don't even know myself when I am going, where I am
going, or how I am going."

They were now standing in the hall.

"Then you don't expect to be long in London?"
she said.

"No. I should think I shall only be there two or
three days. Of course I've got to get my kit, and to
see people at the War Office, and so on." He added
in a low voice, "There's not going to be any repetition
of the things that went on at the time of the
Boer War -- no leave-takings, no regiments marching
through the streets. It's our object, so I understand,
to take the Germans by surprise. Everything is going
to be done to keep the fact that the Expeditionary
Force is going to France a secret for the present. I
had that news by the second post; an old friend of
mine at the War Office wrote to me."

He gripped her hand in so tight a clasp that it hurt.
Then he turned the handle of the front door, opened
it, and was gone.

Mrs. Otway felt a sudden longing for sympathy.
She went straight into the kitchen. "Anna!" she
exclaimed, "Major Guthrie is going back into the
Army! England is sending troops over to the Continent
to help the Belgians!"

"Ach!" exclaimed Anna. "To Ostend?" She had
once spent a summer at Ostend in a boarding-house,
where she had been hard-worked and starved. Since
then she had always hated the Belgians.

"No, no," said Mrs. Otway quickly. "Not to Ostend.
To Boulogne, in France."

[[106]]

p105 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p106w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p107

v?