"
"We must dread it for a little while yet, I suppose," said Rilla. "Peace
won't come--can't come--for some weeks yet. And in those weeks
dreadful things may happen. My excitement is over. We have won the
victory--but oh, what a price we have paid!"
"Not too high a price for freedom," said Gertrude softly. "Do you think
it was, Rilla?"
"No," said Rilla, under her breath. She was seeing a little white cross
on a battlefield of France. "No--not if those of us who live will show
ourselves worthy of it--if we 'keep faith.'"
"We will keep faith," said Gertrude. She rose suddenly. A silence fell
around the table, and in the silence Gertrude repeated Walter's famous
poem "The Piper." When she finished Mr. Meredith stood up and held up
his glass. "Let us drink," he said, "to the silent army--to the boys
who followed when the Piper summoned. 'For our tomorrow they gave their
today'--theirs is the victory!"
CHAPTER XXXIV
MR. HYDE GOES TO HIS OWN PLACE AND SUSAN TAKES A HONEYMOON
Early in November Jims left Ingleside. Rilla saw him go with many tears
but a heart free from boding. Mrs. Jim Anderson, Number Two, was such a
nice little woman that one was rather inclined to wonder at the luck
which bestowed her on Jim. She was rosy-faced and blue-eyed and
wholesome, with the roundness and trigness of a geranium leaf. Rilla saw
at first glance that she was to be trusted with Jims.
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