LESSE FOREST
As they came out of the forest and crossed the grassy circle where the
fountain was splashing they saw an automobile standing in the drive by
the front door.
"What does that mean?" exclaimed Guild, under his breath.
Both had halted, checked by the same impulse.
"Is it likely to be Baron von Reiter?" he asked, coldly.
She said, with admirable composure: "Whoever it is, we shall have to go
in."
"Yes, of course.... But if it happens to be the Baron----"
"Well?" she asked, looking away from him.
"In that event, have you nothing to say to me--_now_?"
"Not now."
"Haven't you, Karen?"
She shook her head, gazing steadily away from him.
"All right," he said, controlling his voice; "then I can make my adieux
to you indoors as well as here."
"Are you leaving immediately?"
"Yes. I should have left this morning."
After a moment's silence: "Shall I hear from you?"
"Have I your permission to write--if I can do so?"
"I don't know yet. I shall write you first. Are you to be at Lesse
Forest for a few days?"
"Yes. A note will reach me in care of Mrs. Courland."
Her pretty head was still averted. "We ought to go in now," she said.
Guild glanced sharply at the car as they passed it, and the chauffeur
touched his cap to them. It was a big, dark blue, three-seated touring
car, and there seemed to be nothing at all military in its appointments
or in the chauffeur's livery.
He opened the front door for Karen, and they walked into the hall
together.
A man rose quickly from a leather chair, as though he were a little
lame. "Hello, Kervyn!" he said gaily, advancing with hand extended. "How
are you, old top!"
"Harry!" exclaimed Guild; "I'm terribly glad to see you!"
They stood for a moment smiling at each other, hand clasped in hand.
Then Darrel said:
"When your note came this morning, we decided to motor over, Miss
Courland and I--" He turned toward a brown-eyed, blond young girl:
"Valentine, this is the celebrated vanishing man I've been worrying over
so long. You may not think he is worth worrying over, now that you see
him, and maybe he isn't; but somehow or other I like him."
Miss Courland laughed. "I think I shall like him, too," she said, "now
that I know he isn't merely a figment of your imagination--" She turned
her brown eyes, pleasantly and a trifle curiously, toward Karen, who had
paused beside the long table--a lithe and graceful figure in silhouette
against the brilliancy of the sun-lit doorway.
"Karen," said Guild, "this is Miss Courland who extends her own and Mrs.
Courland's charity to me--" He checked himself, smiling. "_Do_ you still
extend it, Miss Courland?"
Valentine had come forward and had offered her hand to Karen, and
retaining it for a second, she turned to answer Guild:
"Of course! We came to take you back with us." And, to Karen: "It
isn't a very gracious thing for us to do--to steal a guest from
Quellenheim--and I am afraid you do not feel very grateful toward me for
doing it."
Their hands parted and their eyes rested on each other for a second's
swift feminine appraisal.
"Baron von Reiter has not yet arrived," said Karen, "so I do not think
Mr. Guild has had a very interesting visit. I feel as though I ought to
thank you for asking him to Lesse."
Guild, who was talking to Darrel, heard her, and gave her a rather grim
look.
Then he presented Darrel; and the light, gossipy conversation became
general.
With one ear on duty and one listening to Darrel, Guild heard Karen
giving to Valentine a carelessly humorous outline of her journey from
England--caught the little exclamations of interest and sympathy from
the pretty brown-eyed American girl, and still was able to sketch for
Darrel the same theme from his own more sober point of view.
Neither he nor Karen, of course, spoke of the reason for Guild's going
to England, nor that the journey had been undertaken on compulsion, nor,
indeed, did they hint at anything concerning the more sinister and
personal side of the affair. It merely appeared that a German general,
presumably a friend of Guild, not being able to get his daughter out of
England after hostilities had commenced, had confided the task to a man
he trusted and who was able to go unquestioned into a country at war
with his own. But it all seemed quite romantic enough, even under such
circumstances, to thrill Valentine Courland.
"Do come back to Lesse with us, won't you?" she asked Karen. "My mother
and I would love to have you. You'd be bored to distraction here with
only the housekeeper. Do come!"
"I haven't any clothes," said Karen frankly.
"I have loads of them! We'd be so glad to have you at Lesse. Won't you
come back with us?"
Karen laughed, enchanted. She could see Guild without looking at him.
