An Englishwoman's Home

om active service. You can imagine the excitement in the hous

od of patriotism. She was very young to go out to that strange awful sublime place they call the war zone. But she came back to us radiant, quite unchanged; but yes, there is a change. She has the eyes of one who, born in a great time, is striving to live greatly. She was, before the war, one of the

nd, one day in a moment of exasperation said, "You have to take too much for granted

d so lovely when you did know him. Well I suppose it would not be good for us to be given without effort or seeking the

her about her beloved camp at Etaples, not half enough-but just enough to kn

o required a late visit. The house surgeon from the hospital had just dropped i

our evening teacups, and how gradually you were drawn into the snare until you acquired

ent upstairs throwing open windows that had been shut. I was standing at the open windo

suddenly there was the most terrific bang, and somewhere in the near distance strange lights like shooting stars seemed to descend upon our little inoffensive town-we stood dumb, holding our breath, while the bangs continued getting louder and louder. Presently, we were joined by the terrified servants, who, at their supper in the basement kitchen, unaware that the Zeppelins were in the neighbourhood,

as indescribable; conceive of forty-two bombs dropping in a limited area in the space of four minutes, the glare of their bursting, the air full of sulphurous fumes and an awful indescribable sense of evil, imminent, devilish, against which we were absolutely helpless a

de us spoke: "I think it's over now, and we're safe." The air-ship, sailing low, so that we saw it distinctly between the cone of the cedar tree and the sky, disappeared rapidly and the noise of explos

of the beautiful hall you so much admired the whole fabric seemed to have collapsed. Doors, windows, furniture, pictures, piled in an inextricable heap. We saw right

s colleagues being busy at the hospital. Then the whole population seemed to be crowding us where we stood. We had no lights but a few stray candles. Police and military presently appeared to take possession, and the general public were excluded. The accredited powers climbed across the debris to reach the garden, when a strange sight presented itself. Five incendiary bombs which had been dropped after the explosive ones and were intended to complete the work of destruction, had only sunk in the soft earth, and were burning there like bale fires. The authorities wer

rying to see by candlelight the full extent of the damage, and with nobody to tell us that we took our lives in our hands every minute where walls were tottering, and ceilings, so to speak, hanging by a thread. My eight-foo

d then no feeling of anguish over my ruined home, none of us had. To Effie, it was a great adventure-the War in concrete

se, a corner of the drawing room queerly almost untouched. The vagaries of the concussion were beyond belief. The gable end of the dining room left standing was stripped inside of every scrap of plaster, leaving the lathes naked and bare. An old Chippendale mirror

ess I suddenly clutched something soft. The flashlight revealed part of our dining room curtains-heavy silk dama

he excitement had died down. Shaking in every limb, even to my lips, I lay til

gaping crowds which had come from God knows where, getting a s

e to the North Hous

and bricks and broken wood work and all the belongings of a house. The crowds, there seemed to be millions of

," he said, "and after that you and Effie

Himself can look, and what it means wh

s, who had arrived in motors, in horse traps, on bicycles from miles away. The North road was simply black with them. We went off presently in a cab to our kind neighb

we got ready to go away. But before the end I had a hard task. Poor Tubby, the lovely old mother chow, had gone mad, or at least become dangerous through sheer terror. You know how sensitive she was. She ha

but when I heard the report of the gun the iron seemed to enter into my soul. Wang has gone too, and Satan, the impish and delicious Persian cat that became an inmate of this animal-loving house after you l

don and Scotland, leaving Himself to make shift alone. It was his ordination, and we seemed too dazed to stand up against it. We have been here three days, and already Effie and I are b

s I get back, and can

d and strengthened. As I write I see the desolate ruins-the broken and desecrated household gods, the crowds of gaping strangers who regarded it as

away immune from punishment or reprisal. It makes women dumb and men desperate. I know what is in the mind of Himself. Loathing of the age limit, lon

sp of strange but friendly hands, the offer of a score of homes. The gleam of brotherhood and sisterh