Part 23 (1/2)

We packed, bicycles and all, into ed in the narrow seat beside Haave thanks for the lift in the broadest Doric 'For,' said he, 'I'm not what you would call a practised hand wi' a velocipede, and my feet are dinnled wi' standin' in the snaw'

As for me, the miles to Douvecourt passed as in a blissful , and after that we did not speak a word I had coreat possession and was dazed with the joy of it

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Mr Blenkiron Discourses on Love and War

Three days later I got my orders to report at Paris for special service They came none too soon, for I chafed at each hour's delay Every thought in ainst Ivery He was the big enemy, compared to whom the ordinary Boche in the trenches was innocent and friendly I had almost lost interest in my division, for I knew that for me the real battle-front was not in Picardy, and that th of line Also I longed to be at the sa up in billets thethat I had become extraordinarily rich I felt very humble, too, and very kindly towards all the world-even to the Boche, though I can't say I had ever hated hi journalists and politicians at ho men I wanted to be quiet and alone to think, and since that was impossible I went about my work in a happy abstraction I tried not to look ahead, but only to live in the present, re that a as on, and that there was desperate and dangerous business beforeon a slender thread Yet for all that I had soo free, and revel in delicious dreaht round, and that was Ivery I do not think I hated anybody in the world but hi me He had the insolence with all his toad-like past to irl I felt that he and I stood as ht pleased me, for it helped oing to win Twice I had failed, but the third tiun-first short, second over, and I vowed that the third should be dead on the mark

I was sureatest British commander I can see yet his patient, kindly face and that steady eye which no vicissitude of fortune could perturb He took the biggest view, for he was statesman as well as soldier, and knew that the whole world was one battle-field and everythe combatant nations was in the battle-line So contradictory is human nature, that talk o on serving under that man I realized suddenly how ot back toin fro theh I say it who shouldn't, there wasn't a better division in the Ar a few days later I picked up Mary in Amiens I always liked the place, for after the dirt of the Soo there for a bath and a square meal, and it had the noblest church that the hand ofe started from the boulevard beside the railway station; and the air sby, just as in any other city far frouns There was very little khaki or horizon-blue about, and I reot out of the war-zone Two months later it was a different story

To the end I shall count that day as one of the happiest in h the trees and fields had still their winter colouring A thousand good fresh scents came out of the earth, and the larks were busy over the new furrows I relen, where a strea sallows, and the roadside trees were heavy with mistletoe On the tableland beyond the Somme valley the sun shone like April At Beauvais we lunched badly in an inn-badly as to food, but there was an excellent Burgundy at two francs a bottle Then we slipped down through little flat-chested townshi+ps to the Seine, and in the late afternoon passed through St Ger the trees set lish countryside where Mary and I would one day h spirits all the journey, but when I spoke of the Cotswolds her face grew grave

'Don't let us speak of it, dick,' she said 'It's too happy a thing and I feel as if it would wither if we touched it I don't let myself think of peace and hoet there so road to the Delectable Mountains, and Faithful, you know, has to die firstThere is a price to be paid'

The words sobered me

'Who is our Faithful?' I asked

'I don't know But he was the best of the Pilgried, and e ca down the Chahts were twinkling in the blue January dusk, and the warreet us I knew little of the place, for I had visited it once only on a four days' Paris leave, but it had see from the battle-field with Mary byof a dream

I left her at her cousin's house near the Rue St Honore, and depositedto instructions, at the Hotel Louis Quinze There I ed in a hot bath, and got into the civilian clothes which had been sent on from London They ood and all this time Blenkiron had a private room, where ere to dine; and a ar boxes I have never seen, for he hadn't a notion of tidiness I could hear hi at his toilet in the adjacent bedroom, and I noticed that the table was laid for three I went downstairs to get a paper, and on the way ran into Launcelot Wake

He was no longer a private in a Labour Battalion Evening clothes showed beneath his overcoat 'Hullo, Wake, are you in this push too?'

'I suppose so,' he said, and his manner was not cordial 'Anyhoas ordered down here My business is to do as I a to dine?' I asked

'No I' with some friends at the Crillon'

Then he looked me in the face, and his eyes were hot as I first reratulate you, Hannay,' and he held out a li

'You don't like it?' I said, for I guessed what he rily 'Good Lord, man, you'll murder her soul You an ordinary, stupid, successful fellow and she-she's theGod ever made You can never understand a fraction of her preciousness, but you'll clip her wings all right She can never fly now '

He poured out this hysterical stuff toof an elderly French ith a poodle I had no iry, for I was far too happy

'Don't, Wake,' I said 'We're all too close together to quarrel I'm not fit to black Mary's shoes You can't put h But I've at least the sense to know it You couldn't want ed his shoulders, as he went out to the street 'Your infernal nanimity would break any man's temper'