the past
few minutes had provided a climax beyond her powers.

Like the mass of young officers in the British army, Dalroy kept himself
fit, even during furlough, by long walks, daily exercises, and
systematic abstention from sleep, food, and drink. If a bed was too
comfortable he changed it. If an undertaking could be accomplished
equally well in conditions of hardship or luxury he chose hardship.
Soldiering was his profession, and he held the theory that a soldier
must always be ready to withstand the severest tax on brain and
physique. Therefore the minor privations of the journey from Berlin,
with its decidedly strenuous sequel at Aix-la-Chapelle, and this
D'Artagnan episode in the neighbourhood of Vise, had made no material
drain on his resources.

A girl like Irene Beresford, swept into the sirocco of war from
the ordered and sheltered life of a young Englishwoman of the
middle-classes, was an altogether different case. He believed her one
of the small army of British-born women who find independence and fair
remuneration for their services by acting as governesses and ladies'
companions on the Continent. Nearly every German family of wealth and
social pretensions counted the _Englische Fraeulein_ as a member of the
household; even in autocratic Prussia, _Kultur_ is not always spelt
with a "K." She was well-dressed, and supplied with ample means for
travelling; but plenty of such girls owned secured incomes, treating
a salary as an "extra." Moreover, she spoke German like a native, had

small sister in Brussels, and had evidently met Von Halwig in one of the
great houses of the capital. Undoubtedly, she was a superior type of
governess, or, it might be, English mistress in a girls' high school.

These considerations did not crowd in on Dalroy while he was holding her
in close embrace in a field near Vise at dawn on the morning of
Wednesday, 5th August. They were the outcome of nebulous ideas formed in
the train. At present, his one thought was the welfare of a hapless
woman of his own race, be she a peer's daughter or a postman's.

Now, skilled leader of men though he was, he had little knowledge of the
orthodox remedies for a fainting woman. Like most people, he was aware
that a loosening of bodices and corsets, a chafing of hands, a vigorous
massage of the feet and ankles, tended to restore circulation, and
therefore consciousness. But none of these simple methods was
practicable when a party of German sold