moving—flags were moving. Their own flags—Union Jack with Old
Glory—were moving. The Crossley was moving. . . .
“Forrard away,” hallooed Brigadier General the Weasel, still astride the
radiator. “Forrard away, sir,” Peter howled back from the driving
seat. . . .
Pandemonium! Everybody was dancing. The flags were dancing. Men and
women on the sidewalk were dancing. Soldiers were dancing—English
soldiers and American soldiers, French soldiers and Belgian soldiers,
Portuguese and Japanese and Italian soldiers—lame soldiers and legless
soldiers and armless soldiers—ill soldiers and well soldiers. Sailors
were dancing—English sailors and American sailors, French sailors and
Italian sailors and Japanese sailors. The very houses were dancing:
floods of white paper came dancing down out of the dancing houses. Their
own car was dancing: her cushions were dancing: they could feel her
engine dancing. They themselves were dancing: they could feel their
hearts dancing inside them: the blood was dancing in their veins,
dancing and dancing. . . .
* * * * *
But late that Armistice Day afternoon when the five sat knee-to-knee in
the closed and motionless car—Hyde Park trees at its windows, rain
tapping on its taut roof; when they poured the dancing wine of Francis’
forethought from gold-foiled bottle-neck and clinked brimmed glasses in
token of civilization’s triumph over the Beast; when the Weasel,
speaking solemnly as though he were proposing the King’s Health on
guest-night, gave them: “Our men, God bless them, our splendid, splendid
men!”—then Beatrice and Patricia could have sworn that they saw the
tears of their own hearts reflected not only in their lovers’ eyes, but
in the hard blue eyes of Brigadier General Douglas Stark, Royal Field
Artillery.
THE END
_The characters of Peter Jameson and his wife Patricia were
originally conceived in Stockholm, Sweden, one night in June,
1912. Their story was finally brought to fruition at The Old
Barn, Oxfordshire, England, in November, 1919._
TRANSCRIBER NOTES
Mis-spelled words and printer errors have been fixed.
Inconsistency in hyphenation has been retained.
Inconsistency in accents has been retained.