His attitude was eloquent.
"If you really do want me, I'll come," she said. "But you and Mr. Darrel
will remain to luncheon, won't you? I'll speak to the Frau Förster--if I
may be excused--" She fell for a moment again, unconsciously, into her
quaint schoolgirl manner, and dropped them a little curtsey.
Guild opened the pantry door for her and held it.
"May I explain to them a little more clearly who you are, Karen?" he
asked in a low voice.
"Yes, please."
He came back into the hall where Miss Courland and Darrel were talking.
Valentine turned swiftly.
"Isn't she the sweetest thing!" exclaimed the girl warmly.
"She is really very wonderful," said Guild; "let me tell you a little
about her accomplishments and herself."
They were still listening to Guild, with an interest which absorbed
them, when Karen returned.
"The few clothes I have," she said, "are being repacked by Frau Bergner.
Kervyn, shall she repack your sack?"
"No, I'll do that," he said, turning away with the happiest face he had
worn that morning. And the girl knew that it was because they were going
away together again--taking life's highway once more in each other's
company. Involuntarily she looked after him, conscious for a second,
again, of new and powerful motives, new currents, new emotions invading
her; and she wondered how vitally they concerned this man who had so
suddenly destroyed a familiar world for her and as suddenly was offering
her as substitute a new and strange one.
Emerging from her brief abstraction she looked across the hall at
Valentine Courland, who, seated on the oak table, chatted animatedly
with Darrel. The girl was exceedingly attractive; Karen realized that at
once. Also this pretty American had said very frankly that she was
certain to like Guild. Karen had heard her say it.
"Miss Girard," said Darrel, "is the shooting good at Quellenheim? I
imagine it must be, judging from these trophies." He waved a
comprehensive hand toward the walls of the room.
Karen came slowly over to Valentine: "I really don't know much about
shooting. There are boar and deer here. I suppose at Lesse Forest you
have really excellent sport, don't you?"
"Our guests seem to find the shooting good," replied Valentine. "My
mother and I go out with them sometimes. I don't know whether we shall
be able to offer anybody any shooting this autumn. We are exceedingly
worried about Lesse Forest. You see, every autumn we renew the lease,
but our lease expired last week, and we can't renew it because nobody
seems to know where our landlord is or where to find him."
"Is your landlord Belgian?"
"Yes. He is a wealthy brewer at Wiltz-la-Vallée. And the Germans
bombarded and burnt it--everything is in ruins and the people fled or
dead. So we are really very much concerned about the possible fate of
our landlord, Monsieur Paillard, and we don't exactly know what to do."
Guild returned, coming downstairs two at a time, his attractive features
very youthful and animated. And Karen, discreetly observing him and his
buoyant demeanour, felt a swift and delightful confusion in the
knowledge of her power to make or unmake the happiness of a grown man.
Frau Bergner appeared with cloth and covers, beaming, curtseying to all;
and very soon they were at luncheon--a simple but perfectly cooked
luncheon, where everything was delectable and there did not seem to be
very much of any particular variety, yet there was just a trifle more
than enough for everybody. Which is the real triumph of a good German,
French, or Belgian housekeeper's calculations.
And when luncheon was ended the luggage already had been placed in the
car; the chauffeur emerged from the kitchen where Frau Bergner had been
generous to him; and in a few moments the big blue machine was whirring
smoothly on its way to Lesse, through the beautiful Ardennes forests
over smooth, well-cared-for roads, the sun shining in a cloudless sky,
and four young people making rapid headway in a new acquaintanceship
which seemed to promise everything agreeable and gay.
At the huge, moss-grown gate-posts of Lesse a forester lifted his grey
felt hat and opened the gates; and around the first curve appeared the
celebrated and beautiful old lodge of weather-stained stone and slate,
the narrow terrace blazing with geraniums and scarlet sage.
Guild noticed a slender, red-haired girl seated on the steps, knitting,
with a heap of dark-blue wool in her lap; but when the car drew up,
Valentine Courland addressed her as "mother"--to the intense surprise of
Karen as well as of himself, for Mrs. Courland seemed scarce older than
her own daughter, and quite as youthfully attractive.
She welcomed Karen with a sweet directness of manner which won the girl
instantly; and her manner to Guild was no less charming--an older
woman's delightful recognition of a young man's admiration, and a
smiling concession to this young man's youth and good looks.
