any betrayal of sentiment between two people past
early youth Anna had very scant mercy.

She had also noticed lately, with mingled regret
and contempt, that Mrs. Otway now had a few grey
threads in her fair, curling hair. If the gracious lady
were not careful, she would look quite old and ugly
by the time Major Guthrie came back!

At intervals, indeed every few days, Rose received
a short, and of course read-by-the-censor letter from
Jervis Blake. He had missed the first onrush of the
German Army and the Great Retreat, for he had been
what they called "in reserve," kept for nearly three
full weeks close to the French port where he had
landed. Then there came a long, trying silence, till
a letter written by his mother to Mrs. Otway revealed
the fact that he was at last in the fighting-line, on the
river Aisne.

"You have always been so kind to my dear boy
that I know you will be interested to learn that lately
he has been in one or two very dangerous 'scraps,'
as they seem to be called. They are not supposed
to tell one anything in their letters, and Jervis as a
matter of fact no longer even writes postcards. But
my husband knows exactly where he is, and we can
but hope and pray, from day to day, that he is safe."

It was on the very day that Mrs. Otway read to
Rose this letter from Lady Blake that there arrived
at the Trellis House a telegram signed Robert Allen:
"Have ascertained that Major Guthrie is alive and
prisoner in Germany. Letter follows."

But when the letter came it told tantalisingly little,
for it merely conveyed the fact that the name of Major

[[204]]

p203 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p204w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p205

v?