"Is it her mummy there with her?"
"I think so."
"Is her papa gone to the war, like my papa?"
Diane put her cheek down against the top of his little fuzzy head as she stood with her arms around him.
"Is her papa gone to the war too, mummy?"
"I think so."
"She has to stand up all the time, mummy, will she not be tired? I am afraid she will be tired before the procession comes. When will the procession come, mummy?"
Diane said to me, "To think it is the first day of flags and music we have had since the war began——"
I was thinking all the time of the day when the troops will come home. I was thinking that this day was a promise of that day. I knew that Diane was thinking of that also. Her eyes filled with tears; I saw them through the tears that were in my own eyes. We both knew so well. The men look forward fearlessly to that day, but the women know fear. Every woman in the crowd was thinking how this day promised that day, gloriously; and every one was thinking—but if he does not come home.