'
"'You said just the same thing before Mons, Susan,' I reminded her.
"'Hindenburg says he will spend a million lives to break the Allied
front,' said Gertrude. 'At such a price he must purchase some successes
and how can we live through them, even if he is baffled in the end.
These past two months when we have been crouching and waiting for the
blow to fall have seemed as long as all the preceding months of the war
put together. I work all day feverishly and waken at three o'clock at
night to wonder if the iron legions have struck at last. It is then I
see Hindenburg in Paris and Germany triumphant. I never see her so at
any other time than that accursed hour.'
"Susan looked dubious over Gertrude's adjective, but evidently concluded
that the 'a' saved the situation.
"'I wish it were possible to take some magic draught and go to sleep for
the next three months--and then waken to find Armageddon over,' said
mother, almost impatiently.
"It is not often that mother slumps into a wish like that--or at least
the verbal expression of it. Mother has changed a great deal since that
terrible day in September when we knew that Walter would not come back;
but she has always been brave and patient. Now it seemed as if even she
had reached the limit of her endurance.
"Susan went over to mother and touched her shoulder.
"'Do not you be frightened or downhearted, Mrs.
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