Anne Severn and the Fieldings

happened. Adeline ha

rvice, had had the imprudence to get engaged. And to a girl that Adeline had never heard of, about whom nothing was known but t

, coming up the lawn from the g

, vermilion on white, flaming; hard, crystal eyes, sweeping and flashing; bobbed hair, brown-red, shining in the sun. Then a dominant, squarish

to Adeline and Anne. Only as it turned towards Colin its grey-black ey

at it with a shy,

sorption there was a passive innocence, a candor that disarmed you, but Queenie's w

lin shouted. "How

red d

ave you g

y ju

e you

the

hat Anne should have a car of her own and drive it. She endured the introduc

e we goi

you like

you singl

olin. But he still looked at Quee

game. You can't play t

handica

e could take us both on

her skirts with little strokes of irritated impatience. Her ey

take it in tu

ather not play. I've dr

ly ra

ked towards

Colin, if yo

w

ink of Queenie?

very ha

it isn't a nice

t say it was

ars older. If it had been anybody but Colin. If it had been Eliot or Jerrold I shouldn't have m

look terri

o be hurt. I can't bear her taking him away from me. My little

ntie, I'm years older t

l want somebody olde

better fitted

Anne, she pro

n't think it

My only hope is they'll tire each other o

ainst Colin. She played vigorously, excitedly, savagely,

said. "You don't like i

n you would

ut. And Colin insisted on marrying before he joined up. Their engagement had left him nervous and unfit

enie, Colin was more ner

ne, "what that woman does t

fitter, and afraid to volunte

an ambulance car at the front. Anne had gone up to London for her Red Cross training. Eliot ha

War. In Eliot's opinion Colin was not fit and never would be fit to fight. He was just behavi

say they won't p

charged as unfit, having wasted everybody's time and made a damned nuisance of yourself....I suppose I ought to say it's splendid of you to want to go out. But it isn't splendid. It's idiotic. You'll be simply butti

going to funk then

yzed, till you've lost your voice and memory, till you're an utter w

go like that more

ous system that can stand the racket. The noises alone will d

'll go out at once. How can I

d work to be

men of

rganization. Your going o

it matter what

, though, that you'll be ta

that it seemed to him a form of self-indulgence; and this idea of taking a better man's place so worked on him that he

if you don't go out I shall give you u

at moment), "what I'm afraid of? Being a damned nuisance.

t I'd jolly soon tell him to go to hell. I swear, Colin, if you back out of i

ight. Not because you've aske

feel pretty rotten when I'm out wi

id of you to go. But you'd no business to suppose I funked. I may funk. Nobod

put off as easi

d to think he was only going b

ening h

oing all the day

ng all the day,

tood that

eave to your love

ave to your love

hang her

hang her,

the terrace Queenie laugh

my heart and I fai

would lie down,'" Queenie echoed

ted Q

, hurrying caresses, she would put her arms round him and draw him to her, kissing and kissing. And with her young, beauti

i

Ambulance, Britis

er 20th

nd we're frightfully busy getting in wounded. And when you've done you're too tired to sit up and write lett

ed games and ploughed my own land. My muscles are as hard as any Tommie's. So are Queenie's. You see, we have

she was so beastly to poor old Col-Col before he joined up. But talk of the War bringing out the best in people, you should simply see her out here with the wounded. Dr. Cutler (the Commanda

ling. Take ca

r l

n

. Octob

n, so I won't quarrel with her. She can't do it all by herself. And when I feel like going back on her I tell myself how magnificent she is, so plucky and so clever at her job. I don't wonder that half the men in our Corps are gone on her. And there's a Belgian Colonel, the one Cutler gets his orders from, who'd make a frantic fool of himself

RN

emb

ul, and I don't want to think about it. We've "settled" down in a house we'v

so frantic that she wouldn't speak to her, and swore she'd make the Corps too hot to hold her. But when she found that the little lady wasn't for the danger zone and only proposed to cook and keep our accounts for us, she calmed down and was quite decent. Then the other day Miss Mullins ca

happened to be on the spot when the ambulances were sent out and she was away somewhere with her own car. She really is rather vulgar about shells. Dicky says it's a form of war snobbishness (he

onths

-on-the-Hill, G

0th,

l. He's been three weeks in the hospital at Boulogne with shell-shock-had it twice-and now he's back and in that Off

ake them-went back into the trenches after his first shell-shock-but his nerves couldn't stand i

e. But tell her she m

r l

ne Fi

months

-on-the-Hill, G

st 3

at night; he keeps on hearing shells; and if he does sleep he dreams about them and wakes up screaming. It's awful to hear a man scream. Anne, Queenie must come home and look after him. My nerves are going. I can't sleep any more than Colin. I lie awake waiting for the s

r l

ne Fi

September

soldiers for just one man. Of course she is doing splendidly, and Cutler says he can't spare her and she'd be simply thrown away on one case. They think Colin's people ought to look after him. It doesn't seem to matter to e

go over and see him. I shall ge

as if we could never, never do too much after all he's b

r l

n

. Septem

be just as well if you didn't come back. I've got a man to take your place;

eenie didn't hit it off, you know, and for a job like ours it's absolutely essential that ever

must keep her, if it's only because she's worked with me all the time. So now that you've made the break I take t

rely

rt C

-on-the-Hill, G

er 11th

the Corps. He says it's because Queenie and I don't hit it off. I shouldn't have thought tha

dous times together, and I

e and G

rs

Sev

came. Even if Cutler'd let me come back I couldn't leave him. This is my job. Th

upo

er 15th

as a protest, and I'm going into the R. A. M. So has Miss Mullins-: resigned I mean

u joined. It's all rot his saying you didn't hit it off with her, when everybody knows you were a perfect angel to her. Why, you backed her every time when we wer

she'd have let you alone, too. The real trouble began that day you were at Dixmude. It wasn't a bit because she was afraid you'd be killed. Queenie doesn't want you about w

down for that young Noel Fenwick who's got your

Queenie's husband funks her.

Luck, Old Thing, t

rs

Cart