His Own Men Carried Him Back to a Field Hospital
Jack and Frank then walked slowly on between the winter fields. The grass was still green as it remains almost all the year round in England, but the trees were stripped and bare, and there were no birds in sight, except a few melancholy crows, which in England are called rooks.
Jack was recalling the day when she and Captain MacDonnell had taken their last ride together; also the smell of the blossoming hedges and her baby's blue ribbon on his sleeve.
Since coming to England as a bride, she and Frank and Bryan had enjoyed a charming friendship. It was to Bryan, Frank had first introduced her, asking that he help to make her less homesick for the ranch and her own people.
In those days Frank's sisters were still unmarried and Bryan had been in the habit of spending much of his time at Kent House when he was on leave.
Yet Frank and Bryan were so utterly unlike in temperament. To say that Frank was an Englishman and Bryan an Irishman explains a great deal. Frank was quieter and more reserved and determined; but Bryan was ardent and emotional, quick to feel an emotion and quick to change. Jack had always felt that he loved the outdoors as she did, while Frank was studious, more devoted to books and to political questions than to swift action.
At the same time Frank and his wife were thinking along similar lines, although his recollection of his friend went further back than hers. He remembered the small boy, whose mother had just died, coming to live with his old bachelor guardian in the queer little house which had since belonged to him. He also remembered how shy he had been and yet how often he had gotten into fights with other boys. But, more than anything, he recalled how Bryan had always seemed to long for the companionship of women and how happy he had been to come to Kent House and spend hours and days with his mother and sisters. This was one of the reasons why it had always seemed strange to Frank that his friend had never married.
"But the news only said that Bryan was fatally hurt—not that things were over?" Jack asked after their long pause.
"Yes; but I'm afraid he may be by now," Frank answered. "I have sent half a dozen cables for more news."
Jack's grey eyes cleared a little.