When Valentine mentioned Karen's plight in the matter of wardrobe, her
mother laughed gaily and, slipping one arm around Karen's waist, took
her off into the house.
"We shall remedy that immediately," she said. "Come and see what suits
you best."
"As for you," said Darrel to Guild, "your luggage is in your room. I
suppose you are glad of that."
"Rather," said Guild with such intense feeling that Valentine Courland
laughed outright.
"Take him to his beloved luggage," she said to Darrel; "I had no idea he
was so vain. You know the room, don't you? It is next to your own."
"Harry, why are you limping?" asked Valentine as Darrel rose to go.
"I'm not."
"You are. Why?"
"Rum. I drink too much of it," he explained seriously.
So the young men went away together; and presently Guild was flinging
from him the same worn clothing which, at one terrible moment, seemed
destined to become his shroud: and Darrel sat on the bed and gave him an
outline of the life at Lesse Forest and of the two American women who
lived there.
"Courland loved the place," said Darrel, "and for many years until his
death he spent the summers here with his wife and daughter.
"That's why they continue to come. The place is part of their life. But
I don't know what they'll do now. Monsieur Paillard, their landlord,
hasn't been heard of since the Germans bombarded and burnt
Wiltz-la-Vallée. Whether poor Paillard got knocked on the head by a
rifle-butt or a 41-centimetre shell, or whether he was lined up against
some garden wall with the other poor devils when the Prussian
firing-squads sickened and they had to turn the machine-guns on the
prisoners, nobody seems to know.
"Wiltz-la-Vallée is nothing but an ill-smelling heap of rubbish. The
whole country is in a horrible condition. You know a rotting cabbage or
beet or turnip field emits a bad enough smell. Add to that the stench
from an entire dead and decomposing community of three thousand people!
Oh yes, they dug offal trenches, but they weren't deep enough. And
besides there was enough else lying dead under the blackened bricks and
rafters to poison the atmosphere of a whole country. It's a ghastly
thing what they've done to Belgium!"
Guild went to his modern bathroom to bathe, but left the door open.
"Go on, Harry," he said.
"Well, that's about all," continued Darrel. "The Germans left death and
filth behind them. Not only what the hands of man erected is in ruins,
but the very face of the earth itself is mangled out of all recognition.
They tore Nature herself to pieces, stamped her features out,
obliterated her very body! You ought to see some of the country! I don't
mean where towns or solitary farms were. I mean the _land_, the
_landscape_!--all full of slimy pits from their shells, cut in every
direction by their noisome trenches, miles and miles of roadside trees
shot to splinters, woodlands burnt to ashes, forests torn to
slivers--one vast, distorted and abominable desolation."
Guild had reappeared, and was dressing.
"They didn't ransack the Grand Duchy," continued Darrel, "although I
heard that the Grand Duchess blocked their road with her own automobile
and faced the invaders until they pushed her aside with scant ceremony.
If she did that she's as plucky as she is pretty. That's the story,
anyway."
"Have the Germans bothered you here?" asked Guild, buttoning a fresh
collar.
"Not any to speak of. Of course they don't care anything about the
frontier; they'd violate it in a minute. And I've been rather worried
because a lot of these Luxembourg peasants, particularly the woodsmen
and forest dwellers, are Belgians, or are in full sympathy with them.
And I'm afraid they'll do something that will bring the Germans to Lesse
Forest."
"You mean some sort of franc-tireur business?"
"Yes, I mean just that."
"The Germans shoot franc-tireurs without court-martial."
"I know it. And there has been sniping across the border, everywhere,
even since the destruction of Wiltz-la-Vallée. I expect there'll be
mischief here sooner or later."
Guild, tall, broad-shouldered, erect, stood by the window looking out
between the gently blowing sash-curtains, and fastening his waistcoat.
And, standing so, he said: "Harry, this is no place for Mrs. Courland
and her daughter. They ought to go to Luxembourg City, or across the
line into Holland. As a matter of fact they really ought to go back to
America."
"I think so too," nodded Darrell. "I think we may persuade them to come
back with us."
Without looking at his business partner and friend, Guild said: "I am
not going back with you."
"What!"
"I can't. But you must go--rather soon, too. And you must try to
persuade the Courlands to go with you."
