n the days when I used to call," he said graciously. "Tea
was from four to five, do you remember? Will you join me? I have just
ordered it."

A generous, pleasant conqueror, this! No one knew better than Westerling
how to be one when he chose. He was something of an actor. Leaders of
men of his type usually are.

"Why, yes. Very gladly!" she assented with no undue cordiality and no
undue constraint, quite as if there were no war.

"It was the Browns who cut the lindens?" he suggested significantly.

"They said that it was necessary as part of the defence," she replied.
"We shall plant new ones and have the pleasure of watching them grow."

Neutrality could not be better impersonated he thought, than in the
even cleaving of her lips over the words. They seemed to say that a
storm had come and gone and a new set of masters had taken the place of
the old. As they approached the veranda Francois was placing the tea
things.

"Quite the same! That was your chair, as I remember," said Westerling
after indicating to Francois that he might go, "and this was mine."

But the teapot was not Mrs. Galland's--it belonged to the staff.

"This is different," observed Marta, touching her finger-tip to the coat
of arms of the Grays on the side of a cup.

"Yes, my own field kit," he answered, thinking that the novelty of tea
from a soldier's service had appealed to her; for she was smiling.

"So, you being the host and I the guest now, why, you pour!" she said.
There was a touch of brittleness in her tone--of half-teasing,
half-serious brittleness.

"Oh, no, no!" he protested laughingly, and found her glance flashing
through her brows holding him fast in an indefinable challenge.

"I shall pour when you do us the honor to come to tea at the gardener's
quarters in the tower," she said.

"No, no!" he objected. "The tea conditions are the same as before."

He was earnest for his point. It would please his masculine fancy to
watch those firm, small fingers pausing over the cup before the plunge
of a lump of sugar stirred the miniature ocean in waves; to watch the
firm little hand in its grip of the handle of the pot.

"Conditions the same as before?" She laughed softly. "How can they be in
my thoughts or yours?" she asked with a sudden show of seriousness.

"We did turn you out of house and home--I understand!" he exclaimed
apologetically. "And that is the symbol of it to you!" He indicated the
coat of arms.

"The symbol of