mock all that morning reading papers and feasting his eyes on a bed of anemones and rununculas that she had made on that side of the house. In spite of the fine spring weather Valerie did not feel at all cheerful. And it was not the news from the outside world that was the sole cause.
She stopped in front of the News and whistled the call of the tui. As Bob came out to her with the paper she sensed something from his manner. He looked up soberly into her face.
“Val, I’m off,” he said simply.
“Off,” she repeated.
“Yes, Johnson and I are off in two weeks’ time. We’re volunteering for the Expeditionary Force. Why do you look surprised? We’ll all be in it soon, if it goes on.”
“You are off,” she repeated again. “Oh. I’m not. surprised, Bob. Dash it! I wish I could go, could do something.”
“Well, the women will be in before long. And you can start now, if you want to. Benton asked me if I thought you would come back here. I don’t know whom he can get. Men are going to be scarce.”
“Oh, good Lord, Bob! I don’t want to come back here. I want to go to the war, to Egypt, or wherever it is you men are all going.”
“Think you could stand it?” grinned Bob. “It’s going to be pretty ugly, you know.”
“Dash it, Bob! I can stand a thing if I have to. You never will understand me, will you? I could nurse a man the war had smashed up, but I’d hate to nurse a man who had deliberately fooled about in the rain and got pneumonia.”
Bob looked up at her wondering what it was she was regretting. But he was not preoccupied with women now.
