of the War Office, and was being freely named as the head of an important Military Mission to one of the Allied Headquarters.  What would become of Cicely and the wedding, if the post were given him, and—­as was probable—­at a day’s warning—­was not quite clear.  Cicely, however, took it calmly.  ‘They can’t give us less than three hours’ notice—­and if it’s after two o’clock, we can always get married somehow by five.  You scurry round, pay fifty pounds, and somebody at Lambeth does it.  Then—­I should see him safely off in the evening!’

Meanwhile Bridget Cookson was living in her usual Bloomsbury boarding-house, holding herself quite aloof from the idle ways of its inmates, who, in the midst of the world-war, were still shopping as usual in the mornings and spending the afternoons in tea and gossip.  Bridget, however, was scarcely employing her own time to any greater profit for a burdened country.  She was learning various languages, and attending a number of miscellaneous lectures.  Her time was fairly full, and she lived in an illusion of multifarious knowledge which flattered her vanity.  She was certainly far cleverer; and better-educated than the other women of her boarding-house; and she was one of those persons who throughout life prefer to live with their inferiors.  ’The only remedy against a superiority,’—­says some French writer—­’is to love it.’  But Bridget was so made that she could not love it; she could only pull it down and belittle it.

But all the same, Bridget Cookson was no monster, though she was probably without feelings and instincts that most people possess.  She missed Nelly a good deal, more than Nelly herself would have believed.  And she thought now, that she had behaved like a fool in not recognising Sarratt at once, and so preserving her influence with her sister.  Morally, however, she saw no great harm in what she had done.  It was arguable, at any rate.  Everything was arguable.  As to the effect on Nelly of the outward and visible facts of Sarratt’s death, it seemed to have been exactly what she, Bridget, had foreseen.  Through some Manchester acquaintance she succeeded in getting occasional news of Nelly, who was, it appeared, killing herself with hard and disagreeable work.  She heard also from the woman left in charge of the Loughrigg farm that all Mrs. Sarratt’s personal possessions had been sent to the care of Miss Martin, and that Sir William had shut up the cottage and never came there.  Sometimes Bridget would grimly contrast this state of things with what might have happened, had her stroke succeeded, and had George died unrecognised.  In that event how many people would have been made happy, who were now made miserable!

The winter passed away, the long and bitter winter which seemed to sharpen for English hearts and nerves all the suffering of the war.  On the Somme the Germans were secretly preparing the retreat which began with the spring, while the British armies were growing to their full stature, month by month, and England was becoming slowly accustomed to the new and amazing consciousness of herself as a great military power.  And meanwhile death in the trenches still took its steady toll of our best and dearest; and at sea, while British sea-power pressed home its stifling grasp on the life of Germany, the submarine made England anxious, but not afraid.