“And, Karl—where is he?” Lucy stammered over the question.
“He is with his regiment, not far off.” Lucy thought that Elizabeth hesitated before she added, “I could not follow him, so here I came from Petit-Bois, working with the wounded, when the Germans take Château-Plessis the first time. Already I saw you once, Miss Lucy, the day of the battle—when you watched the airplanes in the square.”
In a flash Lucy remembered the face among the crowd, and the eyes she had fancied were watching her. “That was it! I saw you, too, Elizabeth. At least I felt sure that some one was looking at me. Why didn’t you let me see you?”
“I thought better not, Miss Lucy. The Germans must keep very quiet while the French and Americans were here.” Elizabeth’s voice shook a little as she spoke, and in spite of herself, Lucy felt an unreasoning pity for her as the little German woman went on, “I thought maybe you learn from Mr. Bob that I was here,—but you have not seen him, no? I saw him once, about a month back.”
The words were on Lucy’s lips to tell Elizabeth of Bob’s visit to Château-Plessis the day before the town’s capture, but before they were spoken she checked herself. The trust and affection of nearly ten years’ companionship were not ties lightly cast aside, but now, her first childish delight at Elizabeth’s presence over, a barrier rose between them—strong and impassable. Elizabeth was a German, and the wife of a German soldier. Summoning the prudence she had so nearly forgotten, Lucy kept silent, and pressed her lips close together. The vision of the German officer questioning the young Englishman came before her eyes. What might her unconsidered words mean to Bob?
Elizabeth’s expressive face looked both hurt and downcast at Lucy’s sudden silence, of which the meaning was plain enough. But she made no complaint, and, pointing toward Colonel Gordon’s cot, beside which they sat on the floor, said softly, “Your father wakes now, Miss Lucy. Already have I talked with him to-day.”
“Did you stay with him this afternoon, Elizabeth?” asked Lucy, reaching out to clasp her old nurse’s hand in sudden remorse at her own suspicion. For had not Elizabeth saved Bob’s life?
“Yes,” Elizabeth nodded. “I stay with him a little while.” She rose to her feet, looking toward the cot where the wounded officer had begun to stir in waking. “I leave you with him now,” she said, and with a lingering glance at Lucy from her brown eyes, went quietly out of the room.
Lucy turned eagerly to her father, hardly waiting for him to open his eyes before she exclaimed, “Oh, Father, I’ve seen Elizabeth, and she said she had talked to you! Isn’t it wonderful to find her here?”
Colonel Gordon smiled, settling his big, lean shoulders among the pillows as he gave an understanding nod to his daughter’s quick words. But Lucy had paused suddenly in her outburst of joy over Elizabeth’s presence. She remembered Miss Pearse’s warning, and with a pang of fear lest some unconsidered word escape her, realized that her father was still ignorant of the town’s capture. Unless Elizabeth——But her father’s first words put her mind at rest on that score.