"What are you planning to do?" demanded Darrel with the irritable
impatience of a man who already has answered his own question.
"You can guess, I suppose?"
"Yes, dammit!--I can! I've been afraid you'd do some such fool thing.
And I ask you, Kervyn, as a sane, sensible Yankee business man, _is_ it
necessary for you to gallop into this miserable free fight and wallow in
it up to your neck? Is it? Is it necessary to propitiate your bally
ancestors by pulling a gun on the Kaiser and striking an attitude?"
Guild laughed. "I'm afraid it's a matter of propitiating my own
conscience, Harry. I'm afraid I'll have to strike an attitude and pull
that gun."
"To the glory of the Gold Book and the Counts of Gueldres! _I_ know!
You're very quiet about such things, but I knew it was inside you all
the time. Confound it! I was that worried by your letter to me! I
thought you'd already done something and had been caught."
"I hadn't been doing anything, but I _had_ been caught."
"I knew it!"
"Naturally; or I shouldn't have written you a one-act melodrama instead
of a letter.... Did you destroy the letter to my mother?"
"Yes, I did."
"That was right. I'll tell you about it some time. And now, before we go
down, this is for your own instruction: I am going to try to get into
touch with the Belgian army. How to do it I don't see very clearly,
because there are some two million Germans between me and it. But that's
what I shall try to do, Harry. So, during the day or two I remain here,
persuade your friends, the Courlands, of the very real danger they run
in remaining at Lesse. Because any of these peasants at any moment are
likely to sally forth Uhlan sniping. And you know what German reprisals
mean."
"Yes," said Darrel uneasily. He added with a boyish blush: "I'm rather
frightfully fond of Valentine Courland, too."
"Then talk to the Courlands. Something serious evidently has happened to
their landlord. If he made himself personally obnoxious to the soldiery
which destroyed Wiltz-la-Vallée, a detachment might be sent here anyway
to destroy Lesse Lodge. You can't tell what the Teutonic military mind
is hatching. I was playing chess when they were arranging a shooting
party in my honour. Come on downstairs."
"Yes, in a minute. Kervyn, I don't believe you quite got me--about
Valentine Courland."
Guild looked around at him curiously.
"Is it the real thing, Harry?"
"Rather. With _me_, I mean."
"You're in _love_?"
"Rather! But Valentine raises the deuce with me. She won't listen,
Kervyn. She sits on sentiment. She guys me. I don't think she likes
anybody else, but I'm dead sure she doesn't care for me--that way."
Guild studied the pattern on the rug at his feet. After a while he said:
"When a man's in love he doesn't seem to know it until it's too late."
"Rot! I knew it right away. Last winter when the Courlands were in New
York I knew I was falling in love with her. It hurt, too, I can tell
you. Why, Kervyn, after they sailed it hurt me so that I couldn't think
of anything. I didn't eat properly. A man like you can't realize how it
hurts to love a girl. But it's one incessant, omnipresent, and devilish
gnawing--a sensation of emptiness indescribable filled with loud and
irregular heart-throbs--a happy agony, a precious pain----"
"Harry!"
"What?" asked that young man, startled.
"Do you realize you are almost shouting?"
"Was I? Well, I'm almost totally unbalanced and I don't know how long I
can stand the treatment I'm getting. I've told her mother, and she
laughs at me, too. But I honestly think she likes me. What would you do,
Kervyn, if you cared for a girl and you couldn't induce her to converse
on the subject?"
Guild's features grew flushed and sombre. "I haven't the faintest idea
what a man should do," he said. "The dignified thing would be for a man
to drop the matter."
"I know. I've dropped it a hundred times a week. But she seems to be
glad of it. And I can't endure that. So I re-open the subject, and she
re-closes it and sits on the lid. I tell you, Kervyn, it's amounting to
a living nightmare with me. I am so filled with tenderness and sentiment
that I can't digest it unaided by the milk of human kindness----"
"Do you talk this way to her?" asked Guild, laughing. "If you compare
unrequited love to acute indigestion no girl on earth is going to listen
to you."
"I have to use some flights of imagination," said Darrel, sulkily. "A
girl likes to hear anything when it's all dolled out with figures of
speech. What the deuce are you laughing at? All right! Wait until you
fall in love yourself. But you won't have time now; you'll enlist in
some fool regiment and get your bally head knocked off! I thought I had
troubles enough with Valentine, and now this business begins!"
