"I wonder if your father has got to Switzerland yet, Marian, or if he has talked to any one about Bob," Lucy asked when they were up-stairs, as she had done nearly every evening since Mr. Leslie's arrival on the other side. She followed Marian into her room and watched her cousin with admiring eyes as she brushed out her golden curls and braided them into two pigtails for the night.
"I don't know, but we'll hear before very long," was Marian's sensible answer, which was not very satisfying to Lucy, though she nodded a faint agreement.
"I never could bear waiting," she remarked, turning to go back to her own room. "Neither can Bob. We'd both rather do anything than expect things that don't happen."
"Perhaps you won't have to wait much longer. I can't help thinking that Father will send good news soon," said Marian, with a hopeful look that cheered Lucy in spite of herself. Marian put on a blue silk kimono and dived into the closet for her slippers while Lucy still stood uncertainly in the doorway.
"The only thing is," she muttered, frowning a little at the thought, "I know Father won't stay here much longer if we don't hear any news. Mother told me this morning that he intends asking for foreign service."
"But can he leave here?" asked Marian, astonished.
"He has one year more on this staff detail, but he thinks they will let him go. They are short of Q. M. officers on the other side. He will go when his detail ends, anyhow—if the war isn't over."
"But perhaps it will be," suggested Marian, looking like a cheerful little prophet wrapped in blue silk.
"Perhaps," said Lucy, smiling faintly at her. "Anyhow, I'd better go to bed."