"You think peace will come soon, then?"
"Well, of course, when the Germans have taken Paris. There now—" she stopped short again, making of her compunction an excuse to widen the distance between themselves and the rest of the party. "I've gone in my bungling way and said something I oughtn't to. I, who would rather offend anybody on earth than you."
"I don't know why you should say that." He began to walk on.
"You don't know why?"
There was something unnerving in the appealing sorrow of the question. Why, in the name of all the gods, hadn't he kept up with the others?
"I think you do know," she said, a pace or two behind his hurrying figure.
Napier didn't look round, but he was sure that the tears in her voice had risen to her eyes.
"Do you mind if I go on? I promised Julian—"
"Ah, you've already gone on."
"Gone—" he paused an instant.