He got up slowly, as though very lame.
"It's very terrible to me," he said, "to know that you feel bound to go
into this mix-up. I was afraid of it as soon as I heard that war had
been declared. It's been worrying me every minute since. But I suppose
it's quite useless to argue with you?"
"Quite," said Guild pleasantly. "What's the matter with your leg?"
"Barked the shin. Listen! Is there any use reasoning with you?"
"No, Harry."
"Well, then," exclaimed Darrel in an irate voice, "I'll tell you frankly
that you and your noble ancestors give me a horrible pain! I'm full of
all kinds of pain and I'm sick of it!"
Guild threw back his blond head and laughed out-right--a clear,
untroubled laugh that rang pleasantly through the ancient hall they were
traversing.
As they came out on the terrace where the ladies sat in the sun
knitting, Valentine looked around at Guild.
"What a delightfully infectious laugh you have," she said. "Was it a
very funny story? I can scarcely believe Mr. Darrel told it."
"But he did," said Guild, seating himself beside her on the edge of the
stone terrace and glancing curiously at Karen, who wore a light gown and
was looking distractingly pretty.
"Such an unpleasant thing has occurred," said Mrs. Courland in her
quiet, gentle voice, turning to Darrel. "Our herdsman has just come in
to tell Michaud that early this morning a body of German cavalry rode
into the hill pastures and drove off the entire herd of cattle and the
flock of sheep belonging to Monsieur Paillard."
There was a moment's silence; Darrel glanced at Guild, saying: "Was
there any explanation offered for the requisition?--any indemnity?"
"Nothing, apparently. Schultz, the herdsman, told Michaud that an Uhlan
officer asked him if the cattle and sheep did not belong to the Paillard
estate at Lesse. That was all. And the shepherd, Jean Pascal, tried to
argue with the troopers about his sheep, but a cavalryman menaced him
with his lance. The poor fellow is out in the winter fold, weeping like
Bo-Peep, and Schultz is using very excited language. All our forest
guards and wood-choppers are there. Michaud has gone to Trois Fontaines.
They all seem so excited that it has begun to disturb me a little."
"You see," said Valentine to Guild, "our hill pastures are almost on the
frontier. We have been afraid they'd take our cattle."
He nodded.
"Do you suppose anything can be done about it?" asked Mrs. Courland. "I
feel dreadfully that such a thing should happen at Lesse while we are in
occupation."
"May I talk with your head gamekeeper?" asked Guild.
"Yes, indeed, if you will. He ought to return from Trois Fontaines
before dark."
"I'll talk to him," said Guild briefly. Then his serious face cleared
and he assumed a cheerfulness of manner totally at variance with his own
secret convictions.
"Troops have got to eat," he said. "They're likely to do this sort of
thing. But the policy of the Germans, when they make requisition for
anything, seems to be to pay for it with vouchers of one sort or
another. They are not robbers when unmolested, but they are devils when
interfered with. Most troops are."
The conversation became general; Darrel, sitting between Karen and Mrs.
Courland, became exceedingly entertaining, to judge from Karen's quick
laughter and the more subdued amusement of Katharyn Courland.
Darrel was explaining his lameness.
But the trouble with Darrel was that his modesty inclined him to be
humorous at his own expense. Few women care for unattractive modesty;
few endure it, none adores it. He was too modest to be attractive.
"I was sauntering along," he said, "minding my own business, when I came
face to face with a wild boar. He was grey, and he was far bigger than I
ever again desire to see. Before I could recover my breath his eyes got
red and he began to make castanette music with his tusks, fox-trot time.
And do you know what happened--in _your_ forest, Mrs. Courland? I went
up a tree, and I barked my shin in doing it. If you call that
hospitality, my notions on the subject are all wrong."
"Didn't you have a gun?" asked Karen.
"I did. I admit it without a blush."
"Why didn't you use it?" asked Mrs. Courland.
"Use it? How? A gun doesn't help a man to climb a tree. It is in the
way. I shall carry no more guns in your forest. A light extension ladder
is all I require. And a book to pass away the time when treed."
They all laughed. "Really," asked Guild curiously, "why didn't you
shoot?"
