d over
his smoothly shaven face.

"Those splendid poilus," he said; "where they stand we Americans ought
to be standing, too.... God knows why we hesitate.... I can't tell you
what we think.... Some of us--don't agree--with the Administration."

His jaws snapped on the word; he stared out through the sunshine at
the swallows, now skimming the uncut hay fields in their gusty evening
flight.

"Are you really going?" she asked, at length.

"Yes. I'll wait a little while longer to see what my country is going
to do. If it doesn't stir during the next month or two, I shall go. I
think Garry will go, too."

She nodded.

"Of course," he remarked, "we'd prefer our own flag, Garry and I. But
if it is to remain furled----" He shrugged, picked a spear of grass,
and sat brooding and breaking it into tiny pieces.

"The only thing that troubles me," he went on presently, keeping his
gaze riveted on his busy fingers, "the only thing that worries me is
you!"

"Me?" she exclaimed softly. And an inexplicable little thrill shot
through her.

"You," he repeated. "You worry me to death."

She considered him a moment, her lips parted as though she were about
to say something, but it remained unsaid, and a slight colour came
into her cheeks.

"What am I to do about you?" he went on, apparently addressing the
blade of grass he was staring at. "I can't leave you as matters
stand."

She said:

"Please, you are not responsible for me, are you?" And tried to laugh,
but scarcely smiled.

"I want to be," he muttered. "I desire to be entirely----"

"Thank you. You have been more than kind. And very soon I hope I shall
be on happy terms with my own Government again. Then your solicitude
should cease."

"If your Government listens to reason----"

"Then I also could go to France!" she interrupted. "Merely to think of
it excites me beyond words!"

He looked up quickly:

"You wish to go back?"

"Of course!"

"Why?"

"How can you ask that! If you had been a disgraced exile as I have
been, as I still am--and falsely accused of shameful things--annoyed,
hounded, blackmailed, offered bribes, constantly importuned to become
what I am not--a traitor to my own people--would you not be wildly
happy to be proven innocent? Would you not be madly impatient to
return and prove your devotion to your own land?"

"I understand," he said in a low voice.

"Of course you understand. Do you imagine that I, a French girl, would
have remai