of those houses
but was linked with a battlefield. Beyond the memory of man the reader
of the Litany had droned the accustomed invocation on behalf of the
Sovereign and the Royal Family, the Bishops, Priests and Deacons, the
Lords of the Council and all prisoners and captives, and the
congregation had lumped them all together in their responses with an
undifferentiating convention of fervour. What had prisoners and
captives, any more than the Lords of the Council, to do with their
lives, their hearts, their personal emotions? But now--Durdlebury men
were known to be prisoners in German hands, and after "all prisoners
and captives" there was a long and pregnant silence, in which was felt
the reverberation of war against pier and vaulted arch and groined
roof of the cathedral, which was broken too, now and then, by the
stifled sob of a woman, before the choir came in with the response so
new and significant in its appeal--"We beseech thee to hear us, O
Lord!"

And in every home the knitting-needles of women clicked, as they did
throughout the length and breadth of the land. And the young men left
shop and trade and counting-house. And young parsons fretted, and some
obtained the Bishop's permission to become Army chaplains, and others,
snapping their fingers (figuratively) under the Bishop's nose, threw
their cassocks to the nettles and put on the full (though in modern
times not very splendiferous) panoply of war. And in course of time
the brigade of artillery rolled away and new troops took their place;
and Marmaduke Trevor, Esquire, of Denby Hall, was called upon to
billet a couple of officers and twenty men.

Doggie was both patriotic and polite. Having a fragment of the British
Army in his house, he did his best to make them comfortable. By
January he had no doubt that the Empire was in peril, that it was
every man's duty to do his bit. He welcomed the new-comers with open
arms, having unconsciously abandoned his attitude of superiority over
mere brawn. Doggie saw the necessity of brawn. The more the better. It
was every patriotic Englishman's duty to encourage brawn. If the two
officers had allowed him, he would have fed his billeted men every two
hours on prime beefsteaks and burgundy. He threw himself heart and
soul into the reorganization of his household. Officers and men found
themselves in clover. The officers had champagne every night for
dinner. They thought Doggie a capital fellow.

"My dear chap," the