Mildred shook her head. “I couldn’t, dear. I have come back to you the very first moment it was possible. But it is a long story. I can’t tell you all at once. May I sit down?”
At last Nona and Barbara had the grace to observe that Mildred looked white and tired.
“I arrived in Petrograd about half an hour ago with General Alexis and his staff and the Russian maid who has been with us ever since we were left behind at Grovno,” she explained, when her friends had thrust her unceremoniously into their only comfortable chair.
“I told General Alexis that I must find you at once, so we drove to the United States Embassy and they gave us your address. Then they left me here. I am dreadfully hungry; can’t we have something to eat before I finish my story?”
“Certainly not,” Barbara insisted, “or not until you have answered two or three more questions. For I am much more apt to die of curiosity than you are to perish of starvation. How long did you remain at Grovno, and did the Germans ever capture you? I suppose your general didn’t die, if he escorted you to our humble door. But if he wasn’t desperately ill, why did he have you stay so long in a position of such danger?” And Barbara ceased to ask more questions simply because her breath had given out.
At the same instant Nona signaled a warning glance. Mildred was almost fainting with exhaustion. In these last few weeks she must have passed through difficult experiences and naturally she could not tell them everything at once.
“Please go downstairs and ask that dinner be sent up, Barbara,” Nona demanded. “And get soup or milk or something special; if not I’ll make some beef tea for Mildred on the alcohol lamp. Mildred, suppose you put on my wrapper and lie down until after you have eaten, then we can talk as long as you have strength for.”
And the girls did talk until nearly midnight in spite of Mildred’s fatigue. She was perfectly well, only tired, she insisted, and greatly excited at seeing Nona and Barbara again.
She had passed through events in these past few weeks such as few women have ever known. But of course Mildred related what had taken place in a simple, almost matter of fact fashion. She was so little given to heroics, or to thinking of herself as a conspicuous personage.
“Yes, they had stayed on at Grovno until almost the hour when the Germans entered the old fortress. General Alexis had been wounded, but had not considered his wound serious and would not desert his post until he had finally accomplished his purpose. For the last hour virtually only six persons had kept the German army from entering the fortifications: General Alexis, Colonel Feodorovitch, two lieutenants and two private soldiers, although the Russian physician, who had remained with his commander, had turned soldier toward the last.”