ounger man was
nonplused.

A woman and a girl who had arrived in Coblenz insisting that he could
identify them! Why, he knew no woman or girl in the world who would be
apt to make so unexpected an appearance! And yet for a few seconds the
names of several girls he had known in the United States in the past who
might possibly have come to Coblenz to work among the soldiers flashed
before his mental vision.

"Suppose you see the two strangers at once, Jimmie, I don't feel that I
have been polite in forcing them to wait here for me as long as they
have waited, but I was unavoidably detained. They are in a little
reception room across the way. I'll ask them to come here and speak to
you as this room is larger and more agreeable."

"Don't you think, Colonel, we might postpone the interview until the
arrival of Mrs. David Clark? Surely the women would find it more
agreeable to explain their situation to her," Major Hersey protested.

The older man shook his head.

"I have sent for Mrs. Clark, but remember she is living at some distance
from here and may not be able to come to us tonight. In a moment it will
all be over, James. If you do not know the young woman who says she
knows you, you have only to say so briefly. I have an idea, however,
that almost any young man might wish to know her. Yet if there is any
uncertainty about her story, we must see that she and her companion are
made comfortable for the night somewhere and then that she starts for
home in the morning. I have an idea from what she confided to me that
she must be sent home in any case."

A few moments later, Colonel Winfield re-entered the library with two
companions. One of them was a thin, angular woman with a large nose and
a highly colored skin. She was wearing a black dress and coat and a
black feather boa. The other was a girl of about twenty in an odd
costume. A portion of it was an American Red Cross uniform, worn and
shabby, a dark blue coat and cap with the Red Cross insignia. The girl's
skirt was of some other dark cloth, yet on her arm she carried a
splendid sable coat.

Underneath her cap her cheeks were brilliantly red and her eyes glowing.

"Countess Charlotta!" Major Hersey stammered. "What brings you to
Coblenz? You have relatives here whom you are intending to visit?"

The girl turned toward the older American officer.

"There! Major Hersey does remember me and I was so afraid he might have
forgotten! We met but once in the Red C