ME

For the next two weeks Marta's role resolved itself into a kind of
routine. Their cramped quarters became spacious to the three women in
the intimacy of the common secret shared by them under the very nose of
the staff. With little Clarissa Eileen, they formed the only feminine
society in the neighborhood. On sunshiny days Mrs. Galland was usually
to be found in her favorite chair outside the tower door; and here Minna
set the urn on a table at four-thirty as in the old days.

No member of the staff was more frequently present at Marta's teas than
Bouchard, who was developing his social instinct late in life by sitting
in the background and allowing others to do the talking while he watched
and listened. In his hearing, Marta's attitude toward the progress of
the war was sympathetic but never interrogatory, while she shared
attention with Clarissa Eileen, who was in danger of becoming spoiled by
officers who had children of their own at home. After the reports of
killed and wounded, which came with such appalling regularity, it was a
relief to hear of the day's casualties among Clarissa's dolls. The chief
of transportation and supply rode her on his shoulder; the chief of
tactics played hide-and-seek with her; the chief engineer built her a
doll house of stones with his own hands; and the chief medical officer
was as concerned when she caught a cold as if the health of the army
were at stake.

"We mustn't get too set up over all this attention, Clarissa Eileen, my
rival," said Marta to the child. "You are the only little girl and I am
the only big girl within reach. If there were lots of others it would
be different."

She had occasional glimpses of Hugo Mallin on his crutches, keeping in
the vicinity of the shrubbery that screened the stable from the house.
How Marta longed to talk with him! But he was always attended by a
soldier, and under the rigorous discipline that held all her impulses
subservient to her purpose she passed by him without a word lest she
compromise her position.

Bouchard was losing flesh; his eyes were sinking deeper under a heavier
frown. His duty being to get information, he was gaining none. His duty
being to keep the Grays' secrets, there was a leak somewhere in his own
department. He quizzed subordinates; he made abrupt transfers, to no
avail.

Meanwhile, the Grays were taking the approaches to the main line of
defence, which had been thought relatively immaterial but had been f