ur being where we are."

"Much good the objecting has done!" grumbled the officers. But in
their hearts they were very proud.

Originally there had been three in this valiant little group of young
aristocrats who have proved as true as their brothers to the
traditions of their race. The third one was the daughter of an earl.
She, too, had been decorated. But she had gone to a little town near
by a day or two before.

"But what do you do?" I asked one of these young women. She was
drawing on her mittens ready to start for their car.

"Sick and sorry work," she said briefly. "You know the sort of thing.
I wish you would come out and have dinner with us. There is to be
mutton."

I accepted promptly, but it was the situation and not the mutton that
appealed to me. It was arranged that they should go ahead and set
things in motion for the meal, and that I should follow later.

At the door one of them turned and smiled at me.

"They are shelling the village," she said. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Not at all," I replied. And I meant it. For I was no longer so
gun-shy as I had been earlier in the winter. I had got over turning
pale at the slamming of a door. I was as terrified, perhaps, but my
pride had come to my aid.

It was the English officers who disapproved so thoroughly who told me
about them when they had gone.

"Of course they have no business there," they said. "It's a frightful
responsibility to place on the men at that part of the line. But
there's no question about the value of what they are doing, and if
they want to stay they deserve to be allowed to. They go right into
the trenches, and they take care of the wounded until the ambulances
can come up at night. Wait until you see their house and you will
understand why they got those medals."

And when I had seen their house and spent an evening with them I
understood very well indeed.

We gathered round the fire; conversation was desultory. Muddy and
weary young officers, who had been at the front all day, came in and
warmed themselves for a moment before going up to their cold rooms.
The owner of the broken wind shield arrived and was placated.
Continuous relays of tea were coming and going. Colonel ----, who had
been in an observation balloon most of the day, spoke of balloon
sickness.

"I have been in balloons of one sort and another for twenty years," he
said. "I never overcome the nausea. Very few airmen do."

I spoke to him about a recent