“Yes, indeed he did,” responded Gretel, heartily; “I don’t wonder you are proud of him, Dora. He looks years older than when I saw him last Christmas. Do you think he realizes what it all means? He is so young, you know.”
“Yes, Miss, I think he does,” said Dora, with unusual gravity. “He doesn’t talk much about such things—boys don’t, you know—but just the last minute before he left, he kissed me, a thing he hasn’t done since he was a little fellow, and said, ‘If I shouldn’t ever come back, Dora, you’ll take care of Mother, won’t you?’ He said it so serious, and there was a look on his face that most broke my heart to see, but I was proud of him all the same.”
Gretel fell asleep thinking of Peter, and awoke with a start, aroused by a heavy peal of thunder. The storm, which had been threatening all the evening, had broken at last, and rain was pouring in torrents. Gretel sat up in bed, shaking from head to foot. Then came a bright flash of lightning, followed by another peal of thunder, and she lay down again, with a sigh of relief.
“It’s only a thunder-storm,” she murmured; “oh, I’m so glad. I thought for a minute it might be—oh, if the Germans in this country should do anything terrible, as they have done in France and England! I wonder what Percy meant when he said he had found out things in Washington.”
CHAPTER V
OFF FOR NEW LONDON
It was on the following Monday morning that the invitation came. Gretel found it awaiting her on the breakfast table, and at once recognized Molly Chester’s rather straggly handwriting. Mr. Douaine had returned to Washington the previous day, and Gretel and her sister-in-law were alone at breakfast.
“Who is your correspondent, dear?” Mrs. Douaine asked, glancing up from her own pile of letters, at the sound of an exclamation from Gretel.
“Molly Chester,” Gretel answered. “She wants me to visit her this week. May I read her letter to you?”
“Yes, do. I like Molly; she is such a genuine, unaffected girl. My own mail isn’t a bit interesting this morning; nothing but bills and appeals for war charities.”