, and listen, and
look, and listen, unwatched. She could not see the street, for below
their dormer the roof ran down steeply a yard or more to the eaves; but
she had full command of the opposite houses, and at one of the windows a
young girl was dressing herself. The woman watched her plait her fair
hair, looking sideways the while at a little mirror; and saw her put on
a poor necklace and remove it again and try a piece of ribbon.
Gradually the watcher became interested; from interest she passed to
speculation, and wondered with a slight shudder how this girl would fare
between that and morning. And then the girl looked up and met the
woman's eyes with the innocence of her own--and the woman fell back from
the window as if a hand had struck her.

She went no more after that to the window; but until it was quite dark
she sat in a chair with her hands on her lap, forcing herself to
quietude, as women will, where men would tramp the floor unceasingly.
When it was quite dark she trimmed and lit the lamp, and still she did
not repent. But she listened more and more closely, and with less
concealment. And the face of the girl preening herself at her poor
mirror returned again and again, and troubled her. She could contemplate
the fate of the town as a whole, and say, let it be! Ay, in God's name
let it be! But the one face seen at a window, the one case brought home
to her, clung to her mind, and pricked and pained her--dully.

By-and-by she heard the clock strike ten, and her daughter, turning
feverishly on the bed, asked her peevishly when she was going to lie
down. "Presently," she answered, "presently." And still she sat and
listened, and still the girl's face haunted her. She began to picture in
detail the thing for which she was waiting. She fancied that she could
hear the first alert, followed by single cries, these by a roar of
alarm, this by the wild rush of feet; then she heard the crashing
volley, the rattle of hoofs on the pavement, the whirl of the flight
through the streets, the shouts of "Germany! Germany!" as the troops
swept in triumphant! And then--ah, then!--she heard the things that
would follow, the crashing in of doors, the sudden glare of flames, the
screams of men driven to the wall, the yells of drunken Saxons, the
shrieks of women, the----

No more! No more! She could not bear it. With a shudder she stood erect,
and looked about her--wildly. The lamp burned low, her daughter was
asleep. With a s