will
be one in ten or twenty, or as many as are to go. Think what it would
be if you were the only man in Italy, the one, single, only officer
who could certainly accomplish something very dangerous to help your
country--and if you refused to do it!'

'There are hundreds of better men than I for the work,' objected
Giovanni.

'I doubt it. Are there hundreds of engineer officers on the General
Staff?'

'No, but there are plenty----'

'A score, perhaps, and you have been chosen, no matter why, and there
is danger, and there is a great thing to be done, perhaps a great
good, which in the end will save the lives, or help the lives, of many
Italians! And you want to refuse to do it--for what? For a woman, for a
girl you love! Do you think she will love you the more, or less, for
keeping out of danger, if she is a true Italian as she thinks you are?
Why is it that our Italy, which no one thought much of a few years
ago, is coming to the front in so many ways now? It was not by staying
at home for women's sake that our sailors have got nearer the North
Pole than all the others who have tried! It is not by avoiding danger
that our officers are learning to astonish everybody with their
riding----'

'That is different,' objected Giovanni. 'It is one thing to do daring
things----'

'Yes,' interrupted Angela, not letting him speak, 'it is the one and
only thing, when it is good daring and can bring good, and helps the
world to see that Italy is not dead yet, in spite of all that has been
said and written against us and our unity. No, no, I say! Go, do your
duty, do and dare, wherever and howsoever your country needs you, and
I will wait for you, and be glad to wait for that one reason, which is
the best of all. If you love me half as dearly as I love you, go back
at once and tell your chief that you are ready, and are proud to be
used wherever you can be of any use! And if there is danger to be
faced, think that you are to face it for my sake as well as for
Italy's, and not in spite of me, for I would ten thousand times rather
that you should die in doing your duty--ever so obscurely--than stay
here to be called a coward in order that we may be rich when we
marry!'

Giovanni listened, more and more surprised at her energy and quick
flow of words, but glad at heart that she was urging him to do what
was right and honourable.

'It was for you that I meant to stay,' he said. 'Hard as it is to
leave you, it would have been