“To instruct rookies!” he said with a grimace. “Rather inglorious, isn’t it? But I’m hoping I’ll have time to weather this detail and get back again before we reach the Rhine.”
“I want to get back again, too,” she reflected aloud, biting her lip and letting her dark eyes rest on the foggy statue of Liberty, towering up ahead.
“What was your branch?” he inquired.
“Oh, I didn’t do anything,” she exclaimed, flushing. “I’ve been in Russia. And now I must find out at once what I can do to be sent to France.”
“The war caught you over there, I suppose,” he hazarded.
“Yes.... I’ve been there since I was twenty. I’m twenty-four. I had a year’s travel and study and then I became the American companion of the little Russian Grand Duchess Marie.”
“They all were murdered, weren’t they?” he asked, much interested.
“Yes.... I’m trying to forget–––”
“I beg your pardon–––”
“It’s quite all right. I, myself, mentioned it first; but I can’t talk about it yet. It’s too personal–––” She turned and looked at the monstrous city.