Rose Otway ran up to her room and locked the door. She had fled there to
read her first love-letter.
"MY DARLING ROSE,--This is only to tell you that I love you. I
have been writing letters to you in my heart ever since I went
away. But this is the first moment I have been able to put one
down on paper. Father and mother never leave me--that sounds
absurd, but it's true. If father isn't there, then mother is.
Mother comes into my room after I am in bed, and tucks me up,
just as she used to do when I was a little boy.
"It's a great rush, for what I have so longed for is going to
happen, so you must not be surprised if you do not have
another letter from me for some time. But you will know, my
darling love, that I am thinking of you all the time. I am so
happy, Rose--I feel as if God has given me everything I ever
wanted all at once.
"Your own devoted
"JERVIS."
And then there was a funny little postscript, which made her smile
through her tears: "You will think this letter all my--'I.' But that
doesn't really matter now, as you and I are one!"
Rose soon learnt her first love-letter by heart. She made a little silk
envelope for it, and wore it on her heart. It was like a bit of Jervis
himself--direct, simple, telling her all she wanted to know, yet leaving
much unsaid. Rose had once been shown a love-letter in which the word
"kiss" occurred thirty-four times. She was glad that there was nothing
of that sort in Jervis's letter, and yet she longed with a piteous,
aching longing to feel once more his arms clasping her close, his lips
trembling on hers....
At last her mother asked her casually, "Has Jervis Blake written to you,
my darling?" And she said, "Yes, mother; once. I think he's busy,
getting his outfit."
"Ah, well, they won't think of sending out a boy as young as that, even
if Major Guthrie was right in thinking our Army is going to France." And
Rose to that had made no answer. She was convinced that Jervis was going
on active service. There was one sentence in his letter which could mean
nothing else.
* * * * *
Life in Witanbury, after that first week of war, settled down much as
before. There was a general impression that everything was going very
well. The brave little Belgians were defending their country with skill
and tenacity, and the German Army was being "held up."
The Close was full of mild amateur strategists, headed by the Dean
himself. Great as had been, and was still, his admiration for Germany,
Dr. Haworth was of course an Englishman first; and every day, when
opening his morning paper, he expected to learn that there had been
another Trafalgar. He felt certain that the German Fleet was sure to
make, as he expressed it, "a dash for it." Germany was too gallant a
nation, and the Germans were too proud of their fleet, to keep their
fighting ships in harbour. The Dean of Witanbury, like the vast majority
of his countrymen and countrywomen, still regarded War as a great game
governed by certain well-known rules which both sides, as a matter of
course, would follow and abide by.
The famous cathedral city was doing "quite nicely" in the matter of
recruiting. And the largest local employer of labour, a man who owned a
group of ladies' high-grade boot and shoe factories, generously decided
that he would permit ten per cent. of those of his men who were of
military age to enlist; he actually promised as well to keep their
places open, and to give their wives, or their mothers, as the case
might be, half wages for the first six months of war.
A good many people felt aggrieved when it became known that Lady Bethune
was not going to give her usual August garden party. She evidently did
not hold with the excellent suggestion that England should now take as
her motto "Business as Usual." True, a garden-party is not exactly
business--still, it is one of those pleasures which the great ladies of
a country neighbourhood find it hard to distinguish from duties.
Yes, life went on quite curiously as usual during the second week of the
Great War, and to many of the more well-to-do people of Witanbury, only
brought in its wake a series of agreeable "thrills" and mild
excitements.
Of course this was not quite the case with the inmates of the Trellis
House. Poor old Anna, for instance, very much disliked the process of
Registration. Still, it was made as easy and pleasant to her as
possible, and Mrs. Otway and Rose both accompanied her to the police
station. There, nothing could have been more kindly than the manner of
the police inspector who handed Anna Bauer her "permit." He went to some
trouble in order to explain to her exactly what it was she might and
might not do.
As Anna seldom had any occasion to travel as far as five miles from
Witanbury Close, her registration brought with it no hardship at all.
Still, she was surprised and hurt to find herself described as "an enemy
alien." She could assure herself, even now, that she had no bad feelings
against England--no, none at all!
Though neither her good faithful servant nor her daughter guessed the
fact, Mrs. Otway was the one inmate of the Trellis House to whom the
War, so far, brought real unease. She felt jarred and upset--anxious,
too, as she had never yet been, about her money matters.
More and more she missed Major Guthrie, and yet the thought of him
brought discomfort, almost pain, in its train. With every allowance
made, he was surely treating her in a very cavalier manner. How odd of
him not to have written! Whenever he had been away before, he had always
written to her, generally more than once; and now, when she felt that
their friendship had suddenly come closer, he left her without a line.
Her only comfort, during those strange days of restless waiting for news
which never came, were her daily talks with the Dean. Their mutual love
and knowledge of Germany had always been a strong link between them, and
it was stronger now than ever.
Alone of all the people she saw, Dr. Haworth managed to make her feel at
charity with Germany while yet quite confident with regard to her
country's part in the War. He did not say so in so many words, but it
became increasingly clear to his old friend and neighbour, that the Dean
believed that the Germans would soon be conquered, on land by Russia and
by France, while the British, following their good old rule, would
defeat them at sea.
Many a time, during those early days of war, Mrs. Otway felt a thrill of
genuine pity for Germany. True, the Militarist Party there deserved the
swift defeat that was coming on them; they deserved it now, just as the
French Empire had deserved it in 1870, though Mrs. Otway could not
believe that modern Germany was as arrogant and confident as had been
the France of the Second Empire.
Much as she missed Major Guthrie, she was sometimes glad that he was not
there to--no, not to crow over her, he was incapable of doing that, but
to be proved right.
