are beautiful and her

lear gaze full

ou that I had gi

u d

smile, "my dear Major Didy

, my dea

geant Marigold entered on the sentimental scene and preserved a face of

ax's car,"

s going to be married the day after

inspect all the troops that have been quartered hereabouts during the last eight months. And Captain Connor is one of the fe

dorable, and held out her hand, whic

me to my weddi

id he. "With consi