lief and went over and sat on his knee and put her arms round his neck.
"Oh, John, I was so frightened. But what is it? There's something."
He smoked rapidly for a little. Then he put his pipe down, kissed her, and lifted her off his knee.
"I want to tell you something," he said; "but you mustn't look at me or I couldn't. Sit down there." She curled herself up on the floor, leaning back against his knees. "Mary"--he swallowed something which had stuck in his throat--"Mary, I've got to enlist."
She was round in a flash.
"What do you mean you've got to?" she cried indignantly. "That beast going to make you?" The beast was John's employer, a kindly man, whose fault it was to regard John as one only among many, a matter on which Mary often longed to put him right.
"No," said John. "But--but I've got to."
"Who's making you, then?"
"I don't know ... I suppose the GERMAN EMPEROR really."
"There's lots that ought to go before you go. You