There was a great deal of talk of the mysterious passage of Russians
through the country. Some said there were twenty thousand, some a
hundred thousand, and the stories concerning this secret army of
avengers grew more and more circumstantial. They reached Witanbury Close
from every quarter. And though for a long time the Dean held out, he at
last had to admit that, yes, he did believe that a Russian army was
being swiftly, secretly transferred, _via_ Archangel and Scotland, to
the Continent! More than one person declared that they had actually
_seen_ Cossacks peeping out of the windows of the trains which, with
blinds down, were certainly rushing through Witanbury station, one every
ten minutes, through each short summer night.
All the people the Otways knew took great glory and comfort in these
rumours, but Mrs. Otway heard the news with very mixed feelings. It
seemed to her scarcely fair that a Russian army should come, as it were,
on the sly, to attack the Germans in France--and she did not like to
feel that England would for ever and for aye have to be grateful to
Russia for having sent an army to her help.
* * * * *
It was the morning of the 18th of August--exactly a fortnight, that is,
since England's declaration of war on Germany. Coming down to breakfast,
Mrs. Otway suddenly realised what a very, very long fortnight this had
been--the longest fortnight in her life as a grown-up woman. She felt
what she very seldom was, depressed, and as she went into the
dining-room she was sorry to see that there was a sullen look on old
Anna's face.
"Good morning!" she said genially in German. And in reply the old
servant, after a muttered "Good morning, gracious lady," went on, in a
tone of suppressed anger, "Did you not tell me that the English were not
going to fight my people? That it was all a mistake?"
Mrs. Otway looked surprised. "Yes, I feel sure that no soldiers are
going abroad," she said quietly. "The Dean says that our Army is to be
kept at home, to defend our shores, Anna."
She spoke rather coldly; there was a growing impression in Witanbury
that the Germans might try to invade England, and behave here as they
were behaving in Belgium. Though Mrs. Otway and Rose tried to believe
that the horrible stories of burning and murder then taking place in
Flanders were exaggerated, still some of them were very circumstantial
and, in fact, obviously true.
Languidly, for there never seemed any real news nowadays, she opened
wide her newspaper. And then her heart gave a leap! Printed right across
the page, in huge black letters, ran the words:
"BRITISH EXPEDITIONARY FORCE IN FRANCE."
And underneath, in smaller type:
"LANDED AT BOULOGNE WITHOUT A SINGLE CASUALTY."
Then Major Guthrie had been right and the Dean wrong? And this was why
Anna had spoken as she had done just now, in that rather rude and
injured tone?
Later in the morning, when she met the Dean, he showed himself, as might
have been expected, very frank and genial about the matter.
"I have to admit that I was wrong," he observed; "quite wrong. I
certainly thought it impossible that any British troops could cross the
Channel till a decisive fleet action had been fought. And, well--I don't
mind saying to _you_, Mrs. Otway, I still think it a pity that we have
sent our Army abroad."
* * * * *
Three days later Rose and her mother each received a quaint-looking
postcard from "Somewhere in France." There was neither postmark nor
date. The first four words were printed, but what was really _very_
strange was the fact that the sentences written in were almost similar
in each case. But whereas Jervis Blake wrote his few words in English,
Major Guthrie's few words were written in French.
Jervis Blake's postcard ran:
"I AM QUITE WELL and very happy. This is a glorious country. I will
write a letter soon." And then "J. B."
That of Major Guthrie:
"I AM QUITE WELL." Then, in queer archaic French, "and all goes well
with me. I trust it is the same with thee. Will write soon."
But he, mindful of the fact that it was an open postcard, with your
Scotchman's true caution, had not even added his initials.
Mrs. Otway's only comment on hearing that Jervis Blake had written Rose
a postcard from France, had been the words, said feelingly, and with a
sigh, "Ah, well! So he has gone out too? He is very young to see
something of real war. But I expect that it will make a man of him, poor
boy."
For a moment Rose had longed to throw herself in her mother's arms and
tell her the truth; then she had reminded herself that to do so would
not be fair to Jervis. Jervis would have told his people of their
engagement if she had allowed him to do so. It was she who had prevented
it. And then--and then--Rose also knew, deep in her heart, that if
anything happened to Jervis, she would far rather bear the agony alone.
She loved her mother dearly, but she told herself, with the curious
egoism of youth, that her mother would not understand.
Rose had been four years old when her father died; she thought she could
remember him, but it was a very dim, shadowy memory. She did not
realise, even now, that her mother had once loved, once lost, once
suffered. She did not believe that her mother knew anything of love--of
real love, of true love, of such love as now bound herself to Jervis
Blake.
Her mother no doubt supposed Rose's friendship with Jervis Blake to be
like her own friendship with Major Guthrie--a cold, sensible, placid
affair. In fact, she had said, with a smile, "It's rather amusing, isn't
it, that Jervis should write to you, and Major Guthrie to me, by the
same post?"
But neither mother nor daughter had offered to show her postcard to the
other. There was so little on them that it had not seemed necessary. Of
the two, it was Mrs. Otway who felt a little shy. The wording of Major
Guthrie's postcard was so peculiar! Of course he did not know French
well, or he would have put what he wanted to say differently. He would
have said "you" instead of "thee." She was rather glad that her dear
little Rose had not asked to see it. Still, its arrival mollified her
sore, hurt feeling that he might have written before. Instead of tearing
it up, as she had always done the letters Major Guthrie had written to
her in the old days that now seemed so very long ago, she slipped that
curious war postcard inside the envelope in which were placed his
bank-notes.