"First of all," said Darrel serenely, "I do not know how to fire off a
gun. Do you want any further reasons?"
"You looked so picturesque," said Valentine scornfully, "I never dreamed
you were such a dub! And you don't seem to care, either."
"I don't. I like to catch little fish. But my ferocity ends there.
Kervyn, shall we try the trout for an hour this afternoon?"
Valentine turned up her dainty nose. "I shall take Mr. Guild myself.
You'd better find a gamekeeper who'll teach you how to shoot off a gun."
And, to Guild: "I'll take you now if you like. It's only a little way to
the Silverwiltz. Shall I get a rod and fly-book for you?"
Karen, watching her, saw the frank challenge in her pretty brown eyes,
saw Guild's swift response to that gay defiance. It was only the light,
irresponsible encounter of two young people who had liked each other at
sight and who had already established a frank understanding.
So Valentine went into the house and returned presently switching a
light fly-rod and a cast of flies; and Guild walked over and joined her.
To Karen he looked very tall and sunburned, and unfamiliar in his
blue-serge lounging clothes--very perfectly groomed, very severe, and
unapproachable; and so much older, so much more mature, so much wiser
than she had thought him.
And, as her eyes followed him from where she was seated among the
terrace flowers, she realized more than ever that she did not know what
to say to him, what to do with him, or how to answer such a man.
Her face grew very serious; she was becoming more deeply impressed with
the seriousness of what he had asked of her; of her own responsibility.
And yet, as far as love was concerned, she could find no answer for him.
Friendship, swift, devoted, almost passionate, she had given him--a
friendship which had withstood the hard shocks of anger and distrust,
and the more bewildering shock of his kiss.
She still cared for him, relied on him; wished for his companionship.
But, beyond that, what had happened, followed by his sudden demand, had
startled and confused her, and, so far, she did not know whether it was
in her to respond. Love loomed before her, mighty and unknown, and the
solemnity of its pledges and of its overwhelming obligations had assumed
proportions which awed her nineteen years.
In her heart always had towered a very lofty monument to the sacredness
of love, fearsomely chaste, flameless, majestic. So pure, so immaculate
was this solemn and supreme edifice she had already builded that the
moment's thrill in his arms had seemed to violate it. For the girl had
always believed a kiss to be in itself part of that vague, indefinite
miracle of supreme surrender. And the knowledge and guilt of it still
flushed her cheeks at intervals and meddled with her heart.
She had forgiven, had tried to readjust herself before her mystic altar.
There was nothing else to do. And the awakened woman in her aided her
and taught her, inspiring, exciting her with a knowledge new to her, the
knowledge of her power.
Then, as she sat there looking at this man and at the brown-eyed girl
beside him, suddenly she experienced a subtle sense of fear: fear of
what? She did not know, did not ask herself. Not even the apprehension,
the dread of parting with him had made her afraid; not even the
certainty that he was going to join his regiment had aroused in her more
than a sense of impending loneliness.
But something was waking it now--something that pierced her through and
through: and she caught her breath sharply, like a child who has been
startled.
For the first time in her life the sense of possession had been aroused
in her, and with it the subtle instinct to defend what was her own.
She looked very intensely at the brown eyes of the young girl who stood
laughing and gossiping there with the man she did not know how to
answer--the man with whom she did not know what to do. But every
instinct in her was alert to place upon this man the unmistakable sign
of ownership. He was hers, no matter what she might do with him.
To Darrel, trying to converse with her, she replied smilingly,
mechanically; but her small ears were ringing with the gay laughter of
Valentine and the quick, smiling responses of Guild as they stood with
their heads together over the contents of the fly-book, consulting,
advising, and selecting the most likely and murderous lures.
Neither of them glanced in her direction; apparently they were most
happily absorbed in this brand new friendship of theirs.
Very slowly and thoughtfully Karen's small head sank; and she sat gazing
at the brilliant masses of salvia bloom clustering at her feet, silent,
overwhelmed under the tremendous knowledge of what had come upon her
here in the sunshine of a cloudless sky.
"Au revoir!" called back Valentine airily; "we shall return before dusk
with a dozen very large trout!"
Guild turned to make his adieux, hat in hand; caught Karen's eye, nodded
pleasantly, and walked away across the lawn, with Valentine close beside
him, still discussing and fussing over the cast they had chosen for the
trout's undoing.