he resented the war because it
interfered with her own definitely marked out scheme of existence. The
war over, she would regard it politely as a thing that had never been,
and would forthwith set to work upon her aforesaid interrupted plan.
And towards a comprehension of this apparent serenity the perplexed
mind of Doggie groped with ill-success. All his old values had been
kicked into higgledy-piggledy confusion. All hers remained steadfast.

So Doggie reflected with some grimness that there are rougher roads
than those which lead to the trenches.

A letter from Phineas did not restore equanimity. It ran:

"MY DEAR LADDIE,--

"Our unsophisticated friend, Mo, and myself are writing this
letter together and he bids me begin it by saying that he hopes
it finds you as it leaves us at present, in a muck of dust and
perspiration. Where we are now I must not tell, for (in the
opinion of the Censor) you would reveal it to the very Reverend
the Dean of Durdlebury, who would naturally telegraph the
information to the Kaiser. But the Division is far, far from the
idyllic land of your dreams, and there is bloody fighting ahead
of us. And though the hearts of Mo and me go out to you, laddie,
and though we miss you sore, yet Mo says he's blistering glad
you're out of it and safe in your perishing bed with a Blighty
one. And such, in more academic phraseology, are the sentiments
of your old friend Phineas.

"Ah, laddie! it was a bad day when we marched from the old
billets; for the word had gone round that we weren't going back.
I had taken the liberty of telling the lassie ye ken of
something about your private position and your worldly affairs,
of which it seems you had left her entirely ignorant. Of course,
with my native Scottish caution, and my knowledge of human
nature gained in the academies of prosperity and the ragged
schools of adversity, I did not touch on certain matters of a
delicate nature. That is no business of mine. If there is
discretion in this world in which you can trust blindly, it is
that of Phineas McPhail. I just told her of Denby Hall and your
fortune, which I fairly accurately computed at a couple of
million francs. For I thought it was right she should know that
you weren't just a scallywag private soldier like the rest of
us. And I am bound to say that the lassie was considerably