The Romantic

hushed spaces; they saw white puffs of smoke rising in the blue sky. The French g

iantly happy. They smiled at each othe

rifles. (Thrilling, that.) Their Belgian guide leaned out and whisper

ng at the door of a house. Three of them, a Belgian lieutenant and two non-commissioned

d, "we've got o

their orders were not t

ouldn'

n. We've got to f

y wounded," said

tell us that tale every time," she

and the lieutenant

n't any," the lieutenant

You ex

Belgian backed up the lieutenant by

e himself. We

arlotte said, "by any c

upturned moustache: first sign that he was yielding. He

"We're due," he said, "at the d

d the soldiers thought he was magnificent. Supposing she had gone o

e the advancing car. "You can go,"

orm-sort of warning us that it's our

hat when they turned John's driving p

me drive. You kn

this

s bandaging his left hand which had made a trail of blood splashes from the street to the counter. The right hand hung straight down from a ni

take these men back at once. (The tired soldier murmured something: a protes

us reservation. "You mean y

h more." His lips and eyes moved

of it. An outpost. This man and three others had been holding it with two machine guns. He had had a f

we'll go and

e is being shelled.

o orders

pless palms, palms that d

at your own risk. I

s all

nly Mademoiselle mu

le is much

res of eyebro

ere more than three m

air of integrity, his conscience app

shouted out something, they couldn't make

Boom-Boom came right and left; they wer

all right

the

n by her side mut

ny danger. It's all go

she said, "they'

ey? They've got their rang

on their ri

et enough no

t if they were quiet so much the wo

were safe enou

said, "they alt

us. They haven't spotted the batteries yet. It's

Belgian went

he matter

it jumpy," she sa

ck up. Tell him

le Belgian shook his hea

he said, "

, he do

idn't know, when the noise of the French guns to

elt, wave by wave, the rising thrill of the adventure. Only by keeping still she was aware of what was passing in John's mind. He knew. He knew. They were one

xplosion somewhere in front

ar that, Ma

d

way," sa

thought: He doesn't wa

tened. I must

. The shell was near, he said; very near. I

place where the

was the place where

ountry, a causeway raised a little above the level of the fields. No

at he's sa

give away the posi

ve got to go on it. He's in a beastly f

n if for one minute they supposed he was afraid. But they had not gone fifty yards before he begged to be put down. He said it was abso

und the corner of the hood and saw h

," said John, "to

do you thin

l say we

seat. If only he had let her drive-But that was absurd. Of course he wouldn't let her. If you were to keep on thinking of the things that might happen to John-Meanwhile nothing could take from them t

ed, when they came to the w

er and a line of willows, and behind the willows the Germans, hidden. White smoke curled among the branches. You could see it was an outpost, one of the points at

en built out into the field were shelled away, but the outer wall by the roadside still held. It was

hop faced the open field; its doorstep and the path in front of its windows glittered with glass dust, with spikes and splinters, and heaped shale of glass that slid and cracked under your feet. Beyond it, a house w

tretchers and the haversack of dressings, under the slanted lintel into the room. The air in there was hot a

ey powder had settled on them all. And by the side of each man the dust was stiffened into a red cake with a glairy pool in the

was very white, and his upper lip showed in-drawn and

oing to faint or be

all r

s fists; moving in a curious

in the dust now, lo

with the arm first. He

y whisper as if he

g a crust of powdered lime. A pad and a bandage. They couldn't do anything more for that … The third ma

ut his work. But his queer, hypnoti

hey had fixed

and exquisite like love. Nothing mattered, nothing existed in her mind but the three wounded men. John didn't matter. John didn't exist. He was nothing but a pair of h

ter all, he did matter. Deep inside her he mattered more than the wounded men; he matter

guns with their tilted muzzles standing in the corner of the

er came again. "You m

rlo

r mind retorted: "You've missed, that time. You needn't think I'm going to put myself out for you." To show that she wasn't putting herself out (in case they should be looking) she stro

His face glistened with pinheads of

d that sh

es a

ou cer

the

their defiance, a denial that the enemy's effort had succeeded. Nothi

he engine when she tur

hat are y

for the

er the shelter of the wall. She brought out the first gun and stowed it at the back of the car. Then she went in for the ot

ree wounded men in there, behind, rocked and shaken by the jolting of the

came back to her. It wasn't over yet. They would have to go out

s like nothing

you it w

d brought in their wounded under the en

*

"if Sutton goes instead of

t if I ca

ou wa

ful

he Hospital and sat in her driver's seat, waiting. Su

goi

. Do yo

anything they passed and taking no more notice of the firing than if he hadn't heard it. As

did yo

it was you who

she was

saved them. We jus

what you did,"

h Sutton was

sently, "it was against

o it was! I neve

on all our ambulances…. You see, this isn't just a romantic ad

new the guns were wanted, and

d been a combatant. But," he said sadly, "th