“Why not?” she continued, with a flash of defiance, though Madge had not spoken. “It is a weapon like any other—knowledge, intellect, courage. God has given me beauty. I shall use it in His service.” “It would help, undoubtedly,” the girl answered. “I don’t see any other way of getting hold of them.”!

He kissed her, promising to take care of himself. After a time, the care of the convalescents passed almost entirely into Joan’s hands, Madame Lelanne being told off to assist her. By dint of much persistence she had succeeded in getting the leaky roof repaired, and in place of the smoky stove that had long been her despair she had one night procured a fine calorifère by the simple process of stealing it. Madame Lelanne had heard about it from the gossips. It had been brought to a lonely house at the end of the village by a major of engineers. He had returned to the trenches the day before, and the place for the time being was empty. The thieves were never discovered. The sentry was positive that no one had passed him but two women, one of them carrying a baby. Madame Lelanne had dressed it up in a child’s cloak and hood, and had carried it in her arms. As it must have weighed nearly a couple of hundred-weight suspicion had not attached to them.

Mr. Simson was visibly shocked. Evidently he was less familiar with the opinions of The Rationalist than he had thought. She placed the ring on her finger and held out her hand. “I might have been measured for it,” she said. “I wonder how he knew.” “I should have hated that,” he said, “if I had been Wagner.”