ucky old devil, of
course, but nothing in his head. If you shook it, it wouldn't rattle!...
He seemed to think he'd only got to say, 'Now, then, boys, give 'em
hell!' and the Germans 'ud just melt away. As I said afterwards, it's
all very well, to say 'Give 'em hell,' but you can't give it to 'em, if
you don't know what it's like!..."

But the oratory failed, and the gaiety fizzled out, and after a while
Mrs. Graham, finding the silence and her thoughts insupportable, left
them and went to bed.

"Come and say 'Good-night' to me," she said to Ninian as she left the
room.

"All right, mother!" he answered.

He tried to take up the theme of engineering again. "It's no good
trying to chivy Germans in the way you chivy foxes. You've got to think,
and think hard. That's where we come in!..." But it was a poor effort,
and he abandoned it quickly.

"I think," he said, "I'll go up and say 'Good-night' to mother. You
two'll see to things!..."

"Righto, Ninian," Henry answered.

Mary came and sat beside him when Ninian had gone.

"I'm trying to feel proud," she said, "but...."

"Don't you feel proud?" he asked, fondling her.

"No. I'm anxious. It would hurt mother terribly if anything were to
happen to Ninian," she answered.

"Nothing will happen to him...."

One said that just because it was comforting.

"Quinny," she said, drawing herself up to him and leaning her elbows on
his knees, "do you love me really and truly?..."

He put his arms quickly about her, and drew her close to him, and kissed
her passionately.

"But you haven't loved only me," she said, freeing herself.

He did not answer.

"I've never loved any one but you," she went on. "I haven't been able to
love any one but you. I've tried to love some one else ... tried very
hard!"

"Who was it?" he asked.

"No one you knew. It was after I'd seen you with Lady Cecily Jayne. I
was jealous, Quinny!..."

"My dear," he said, flattered by the oneness of her love for him.

"But I couldn't. I just couldn't. I suppose I'm rather limited!" She
made a wry smile as she spoke. "I felt stupid beside her. She talked so
easily, and I couldn't think of anything to say. You must have thought I
was a fool, Quinny!"

"No, Mary!..."

"Oh, but I was. I got stupider and stupider, and the more I thought of
how stupid I was, the stupider I got. I could have cried with vexation.
Do you remember Gilbert's party ... I mean when it was over and we were
going home?"