arm in his, their subdued voices trembling with the repression
of emotion, they retraced their steps. Back past the church with its
white gravestones so curiously peaceful in the midst of it all; past the
inn, jovial with light and the clamour of village oracles; past the
forge, with its lifeless fires a presage of things to come; past the
cross-roads, where the sign-post, silhouetted against the sky, seemed no
longer a gibbet, but a crucifix; past cottages stirring with unaccustomed
life, unconscious of the unbidden guest that was soon to knock with
ghostly fingers at almost every door.

Along the quiet English lane they walked, but though the closeness of the
girl beside him was ministering to the senses, his mind remained so
clutched in the grip of thought that his head throbbed with pain with
each step of his foot jarring upon the road.

They had reached the entrance to the estate and were nearing the house,
when his reverie was broken by the sound of a quivering breath and a
trembling of the hand on his arm. Like a conflagration that is already
out of control, his brain flared into further revolt with the stimulus of
a new resentment--he had not thought of woman's part in the thing.

'Elise,' he cried, 'this is monstrous. It is only the vile selfishness
of men that makes it possible. They are not giving a thought to the
women, yet you are the real sufferers. Now I know what you meant when
you said that women don't have their place in the world. If they did,
this never could have happened; for their hearts would never permit the
men that are born of women to slaughter each other like bestial savages.
Now is the time for you to speak. This is the hour for your rebellion.
Let the whole world of women rise in a body and denounce this inhuman,
insufferable wrong. If your rebellion is ever to come, let it come now.'

The hand on his arm was wrenched free, and Elise stood facing him with
fury in her eyes.

'Are you mad, Mr. Selwyn? Or is this your idea of a joke?'

He stared at her, dumbfounded. Her eyes were glowing, and her lips were
parched with the fever of the breath passing through them.

'A joke?' he said. 'Great heavens! Do you think I would jest on such a
subject?'

'But---- You mean that we women should organise, rise up, to hinder our
men from going to war?'

'Doesn't your heart tell you how infamous war is?'

'What does that matter?'

'But, Elise,' he pleaded desperately, 'some one mu